Was it ever possible to receive television broadcasts in the Caribbean from Florida or vice versa? This would be using only the antennas and television sets available to the average person. How about an enthusiastic hobbyist?
This site suggests that Miami TV stations can be picked up in Havana, if the weather is right. (And, the site is recent enough – it discusses Netflix streaming – that it was likely written with digital TV signals in mind.)
Back when TV signals were analog, one could get a fuzzy signal at some distance away from the transmitter (and, of course, a better signal if you were closer); with a digital signal, once the signal deteriorates to a certain point, you simply get no signal at all. So, the days of being able to watch a fuzzy signal from a distant station are over. I can remember, as a little kid in Chicago’s western suburbs in the 1970s, occasionally being able to pick up a snowy signal from a station in the Quad Cities, which are over 100 miles away (and that was just with a small antenna). Today, some friends of mine who live a few miles away from my childhood home, can’t even get a digital OTA signal from downtown Chicago, which is only about 35 miles away.
So, I can believe that, prior to digital signals, it was likely possible to get Miami-based TV signals in at least some of the Caribbean (the fact that you had nothing but open ocean in between might have helped, too). But, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the regions which can still get those signals now are much smaller.
Way back in the 50s, anyone who lived outside a major city probably had at least a two-story tall antenna mast on their house. My grandparents watched TV from Springfield, MO, and my in-laws watched stations from Nashville - both were about 120 miles away from their respective homes. The pictures were snowy and the audio wasn’t great, but it was watchable.
This.
Also, VHF transmissions (channels 2-13) travel further than UHF, due to skywave propagation.
In Toronto, almost all those funny TV antennas were pointed to Buffalo. (and technically, the channels you wanted to get determined the best size for the antenna) you could get a passable signal from Buffalo Ch 2 and 4. Orillia was about the same distance, but unless your antenna was pointed there (or you had a secondary one) the signal was fuzzy. AFAIK you couldn’t get Buffalo with rabbit ears at ground level.
Theoretically, TV like FM radio was line-of-sight which worked out to about 60 miles to 100 miles or so depending on terrain. If you could get Miami from Havana, I suspect it was only due to atmospheric bounce. IIRC, video was AM and sound was FM.
FM Radio signals were between Ch6 and Ch 7 I think.