How far does Canada's analog TV signal extend towards Seattle, and how big an antenna do I need?

Question

I just heard that Bush wants us all to spend lots of money on new TVs and/or convertor boxes or else we will not be able to watch TV anymore. It was on the news today. Naturally I am not thrilled at the idea and would like to avoid having to spend lots of money on extraneous B.S. if at all possible.

I live in the Seattle area. It is a couple hours drive south of the Canadian border. My question is where I can find out how far the Canadian tv signals go south of the border, and if I will be able to continue to watch tv as normal by using their stations since the American stations won't be competent enough to use anymore?

Answer 1

Canada is shutting down it's analog TV transmitters on 8/31/2011, so even if you could get Canadian TV broadcasts it wouldn't last very long.

In any case, at over 100 miles to the transmitters, you would have to spend a lot of money to have any hope of picking up any signals. Take a look at the second link below.

The decision to shut down the analog broadcasts was made more than 10 years ago, so change your anti-Bush rant to an anti-Clinton bash.

If you want to keep your analog reception, about all you can do is move to Mexico. They aren't planning on shutting down their analog transmitters until about 2022.

Every first world country is converting to digital broadcasting.

Of course, you could just buy a couple of converters at about $20 each (after using government coupons), connect them between your TV antenna and TV, and be upset about something else.

I recommend the Zenith DTT901 converter, it seems to be the best of the ones that are currently available.