Hey all, having a heck of a time getting OTA HD reception and I'm looking for a little advice. The big problem is that my house is down in a tree-covered valley, and pretty much right at the base of one side of this valley.. so my back yard is a mountain. Add to that that all the channels require me pointing the antenna toward said mountain and .. yeah, not working too well. My setup:

- Terrestrial Digital V21 Ultra High Gain VHF/UHF Directional antenna mounted about 25-30 feet up, aimed about 40 degrees toward the sky (to clear the trees on the mountain) - 12.9dB Gain, 110" element length, 59" boom length
- A Walmart cheapo Philips Amp - VHF/UHF Gain 20dB/16dB, Noise 4dB
- Samsung SIR-TS160 receiver

Here's my readings from AntennaWeb (zip 25320):

-------------------------------------------Miles
WCHS 8 ABC CHARLESTON WV 250°..............15.7
WLPX 29 ION CHARLESTON WV 256°...............7.6
WVAH 11 FOX CHARLESTON WV 250°...............15.7
WVAH-DT 11.1 FOX CHARLESTON WV 250°......15.7
WLPX-DT 29.1 ION CHARLESTON WV 256°........7.6
WOWK 13 CBS HUNTINGTON WV 276°.............30.5
WSAZ 3 NBC HUNTINGTON WV 277°..............31.1

With this setup I can tune in WVAH pretty well so far, its been reading 93-100% signal all day. However I can't get WCHS at all (which is suprising since its supposedly the same orientation), and getting the others is a lost cause. Before I had the amp I couldn't even get WVAH. Now for the questions..

1. Is this antenna good enough? I'm only really interested in getting VHF 3/8/11/13, 8 and 11 especially. Should I look into a larger VHF specific antenna? Maybe RadioShack's VU-190 XR?

2. Should I invest in a better amp, like the CM 7777? I figure this walmart special is pretty crappy, but it's all I could find locally. Would it help to use a CM7777 on the mast instead of my current one which is connected inside the house? The cabling from the antenna to my receiver is roughly 50-60 feet long.

Friggin' mountainous state ruining my TV viewing. :p

Hey all, having a heck of a time getting OTA HD reception and I'm looking for a little advice. The big problem is that my house is down in a tree-covered valley, and pretty much right at the base of one side of this valley.. so my back yard is a mountain. Add to that that all the channels require me pointing the antenna toward said mountain and .. yeah, not working too well. My setup:

- Terrestrial Digital V21 Ultra High Gain VHF/UHF Directional antenna mounted about 25-30 feet up, aimed about 40 degrees toward the sky (to clear the trees on the mountain) - 12.9dB Gain, 110" element length, 59" boom length
- A Walmart cheapo Philips Amp - VHF/UHF Gain 20dB/16dB, Noise 4dB
- Samsung SIR-TS160 receiver
(zip 25320):
If the mountain is between you and the broadcast towers, you may be SOL. But if you are willing to take a shot, I would go for a better known antenna than the Terrestrial Digital V21. I looked it up and it's pretty pricey for an antenna with not that many elements.

The main network digital stations for your zip code are all UHF (deleting the color codes because in your case they will only relevant for your exact location):

uhf WOWK-DT 13.1 CBS HUNTINGTON WV 275° 32.1 47
uhf WCHS-DT 8.1 ABC CHARLESTON WV 250° 17.4 41
uhf WLPX-DT 29.1 ION CHARLESTON WV 255° 9.3 39
uhf WSAZ-DT 3.1 NBC HUNTINGTON WV 276° 32.6 23
uhf WVAH-DT 11.1 FOX CHARLESTON WV 250° 17.4 19
uhf WPBY-DT 33.1 PBS HUNTINGTON WV 274° 31.6 34

The main analog stations are:
uhf WLPX 29 ION CHARLESTON WV 255° 9.3 29
vhf WCHS 8 ABC CHARLESTON WV 250° 17.4 8
vhf WSAZ 3 NBC HUNTINGTON WV 276° 32.6 3
vhf WOWK 13 CBS HUNTINGTON WV 275° 32.1 13
uhf WPBY 33 PBS HUNTINGTON WV 274° 31.6 33
vhf WVAH 11 FOX CHARLESTON WV 250° 17.4 11
uhf W16CE 16 NBC CHARLESTON WV 199° 10.4 16
uhf W31CA 45 TBN CHARLESTON WV 212° 11.0 45
uhf WOCW-LP 53 CW CHARLESTON WV 199° 10.3 53
vhf WOAY 4 ABC OAK HILL WV 154° 46.4 4

Dump the cheap amp for starters. Also the Samsung SIR-T160 is several generations old, the new Samsung DTB-H260F has had many positive reports on being able to lock on stations that were marginal with previous gen ATSC receivers. Since you have the receiver, go with a better antenna first, but you may want to get a newer tuner.

Several possible routes on the antenna. Avoid the Radio Shack VU-190XR. You should be looking at antennas and pre-amps with good reputations, although they may have to mail ordered and thus not returnable. You could get a dedicated UHF antenna such as the Winegard 91XG or the Channel Master 4228 or 4221 combined with a VHF only antenna for maximum performance. Or one of the Winegard HD708xP series. I suspect that your antenna is not telling us much about your situation and whether reception is possible with the right antenna.

Translators.

That was my first thought, too. If he's currently served by translators for the analog channels, he may be best off waiting until they convert to digital. It wouldn't hurt to contact the stations and ask about their plans for converting the translators. It would at least let them know that someone out there is waiting for them!

It's a long shot, but with a fifth-generation receiver, you might be able to pick up the signal reflected from the other side of the valley rather than trying to catch the direct signal. That trick definitely won't work with your current receiver though.

Definitely replace the amp with a good (not Radio Shack) mast-mounted one too. Every dB in cable loss before it gets to the amplifier is a dB you can't get back.

Your conditions are similiar to the antenna testing done at A-Tech Fabrication's site: atechfabrication
Click on Antennas tab

I've found this to be one heck of a good read in several areas you may be interested in knowing BEFORE you proceed further.

Good luck!

Exchange your V21 for a 91xg and purchase a cm7777 preamp.

The 91xg can also be easily tilted up the ridge to try to acquire more signal.

If you are successful getting a signal with the 91xg and preamp then invest in a rotor. It will get up out of a reception bind on bad days without constantly going to the roof to tweak.

If you need to receive the vhf stations till the transition, add a separate vhf antenna. but first things first.

The winegard hd8200p would be the choice for a vhf/uhf combo. you would be better off taking advantage of the return policy and exchanging the V21 for a 91xg and go from there since its the same company.

Hills block all digital signal.

Well, I've got a CM 7777 preamp on the way, should be here wednesday. I guess I approached this all wrong, I thought I needed more VHF than UHF .. oops. I'm still quite new at this whole OTA thing :p So, honestly, do I really need VHF at all? I'm really only interested in the digital signals. I think I'll look into returning the V21 and trying out a 91XG next. Thanks for the input so far guys!

Also, looks like I got in on a scorching deal on a Samsung HP-S4273 Plasma, so I'll be using its tuner from now on :D

Well, I've got a CM 7777 preamp on the way, should be here wednesday. I guess I approached this all wrong, I thought I needed more VHF than UHF .. oops. I'm still quite new at this whole OTA thing :p So, honestly, do I really need VHF at all? I'm really only interested in the digital signals. I think I'll look into returning the V21 and trying out a 91XG next. Thanks for the input so far guys!
I will muddle this up a bit. Looking up the FCC data for the digital channel selections in 2009, WOWK-DT CBS 13 will be switching it's digital signal from UHF 47 to it's current analog channel VHF 13 after the analog shutdown in Feb, 2009. All the other major stations in Charleston and Huntington will stay at UHF. This may not be a problem as many UHF antennas work ok for VHF 13 at the upper end of the VHF set.

Give the 91XG a shot. But you may have to get several of major networks from the translators, which are UHF in your area, but will be analog only until 2009 (unless the translator does an early digital flash cut conversion). If you not checked out this website, do so as it provides useful info for antennas: http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ISSUES/erecting_antenna.html. Good luck!

for ch13 you will need to temporally add a winegard ya1713 ch7-13 yagi for about 40 bucks.

like this user did.

http://home.indy.rr.com/challengerul/antenna.html

the 2 antennas would be combined with your cm7777 preamp. so you would not need to deal with that.