Local TV

Which island?

oops, stx

people i know have not been succesful in getting tv without cable.

Ask at Radio Shack they should be familiar with what broadcasts are available and if an outdoor antenna will pickup broadcasts from PR in your location. Since tv stations changed to digital broadcasting you will also need a newer tv (with digital tuner) or digital converter box if you have an older tv.

Sorry meant to say STT or PR. I think there are two stations on STX (maybe amplified rabbit ears for these) and four on STT (outdoor antenna for these). Good luck!

honey, if you have internet you can also research this online, google antennaweb then enter your address and zip. It will give you a list of stations and show you color code of antenna to look for per your location (they use color codes for range and style, longer range=more stations).

thanks scubado, antennaweb is amazing. Thanks for the advice.

Local CBS and NBC are located on St Thomas. They are analogue stations so any TV should receive them. ABC is digital. It is located on Blue Mtn, St Croix. WTJX, the local PBS station, is on St Thomas. It has four digital channels. If your TV is not capable of receiving digital TV you'll need a analogue to digital converter to watch the digtal stations. You should be able to get one at Radio Shack.

Whether you can receive them or not will depend on if you can install a TV antenna to have adaquate line of sight to St Thomas and Blue Mtn. Mountains, even other buildings, can block the signal unless you can get the antenna high enough to see over them.

Your antenna will need to be pointed towards the transmitter(s) of choice. So if St Thomas is in one direction and Blue Mtn another, and you want to fix mount your antenna, you may have to choose which station(s) you want to watch the most and lock your antenna in that direction. Or install an antenna rotor so you can change direction of the antenna.

There are also several digital stations located on PR that can be received with a modest antenna. But your antenna will need to be aimed that way to get them.

Orientation of the antenna is much more critical for reception of analogue signals. Most likely you will experience some degree of "snow" on the CBS and NBC channels. With digital either the signal is there or not. Sometimes, when watching a digital channel, the picture might freeze or "tile". That's an idication of marginal signal -sort of the digital version of analogue TV's snowy picture.

I used to live in Cotton Valley (STX east end). We had unobstructed views to STT and PR. We could not see Blue Mtn. I had a small TV antenna on the roof of our one story house that was fixed mounted and aimed between STT & PR. With it we received the three stations from STT and a several from PR. Reception of ABC from Blue Mtn was spotty.

Unfortuantely you really won't know until you try it.