Oddly unable to get PBS channel Portland Oregon

General Discussion
1

I’ve been working with a new Tablo 4-tuner with a relatively small indoor OTA antenna. All of Portland’s tv towers are on a single hill, and PBS appears to be one of them on the same group of broadcast antennas. I get nice solid signals from ABC(2.1) / CBS(6.1) and NBC(8.1), but PBS ought to be found at 10.1, but various rescans never have it showing up. I do get various additional 20-30 channels starting at 22 through 49 – 22.x, 24.x, 32.x, 49.x.

Looking at OTA websites like ChannelMaster don’t indicate anything unusual about PBS

I’m trying to figure out if I just need to have a better antenna or if there is something else that might be going on here. Any suggestions?

2

Is it a UHF or VHF channel?

3

as I posted, it ought to be found at 10.1 (whatever that means UHF/VHF)

4

UHF and VHF are frequencies channels are broadcast on. VHF ranges from 2-13 and UHF is 14 and above. In 10.1, you would think that this would be a VHF (10) but not always. Their identifier could be 10 but they could broadcast on a different frequency. VHF frequencies do not come in very well on the inexpensive flat indoor antennas unless you are pretty close to the tower. I tried to set one up for my Mom who is within 30 miles of the tower and the 2 VHF channels in her area did not come in using the flat indoor antenna. I’m looking for a better antenna for her.

You can find this out on Rabbitears.info or antennaweb.org.

5

Thanks for the clarification (probably clear on your end, but still fuzzy here)

Local OTA Info:

Find your longitude and latitude in
http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html
then compare to the
locations shown to the right.
If you know your location, you can
use the map below for a rough estimate.

Keep in mind there may be hills
between you and the towers that will
block the signal.

  • HDTV on first sub-channel
    ** 480p on second sub-channel

Station Digital/Virtual Channel NAD27 Coordinates WGS84/NAD83 Coordinates
KATU* 43/2 45° 30’ 57.80", -122° 44’ 3.100" 45.5160°N, -122.7342°W
KWBP* 33/32 45° 30’ 58.00", -122° 43’ 58.00" 45.5161°N, -122.7328°W
KOIN* 40/6 45° 30’ 58.00", -122° 43’ 58.00" 45.5161°N, -122.7327°W
KGW* 46/8 45° 31’ 21.00", -122° 44’ 45.00" 45.5225°N, -122.7458°W
OPB* 27/10 45° 31’ 21.00", -122° 44’ 45.00" 45.5225°N, -122.7458°W
KPDX 48/48 45° 31’ 22.00", -122° 45’ 7.000" 45.5228°N, -122.7519°W
KNMT 45/45 45 ° 30’ 58.00", -122° 43’ 56.00" 45.5159°N, -122.7334°W

This does not seem to distinguish frequency or VHF/UHF (whatever “Digital/Virtual Channel” means)

Different query gets

KOPB-TV, an Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) station in Portland, Oregon, broadcasts on VHF channel 10 at a frequency of 192.0. KOPB-TV transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts in 2009, moving its digital signal from UHF channel 27 to VHF channel 10.

similar query for ABC gets

KATU, an ABC-affiliated television station in Portland, Oregon, broadcasts on the following frequencies:

  • Virtual channel: 2
  • Frequency: 530.0
  • RF channel: 24

It seems like that should have the information needed - the basic question must be how is the OPB signal different from the ABC/CBS/NBC signals?

6

This shows that KOPB broadcasts on VHF channel 10.

This shows that KATU broadcasts on UHF channel 24 (RF is radio frequency).

If it doesn’t tell you if it is UHF or VHF, the RF number will. RF 2-13 is VHF and 14+ is UHF.

7

I live near Beaverton. I am not currently using Tablo. I receive PBS (OPB) on a Channelmaster Flat Indoor antenna on Chan 10.1 without any issues.

8

Thanks for holding my hand on this. So

KATU (ABC) is channel 24 UHF
KOIN (CBS) is channel 25 UHF
KGW (NBC) is channel 26 UHF
and
KOPB (PBS) is channel 10 VHF

That makes the 3 big networks UHF and OPB is VHF. The big 3 come in fine, OPB not found

In your earlier post you indicated that VHF might be harder to pull in than UHF. That would suggest that I should try a better antenna. Yay - I have a plan. thanks - Howard

1 Like
9

@bruceisla, how close are you to the broadcast tower?

I might try that one for my mom. I don’t have any stations broadcasting VHF in my area.

10

All the Portland broadcast antennas are virtually just up the hill from you. I am in Oregon City with a hill between me and the towers. I was quite surprised starting out just how many stations I could get with one of those flat square antennas. For this round of testing, I went to a $20 little desktop antenna and I got 25-30 OTA stations with no trouble. It was just OPB that I have trouble with, and, apparently, it is VHF and the others are all UHF, so maybe I just need a better antenna. This is all lots of fun.

11

For VHF-Hi (RF 7-12), you need an antenna that is rated for it. Very few flat antennas work, and any indoor antenna would need a set of longer rods for the longer radio waves. Can you post what model indoor antenna you are using?

12

this is a desktop unit Amazon reference: Amazon.com $56. It does not have the “longer rods” for VHF

I was thinking about Home depot https://www.homedepot.com/p/RCA-Attic-Outdoor-Compact-Design-HDTV-Antenna-ANT705E/303087505 but this will have to go into an attic area and I will have to deal with power, cables and such. The desktop option was attractive from that standpoint.

Cost is not a big factor - this is just more complicated than I had hoped.

13

Total trash scam!! That Amazon POS claims 1100 miles, which is IMPOSSIBLE! Even 100 miles needs a VERY large antenna and is the most you will get in the real world.

The RCA looks OK. As I always recommend, check out the videos on Antennaman’s YouTube channel.

1 Like
14

not a big deal - was not expecting 1100 miles, but I did not understand the VHF/UHF situation. Watched some Antennaman videos - he has a good review of the Tablo. Learned that the thing I complained about this morning (how many episodes to save) is actually right there. The hard part of all of this is figuring out where to search for answers. This community is good, and responsive. Thanks to all.

15

I had a similar issue. My PBS station transmits on Channel 11, also a high VHF channel like your station. I ended up getting a ChannelMaster antenna with both UHF and VHF extensions. It has worked out really well. I tried several other antennas before that, including the RCA antenna you linked to:

Overall, I tried 4 or 5 other outdoor antennas before biting the bullet and getting the Channelmaster.

16

Around 15 miles - towers to Beaverton area.

17

Yeah, that’s not far. I checked out AntennaMan’s review of that antenna and it is a good one. 15 miles isn’t too far and should do just fine with high-VHF stations and does, as you stated. My mother is about 27 miles but I’m going to try that antenna just the same for her VHF station needs.
Thanks!