WESH-TV Orlando: A VHF Signal Playing Hard To Get

Many folks have cut their cables and dumped their dishes, saving hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year. Some are now missing Central Florida's NBC affiliate, WESH. All the other major networks come in perfectly, but WESH is spotty at best in many antenna situations. Why, WESH, why? And recently, Dish Networks temporarily dumped WESH TV over a contract dispute, leaving many Central Florida viewers with no NBC affiliate at all. This is not good for the home team. Here's why WESH reception is such a pain in the butt.

To receive digital TV (DTV) signals from all stations in the area, your antenna needs to be able to receive both VHF channels (the newer REAL broadcast channels 2-13, which may be different from the old analog channels your stations advertise) and UHF channels (channels 14-51). Some antennas only provide good reception of VHF or UHF channels, but not both. For example, indoor “rabbit ears” usually need to be augmented with an additional “wire loop” or “bowtie” antenna in order to pick up signals on UHF channels. If you live in a big city that's within 10 miles of the local transmitter, this isn't usually a problem. Many of the antennas being sold as “HDTV Antennas” perform best at receiving UHF signals, but actually perform less well receiving VHF channels. In more rural areas, like Central Florida, broadcast towers may be 30+ miles from some more populated areas. VHF signals tend to have a problem with distance.

Although WESH advertises themselves (and appears on cable TV) as "Channel 2," they actually broadcast on Channel 11 of what's known as the "upper VHF" spectrum. Almost every other station in Central Florida broadcasts on the UHF band. Some stations that use VHF have dramatically cut their transmitter power to save money, or the FCC may have imposed reduced power limits to prevent interference with adjacent markets. Many VHF stations, like WESH, ended up with significantly reduced coverage areas and fewer broadcast viewers.

So what's a cable cutter to do? You're gonna need a bigger antenna! Unfortunately, the physical size of VHF antennas is much larger than a UHF antenna. A typical UHF antenna can be constructed without the antenna becoming too large and physically unmanageable. However - most higher quality UHF antennas will do a good job picking up higher band VHF frequencies (including WESH) when properly installed and directed properly, even at 35 miles away. If you're still having problems with your local VHF stations, there's a pretty good retrofit kit that will add better VHF reception to just about any UHF antenna. Check it out here: http://amzn.to/2lEbDgC