How can I get other station channels on my TV set?

Question

I'm from Sacramento, And I think it's interesting watching how other stations operate...oddly during the summer I get a few channels from a city thats about an hour away (San Francisco) mainly during the warm nights. But I was curious if theres a way I can get their channels by anything else? Would I need a special antenna? Install a tower in my backyard? Not sure... how I would get other channels from other markets besides mine?

THanks

Answer 1

Try a line amplifier you can get them at wall mart.

Answer 2

What kind of channels are you referring to?  Over the air or cable?  If it's cable, it's common that sometimes carriers will pick up other stations, then they disappear after awhile.

If it's over the air, then you would need a boosted antennae - which means an antennae with a power source to amplify the signal.

Answer 3

Well depends....are there any big obstacles around like tall buildings, trees, etc.. these will cause interference.  I live out in the country about 1 hour from my TV provider.  I ordered and mounted a antenna that is good for about 80 miles UHF and about 60 miles vhf from walmart....yeah the antenna is as long a a mini van!  Works good and also picks up HD, and digital TV stations.  Man make sure the antenna will do HD. All other signal are going extinct here pretty soon in my area at least.  They also make amplifiers.

Answer 4

For starters, all this "get an antenna that can do HD" is complete rubbish. An antenna DOES NOT care if it's signal is digital or analog..it's just engineered to grab that signal out of the air as efficiently as it can. Any antenna that claims to be HD Ready is just a marketing gimmic. Anyone who tells you an antenna won't recieve HD is lying. The only thing you need to worry about for recieving HD signals is making sure you have a good UHF antenna.

On the analog side of things...make sure you get yourself a good directional antenna and rotor. Yes, some antennas are larger and engineered to have more reception (the one on my roof is rated for 300-mile VHF and 200-mile UHF..although you'd need to live on top of a hill for that to be true) range and, the more the range, the better. You won't get great performence out of a omnidirectional...so really, you need a directional antenna and a rotor. A Yagi type antenna would be best, although expensive.

A tower is mostly a way of getting the antenna up in the air, and the higher up the antenna is, the "farther" it can "see" line-of-sight transmissions. Amplifiers are important. Ideally you should have a pre-amplifier AT the antenna, before the thing goes through a lot of cable and then an additional amplfier somewhere in your house. Good amplfiiers are expensive and if you've ever used a cheap one, you'll know why.

there's no guarntee you'll be able to pick up TV frim muck further away than that. It's not uncommon for me to get stations 100 miles away without any special atmospheric conditions (which is what is happening now)...although there are those foggy mornings I used to pick up New York and sometimes even further north from the DC area.