Over the air TV in San Juan-Gulf Islands?-gctid391326

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We will be spending six weeks or so in the San Juan-Gulf Islands in the PNW this summer. And as this is an Olympic year and I enjoy watching certain Olympic events I am wondering if I can receive them over the air (not interested in going the satellite route) in that area.

If this is a possibility I would like to know what TV antennae, amplifier (?) and 20' LCD digital TV would work for me up there. I would like to hear from people who have over the air TV systems on their boats and especially those who have experience with them in the San Juan-Gulf Island area.

Thanks much

Greg

[talman Founding Member Find all posts View Profile Close talman]

http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps/

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I am no expert but I think unless you have a very long cable hook up at sea it's satellite only! At the Marina may be a different story if they are sending out an analog signal for marina users or possibly over the internet??

[captharv Founding Member Find all posts View Profile Close captharv]

The above post shows 2 independant station (no network afilliation)

However, to answer your questions about general TV reception, read my post below. I was a TV antenna design engineer. The post should help you.

http://www.baylinerownersclub.org/fo...ne-TV-antennas

[Stratocaster Founding Member Find all posts View Profile Close Stratocaster]

If in the Gulf Islands, you'll be able to get 2 CTV channels as well as CBC. As you may or may not know, CBC usually has pretty intense Olympics coverage.

Another thing you can do is sign up for short term BroadbandXpress, and watch stuff on a laptop.

Check it out here. http://bbxpress.net/

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Do what I do - dont bother with OTA:

Either bring your dvd collection or, far better, get a 1.5TB drive and put all your movies/tv shows on it. Then feed the TV from your laptop, via HDMI or VGA+speaker connector.

At a reasonable rip rate you can get about 1400 hours of HD video on one of those suckers. (1GB/hr - mp4). Mine is about 2/3 full with everything from Avatar to Zardoz.

( well not really those movies, just making the A-Z point).

[Stratocaster Founding Member Find all posts View Profile Close Stratocaster]

But he wants to watch the Olympics, Mikey.

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Stratocaster wrote:
But he wants to watch the Olympics, Mikey.

That's what taverns are for.

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captharv wrote:
The above post shows 2 independant station (no network afilliation)

However, to answer your questions about general TV reception, read my post below. I was a TV antenna design engineer. The post should help you.

http://www.baylinerownersclub.org/fo...ne-TV-antennas

I did check out your post, and it was a help, thanks.

Greg

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Stratocaster wrote:
If in the Gulf Islands, you'll be able to get 2 CTV channels as well as CBC. As you may or may not know, CBC usually has pretty intense Olympics coverage.

Another thing you can do is sign up for short term BroadbandXpress, and watch stuff on a laptop.

Check it out here. http://bbxpress.net/

Thanks for the suggestion, we will see if we can tune into the Canadian stations up there and check out their Olympic coverage, from what I understand the signal is analog so we can even bring our old school analog 12 volt TV that we bought years ago.

Greg

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The OTA tv in Canada is now digital... your old antenna will still work but you will need a newer digital tv with built in astc tuner. I don't find very good reception in the gulf islands however with one of the older round boat tv antennas. I tend to use my cell phone and stream internet tv {which will include the olympics} direct to my tv onboard. You can get a monthly from Fido or similar with 6 gb of data use for around $40.

Cheers, Gary

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TrophyTroubles wrote:
I am no expert but I think unless you have a very long cable hook up at sea it's satellite only! At the Marina may be a different story if they are sending out an analog signal for marina users or possibly over the internet??

Actually with HD over the air transmissions now you don't need satellite or cable. Naturally you'll only get what's being broadcast over the air and you need to be in a reception area but since the transmission is digital if you get a stable signal you'll get a good picture. With old analog TVs a weak signal would result in a fuzzy or snow picture. With digital as long as nothing is intefering with the reception the picture will be perfect.

At the Marina you could just tap into the Internet and stream video especially if you have something like Comcast at home. With Comcast I can access on-demand video from their web site and many of the network shows offer episodes via the Internet. You can also use pay services like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon. Some of those services do offer some free programming as well.

Looking at the coverage maps it looks like there are 2 independent stations with strong signals up in that area. My advice is get a good marine antenna and mount it high. This stuff is line-of-sight.

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I think the solution to our dilemma has been found. My Dad has a portable dish and receiver he is going to let us use from Dish Network that he has used with his camper. Since we have a Dish Network account it should be very simple to activate it on our account or his for a small fee and we are good to go.

This I believe is what some boaters have referred to as the Redneck method, a land satellite dish on a boat. Hey I'm not proud, but I am cheap. Does that make me a Redneck?

Thanks for all of the input and suggestions.

Down the road we would like one of those Tracvision systems, but for now we will are happy to be rednecks!!

[Roddy Frequent Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Roddy]

You should be able to get these in HD depending on your location, even with rabbit ears, we do...

KVOS 35-1 (IND) Orcas Isl SD only

K24IC-D 28-1 (PBS) Orcas Isl SD only

CHEK 49-1 (CBC) Satuna Isl 720i HD

CBUT 34-1 (CBC) Mt Seymour, Vancouver 720p HD

CHAN 22-1 (Global) " " " 1080i HD

CIVI 32-1 (CTV) Victoria 1080i HD

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Roddy wrote:
You should be able to get these in HD depending on your location, even with rabbit ears, we do...

KVOS 35-1 (IND) Orcas Isl SD only

K24IC-D 28-1 (PBS) Orcas Isl SD only

CHEK 49-1 (CBC) Satuna Isl 720i HD

CBUT 34-1 (CBC) Mt Seymour, Vancouver 720p HD

CHAN 22-1 (Global) " " " 1080i HD

CIVI 32-1 (CTV) Victoria 1080i HD

Hey Roddy,

Are those Canadian stations sent with digital signals or are they analog? I have found sources that say you need a digital receiver and some that say analog will do. I need to know if I need a digital receiver.

Thanks,

Greg