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Fort Walton Beach, FL antenna help

5K views 43 replies 12 participants last post by  ProjectSHO89 
#1 ·
I live in the Fort Walton Beach, FL area and I'm looking to cut the cord from Cox Cable. I would post my TVFool report but I'm unable to post images or weblinks until I get 5 posts. My zip code is 32569 which is technically Mary Esther, FL, a suburb of Fort Walton Beach.
 
#2 ·
Additional information, I'm a rookie when it comes to getting over the air TV signals, been with cable for over 20 years but tired of the constant increases in prices. I'm a Computer Support Lead so I'm not scared of technology. I currently have Amazon Fire HD in addition to Cox Cable. I'm looking for the best Outdoor Antenna I can buy without breaking the bank but not looking for cheap by any means. I'll save over $100 a month once I make the switch so I'm ready, just want to learn all I can before I make the leap. Thanks in advance for your help!
 
#13 ·
Thanks for the advice John. I do have a question based on what you said. So if I get a VHF and separate UHF antenna how do I bring both signals together into my house and TV's? I have multiple TV's so I'd want to send both signals to all the TV's if that's possible.
 
#5 ·
Skip that particular Winegard antenna.

Getting a Fox station is going to be VERY problematic.

You have two Fox stations in the area. WALA is 70 miles away towards Mobile and WPGX is 73 miles away in nearly opposite direction. And, just to make things more difficult, they're both on VHF channel 9. Can anyone say "short-spaced" or "co-channel interference"? Given that you're in a built up area, the elevated noise floor on VHF may make reception of either station impossible, even with the big 10 element VHF Yagi.

The rest of your stations towards Mobile are UHF and should be readily received with even a modest UHF antenna.
 
#6 ·
I looked at your terrain plot to WALA and there are no hills in the way, just the curvature of the Earth because of distance. If you're willing to get an antenna up in the air to clear as much of the local vegetation as possible and use a preamp such as the Clearstream Juice that has a good noise figure on VHF you might have a chance. It's impossible to say for sure. My guess is that it'll be one of those stations that's not receivable 100% of the time. Either the Winegard HD7698P or the Antennacraft HBU55 would be a good choice. They have good VHF sections and are good enough on UHF for those stronger stations.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Thank you everyone for your input so far. So Fox is my headache, go figure. I have a couple of questions. So I'm looking at the 2 antennas Calaveras recommended and they have boom lengths of 145" and 168" respectively. At 12-14 feet in length is it possible to mount these in a way you can turn them remotely? Will I ever need to turn it? Maybe this isn't such a good idea, mounting a big antenna on or near my house might be a problem. I guess I'll have to do some more research. Be nice if Fox converted to UHF, I think that would make things easier.
 
#10 ·
Fox on UHF at that distance would be even weaker. High VHF does a better job at the fringes if you have a good antenna.

You don't need to rotate it unless you want to receive those stations around 90 degrees. They make antenna rotors for that. That's another discussion.
 
#9 ·
Here is a picture of the back of my house. I guess I could mount an antenna pole in the back right corner of my house and bolt it down to my patio and secure it to the house. My cable goes into the house around the right corner near the power meter you should be able to see, that is how I would go into the house with my antenna feed. So what's a good recommendation for pole to mount an antenna to? I live near the coast and we get those wonderful tropical storms/hurricanes on occasion so I'd like to make it strong enough to handle at the least the weaker storms.
 

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#11 ·
I see some tall trees in the background but the foliage looks rather thin so hopefully if the stations have to pass through those trees it won't be a problem.

There are lots of choices for mounting the antenna. The strongest ones are some sort of tower but of course those are rather expensive. You could get a Rohn 40' telescoping mast and only push it up 20' so that the sections overlap. That would make it stronger.

http://www.dxengineering.com/search...coping-masts?gclid=CLCfsKCw5MQCFQhqfgods4QAMw
 
#12 ·
Calaveras I really appreciate the help and pointers. The trees in the picture are directly North of my house so in getting the signals from Mobile I shouldn't have to go through them. Eventually I plan on moving and when I do everything I'm learning here will go into where I decide to move to. The good thing about living in coastal area is it's pretty flat, the bad part is it's low. I like the idea of the telescoping antennas, I can have them at their max height and if a storm comes I can lower the antenna. Typically we get a couple days notice of a tropical system making landfall.
 
#15 ·
Boy I wish I could try different antennas without having to purchase them! Maybe you guys can help me. Here are links to the 3 I think I've narrowed it down to. I'm not an antenna guy yet so I'm stilling learning what the gain numbers mean. What would be my best bet based on the 3 antennas listed below and why? While you guys look at it I'm going to go online and see what more I can learn so I can understand your answers better!


http://www.channelmaster.com/Digital_HDTV_Outdoor_TV_Antenna_p/cm-3020.htm


http://www.antennacraft.net/pdfs/HBU55_.pdf


http://www.winegarddirect.com/viewi...inum-Series-VHFUHF-HDTV-Antenna(HD7698P)&post=
 
#16 · (Edited)
You don't want the 3020 because all those large elements are for low VHF (channels 2-6) and you don't have any of those. The other two antennas are roughly equal.

I ran a generic FM Fool report for your town and there are a bunch of super strong signals. You will need a full band FM trap placed before the preamp to reduce those very strong signals. The second harmonic from WNCV falls in channel 9 and can destroy reception. You should run your FM Fool report for your exact address and post the image for us. Links don't work for FM Fool.

https://www.antennasdirect.com/store/FM_band_rejection_filter.html
 
#18 · (Edited)
Well what do you guys think of the link below, seems like they tested a lot of Antennas but no surprise their Antenna won!


http://www.dennysantennaservice.com/best-tv-antenna.html


Anybody have experience with the HD Stacker? Searching for reviews there seems to be a lot of people that like it and then people who have never owned it who attack the people who like it.
 
#19 ·
None of Denny's antennas are a match for your location.

I'd stick with a two antenna system rather than a 14' long combo Your odds of getting VHF 9 are particularly poor, so it makes sense to get an antenna that can be returned if it doesn't work out without affecting the rest of your project. If you get the combo, you're stuck with a 14' antenna whether it does any good or not. Try to get a 10-element Antennacraft while they last, mount it at the top of your mast. Mount something like a DB4e several feet under it. Get two FM filters in series between the AC and a UVSJ, then feed the combined input into the Juice. That's probably as good as it's going to get.
 
#23 ·
So does everyone agree a 2 antenna setup would be better? The 10 Element Antennacraft you're talking about is the Yagi HD Y5-7-13? What about the DB8E for the UHF, will the ability to aim in two different directions for UHF help in my location. It appears I am split between stations to my W/NW and E/NE so that is why I was think the DB8E. I hope I can get it right the first time.
 
#28 ·
I don't think you'll find the the Y10-7-13 to be substantially different from the VHF performance of the HD7698P or the HBU55. You need to be careful aiming the 2 sections of the DB8e in very different directions as that is just like using two separate antennas combined onto one coax downlead. This is often a recipe for multipath problems. The idea of a directional antenna is to reject all the unwanted signals.

Your UHF stations are strong enough not to need the largest UHF antenna.
 
#30 ·
Another question, what can I use as a solid base to mount the antenna that I can secure to the raised back patio of my house. The patio is a cement slab. I think a good base I can secure to the cement slab and wall brackets I can secure to the side of the house will do good at securing the antenna, is this a good idea? This will make it easy access to adjust the antenna if I need to and the connections go into the house in the right corner where you can see the power meter on the right side wall. I've searched online for antenna bases but haven't seen anything I would consider solid outside of tripod mounts.
 

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#38 ·
Maybe these pictures of a 30' Rohn 25 house bracketed tower I have will give you some ideas.

1) 30' Tower
2) Base bolted to concrete
3) House bracket & strengthened eaves

So mounting your tower the way you did and bolting it to the concrete means you didn't need to ground it or use guy wires? How many feet off the ground is it bracketed to the house? Do you have a rotator to turn the antenna and if so which one did you use? I really think a tower is the smartest way to go for getting above 30' and if I can find an affordable solution that is the route I will try and take.
 
#33 · (Edited)
So what are the pros and cons to putting the antenna mast on top of the house using a tripod? I would need a lot less mast to get up above 30' if I did that and I could place the antenna on one of the peaks at the front of the house so I can get my best angle to go NW down the street without obstruction of the 2 story house across the street to the left in the picture. My house is the one with the tan roof. What cable should I use to go the 50' across the roof into the house and how do you secure the cable to the roof? I guess my biggest concern is living in NW Florida we get a lot of lightning during the summer storm season, can I do this without burning the house down!? What size tripod should I use for a 20' mast?
 

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#34 ·
The cons for putting the mast at the top of the roof are sealing the base where you have to pierce the roof with bolts and standing on a ladder to push up the mast.

A tripod or other base is just to hold the bottom of the mast in place. It will not support a 20' mast. You need two sets of guy wires. I've put up lots of push-up masts years ago but I prefer towers now.

A mast on the roof needs to have its own grounding wire. See sticky at the top of this forum. Grounding the system drains off induced charges from nearby lightning strikes. It will not save your antenna if it takes a direct hit.

Use RG-6 cable. Secure it to the base of the mast and where it goes over the roof. I've never heard of anyone securing it to the middle of the roof.
 
#35 ·
Based on further research and Calaveras' advise I'm now thinking a 5' Tripod with a 10' Mast. My problem is with the 2 story house directly West of my house and me having to go NW for the signals from Mobile I would need an extremely tall tower to get up high enough to get over that house which would be costly since the only decent place for me to put a tower is on the back patio of the house. If I put the tripod on one of the 2 smaller peaks closest to the road North of the house I think I should be able to shoot the NW gap up the road and have a better chance of picking up the signals from Mobile. The picture is orientated with top being North. Before I anchor a tripod on the roof I would wire it up and move it around to see where I could get my best signal, I have a small 19" LCD I can take with me up on the roof and test with.

I grew up helping my stepdad with his roofing business so I know to mount the tripod on the support beams and how to seal the roof so it doesn't leak. I can get into the attic to confirm the lag bolts hit the 2x10 beams supporting the roof. The Tripod from Denny's Antenna Service comes with lag bolts and roof sealing pads for the tripod feat, I would also put some calk under and around them as extra protection.

This could change if could find an antenna tower up at our hunting camp, going up there next weekend and will look around. The old man who owns the place collects all kinds of "junk" and I seem to recall an antenna tower being up there. If it's there and he'll let me have it for free or cheap then I may just have to re-think things again. This is not as easy as I thought it would be but I'm determined to do it right.
 
#40 ·
Good thread and good info... I'm subscribing to this one. I am in a similar situation over in Fort Pierce FL (middle of nowhere). I recently cut the cord as well.... I have been playing with aiming towards West Palm and Orlando with a DB8E with under 55' RG6/Quad and a 25' (ground mounted mast). Most stations are 60 miles towards the South and 90 miles towards the NorthWest. I have just "winged it" and had pretty good luck. But, now I want to learn more, so I have been reading up on this forum. Great info. here.

Sorry to disturb... Carry on....

Be sure to post your outcome.
 
#41 ·
OTA the way to go.....Cord cutter 101


Live in Midway on edge of Navarre west side..... Getting all OTA with the exception of WALA Fox 10.1 yet after dark it does come in..... Attic setup with Lava Omni-Directional 8008 on a Lowes PVC homemade stand. Bought a TiVo OTA with lifetime summer deal..... Loving the freedom.... Use Roku also.
 
#42 ·
Live in Midway on edge of Navarre west side..... Getting all OTA with the exception of WALA Fox 10.1 yet after dark it does come in..... Attic setup with Lava Omni-Directional 8008 on a Lowes PVC homemade stand. Bought a TiVo OTA with lifetime summer deal..... Loving the freedom.... Use Roku also.

You need to start a separate thread and follow the sticky post at the top of this forum. There's not enough information for anyone to give you an informed answer.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
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