Update on the free TV channels in my area

Back in March, I posted on my blog about free, over-the-air TV channels in my area.

Since that time, there have been a couple changes.  For one thing, the channels that came in better back then sometimes don't come in at all now, whilst channels that came in poorly back then come in better now.  This partly may be due to having changed where I've placed my antenna (however in recent months when I moved the antenna around to get those other channels again, they didn't come in).  I currently have my antenna in a particular position to get the channels that I most want to receive, particularly TVO (Ch. 32) and Channels 20.2 (COZI TV) and 38.2 (Antenna TV). 

The channels on my previous list that I've since "lost" are: 11.1 (WTOL, Toledo CBS), 11.2 (ME-TV), 24.1 (WNWO, Toledo NBC), and 24.2 (Retro TV).  No big loss with not getting 11.1 and 24.1 (since I get the Detroit CBS and NBC affiliates), but I'm bummed at not getting 11.2 and 24.2 anymore since they play old TV shows.  However, I'd rather get a clear 18.3, 32, 38.1, 38.2, and if I try to tune in the Toledo stations those other ones I prefer will not come in as well.

A month of two ago, I bought a flat multi-directional antenna to see if it would solve the problem, bringing in everything at once, but it gave me the same reception as my current antenna, so I took it back to the store where I bought it.

Over the weekend, I did an auto channel search (which I do around once a week) just to see if any new channels would come up, and to my surprise a few did.  For the past few weeks, the TCT religious channels (18.1, 18.2, and 18.3) hadn't been coming in, but this time they did, as well as a fourth channel, 18.4, which is called ABN (Aramaic Broadcast Network) and is also a religious network.  Oddly, this channel seems to have an anti-Islam focus to some of their shows -- even moreso than one would expect to find on a Christian channel.  

Another "new" channel that popped up was WHNE which has 5 channels in the 14 range (14.1 through 14.5).  All but two of those five channels are infomercial type shows, however.  14.1 is an SSN (Soul of the South Network) channel which is considered similar to the Bounce network.  More interesting to me is 14.2, which is the Retro TV Network -- the same network that I had "lost" on 24.2. 

Unfortunately, all of the WHNE channels come in fairly poorly, sometimes giving no signal at all.  Other times, however, the channels are watchable.  I learned to my surprise this evening that 14.2 (RTN) has been airing individual episodes of the 1970s Jon Pertwee DOCTOR WHO series at 8pm each weekday.  I watched a bit of "The Daemons" episode tonight, and although there was occasional signal break-up throughout, it was still watchable.  However, I was unable to watch the program which came on after that, because of the constant and annoying signal breaking up.

Still, it's nice to have a couple new channels to check out for variety's sake.