Not to long ago a Champaign businesses man tracked me down in the parking lot of his business to relate a television reception story which was a revelation of sorts for me. He told me a story of having a simple set of rabbit ears at his home in northwestern Champaign County and he received all of the areas local television offerings. He sought out the reception of other stations, from the Peoria market and maybe even Chicago. In the past, that goal could have been achieved to receive enough signal from these far away stations to call the operation a success.

The operation would have consisted of a massive VHF/UHF combo antenna, powerful signal pre-amplifier, an antenna rotor mounted atop a 50+ foot tower and you might have received a static filled snowy picture from Peoria, Chicago, Indianapolis, the Quad Cities or maybe even St. Louis. Sports fans, before the advent of satellite television would often go to extremes to watch the local play by play of their favorite team.

Digital signals to your antenna may be weak....but your ability to see a 100% great picture will be the same whether you get a signal of 40% strength or 100%.

Because of the lower power output of most digital television transmitters, a weak signal in the fringe areas doesn't seem to travel much past the natural line of sight limits. With analog television stations, more power was needed to put a watchable signal into the fringe B-grade areas the station was trying to include in its coverage area. Even though the signal would travel further, wasted signal would overshoot the horizon and but would be available to antennas at much higher elevations. If you lived in a

With digital television it's different. Signals don't seem to overshoot the horizon by much. By the time the signal reaches the horizon there doesn't seem to be enough power to push it much further. Therefore, a much less expensive receiving antenna and outdoor mast or tower can be just as good for reception than a considerably more expensive 40 or even 50 foot tower set up. Under normal conditions you shouldn't expect to receive snowy static filled video signals from those previous analog stations you used to get. The digital signals from those same stations won't reach you and nothing you can do will create a signal that you don't receive.

There's a website which will back up my findings and chances are it will illustrate that for you. It's www.tvfool.com. It allows you to insert your location, insert your antenna height and the website will give you a list of local TV stations you will receive with very little effort, the ones you might need an outdoor antenna set up and further down the list it will list the stations you will have virtually no chance of ever receiving. Along with that it will give you a signal strength reading that allows you to compare with the other stations. Obviously, it also includes the data base of the power output and transmitting antenna height of the transmitting station as well.

Here's what you can do to illustrate my findings...after inserting your location, insert a variety of antenna height options. Try 10 feet above the ground, 25 feet(which would be similar to a rooftop antenna), 40 feet(similar to a second story rooftop antenna or a tower) or even 100 feet(dreamer!). Notice the listings of stations you will regularly receive won't change and the ones which are beyond your reception limits won't change either!

Now, here's the great thing about digital television...even though the signal strength changes according to antenna height, your picture quality won't change. It will continue to deliver 100% quality video and audio signal even if your signal strength is far less than 100%. Incredible!

There are some wrinkles in this guide to digital television reception. Weather conditions, temperatures inversions, etc. can causes television signals to bend and “channel” around the horizon and “worm hole” well beyond a stations normal coverage area. Even when this happens, most of us who receive our signals from our antennas won't get the opportunity to explore the television frequency bands. Our modern sets require the set to “scan” for available signals. It's a rather cumbersome procedure and one most of us won't take the time to do, even at the chance of receiving a gift of some far away TV signal. Well, that's progress.

Unfortunately for those of us in central Illinois a situation exists which due to the fault of the corporate owners of two of the “sister” stations only one of the two ABC affiliates are visible to subscribers of the two satellite services, DISH and DirectTV.

When working out retransmission contracts Sinclair Broadcast Group chose to make WICS the lone ABC affiliate which would be included in the local station line-ups of the DBS programming providers. This agreement exempted WICD from “must carry” rules in exchange for cash consideration. From a corporate standpoint it may of made sense, but from a viewer standpoint, it makes the reception of WICD more difficult and often times impossible for those viewers in the WICD coverage area. It is a serious concern to viewers because each station delivers a local news presentation for its own geographic area. Viewers within the coverage area of WICD are not able to view their local newscasts delivered by WICD, but instead see the local news of WICS from Springfield.

This puts WICD in a less than advantageous competitive situation. WICD is not the only local station which is not included in the local station lineup of DISH and DirectTV. A similar situation exists between WRSP and WCCU as well. The major difference is that nearly 100% of programming is simulcast between the two FOX stations, with the only difference being some infomercial programming and local weather casts during their local news which originates at WICS and WICD.

Also, unlike most cable systems, the satellite programming providers don't include the other subchannels offered with the main broadcast channel of the local TV stations.

This is why it is important for you to consider the installation of at least some kind of antenna system to receive the local channels and the many other offerings of each of them. What I have included here are instructions for those living in east central Illinois and west central Indiana who would like to view the programming of WICD, as well as all of the offerings of the other local stations...or at least the ones they are meant to receive.

There is also another reason to have an antenna:  The cable might go out.....or maybe you just want to cancel cable for free TV!