EV's Recommended & Top Rated DTV Indoor UHF/VHF Set Top Antenna Review Round-Up Guide - Page 52

I'm new and I have been contemplating going to OTA and dropping cable after realizing that most of what i watch is the big networks. So after reading some of this thread, I went to radio shack and got me the Budget Antenna 1874 which seems to be pretty well-loved in this forum. I was able to get exactly all of the channels in my tvfool plot that had the green background. Nothing more and nothing less. The problem is I would also like the next tier with the yellow background (KBTC, KWPX, KWDK, KHCV, KUNS). Specifically, I would love to have KUNS since this is a deal breaker for dropping cable.

So according to my tvfool plot in order to get the yellow background channels, I need to have an antenna in the attic. I was wondering if theres a chance I might get these with a peppier indoor antenna. i have no idea how to run wires from the attic and it sounds like a big pain.

The 1874 sounds like it performed exactly as expected, picking up stations not too far away. If you want to put an antenna in the attic and have a closet near or in the room behind the TV, it's easy to run the wire up into the attic from there. Just hang the antenna from the roof rafters on a pole. Even a broom handle will do. Attic antennas do not have to be grounded.

But if you want to try another indoor antenna, exchange the 1874 for the 1892 UFO that EV mentioned. If any indoor antenna will work for weaker signals, that one often will. The downside to it is that you may have to readjust it every time you change channels. Your TV tuner may also need to have the option that allows you to add channels to those found in the initial scan, either manually or auto-add.

The good thing about RS is they take returns.

Have you tried putting the budget antenna in the attic? I'm able to go halfway down the yellows with the antenna in the attic and using an old amplifier (plus I'm 50 miles from broadcast stations).

My backup plan was going to be getting a ChannelMaster CM-7777 amplifier if the above setup didn't work for me. Since it has, I'm happy with how things are now. The nice thing about the 7777 is it'll merge two signals together, so you could buy a second antenna that's better suited to pulling what you want (KUNS is uhf, so a uhf antenna would greatly help things for you).

I also notice from looking at your TVFool report that KUNS and the other yellows are at a different compass heading. Have you tried orienting the antenna such that it's perpendicular to the compass heading? That's the best way to set up the antenna to pick up the stations you want. Also, be sure to mess around with the dipoles - different angles and lengths will change reception. But yeah definitely put it in the attic.

Thanks for your help, I am happy I posted. That compass part of it is what gets me, when all the stations seem like they are so close in miles.

i am hoping like the first person said theres a chance that they all come in the RS1892, since I can hear KUNS and the scan picks it up and channel 28 too, theres just nothing to see. I will try that UFO thing, its kind of scary ugly.

That RS 1874 is VHF & UHF.

yes, it has a basic uhf loop. I think you'd agree that a DB4 would be better at picking up uhf signal than the 1874

The remote-control-dness positioning of the UFO antenna be useless if you are using it with a OTA dual-tuner DVR, correct? I am assuming it can only output channels in one position at a time, even if you are recording two stations in different positions.

Our local walmart just got a huge shipment of these. RCA ANT1050. Has anyone tested one and if so what would you say the max range of it is?



It's $14.97 at walmart.

The Batenna.

We're just under nine miles from the transmistters, and an ANT1050 is doing very well for us for both VHF and UHF in a second-floor window; it's not facing the transmitters head-on, but it does have a line of sight to them at very oblique diagonals.  (Specifically, it's in an east window, with its ends to the north and south, and the azimuths to the transmitters are 153° to Sears Tower [remind me to edit that when the building name changes] and 144° to the Hancock Center.  The builder of our house, as a joke I suppose, aligned the walls along the cardinal directions rather than making them parallel to the section lines, so a perpendicular to the antenna would be 54° or 63° away from the direct lines to the transmitters.)  There are trees in the way, and they've come into leaf the last couple of weeks, but the reception hasn't suffered at all, to go by the bar on the Zenith DTT901 CECB.  It does better than the TV's own rabbit ears and bow tie do atop the TV, largely I suppose because it's in the window.

The thing is floppy and will not stand on edge nor remain in position leaned against something unless there's something else to halt its slide.  Illustrations with it all seem to be of nailing it to a wall or taping it to a window.  I have it at the top of the lower window, leaning against the glass of the upper pane, the lock keeping it from slipping down and flopping to end up flat as it likes to do.

It was absolutely worthless on the first floor of the house, though, and generally I wouldn't try it where reception is not so good.

I bought the Radio Shack 1892 UFO to use at work. The guy in the next cubicle liked it so much he bought one too, but now every time he turns his on with the remote, it turns mine on too. LOL

I just bought an RS 1892 UFO. The Winegard SS-3000 was suggested because it doesn't have annoying rabbit ears but once I looked at the UFO I thought I could live with it, and besides I could easily return it to RS if I didn't like it. Well I do like it. For 90% of the stations I can keep it positioned at one setting. For the remaining 10% I manually tune them in (I use a Zenith CECB) and program the channel on the UFO. Since I can program the UFO remote for use by my Logitech Harmony remote I can pretty well dispense with the dinky UFO remote. At any rate, I can just about get all the stations with the RS UFO that I can get using my outside MANT940. All these stations are less than 35 miles away.

Perhaps in the near future smart antenna technology will be more widely available. It would do all the dirty work I do in programming the RS UFO. But for now the RS UFO seems to be about the best indoor antenna out there.

Thanks EscapeVelocity for all the great information you have in this thread.

_Lazza

the UFO is basically like a powered multi-directional smart antenna. Seeing all these positive tests and reviews make me wanna go out to RS and grab one.

instead of getting up and messing with the antenna, you just press a button. How convenient is that?

BTW - Do the dipoles rotate 360 degrees or do they only turn left and right?

The UFO's dipoles are restricted in its range of motion due to the position of the UHF saucer. But surprisingly, I had little difficulty in finding a position of these poles to retrieve my two problematic VHF stations. Perhaps this is because the UFO is amplified and my previous antenna (RS 15-1868) was not? Regardless, this UFO thing really rocks. The only real negative to it is its dinky remote. You'll want to ditch it for some universal remote.

However I did find an anomaly with my UFO. Much to my (pleasant) surprise, the UFO has two coax ports in the back. This is so you can use the antenna with two devices (eg, a television and a DVDR). There is a manual switch on the main unit (TV, AUX) to indicate where to send the signals. When I switch it to AUX it seems no signals are being sent. However when the switch is set on TV *both* ports receive signals, which is something I prefer anyway.


_Lazza


PS - I suggest calling your local RS to check on availability. Don't trust what the RS web site wrt availability. I wound up going to two stores and eventually picking up what they had on display. A third store I went to a week ago didn't carry them at all.

I have a Best Buy coupon that is about to expire, and went to a local (Portland, OR) Best Buy this afternoon to check out the SM550. Unsurprisingly, holl_ands is correct.

Apex's packaging is cleverly worded, but nowhere claims that the antenna is a "smart antenna." The only place where the phrase "smart antenna" appears on the box is the place where it states that the antenna can plug into either a standard input or a smart antenna input on a converter box.

As I was reading the box, a salesperson came over to help and volunteered that he had purchased that model for his own home use. He confirmed that the antenna is not a smart antenna and needs to be physically adjusted like conventional rabbit ears.

but does it filter out multi-path? I need something amplified that can really reject multi-path. The only candidate for that is a silver sensor but I cannot for the life of me find them in stores around here. Best buy is out and I don't order online....maybe something new will come out after june. Or I can keep looking around.

For the heck of it I bought one of those bat antennas for $12 just to add to my collection and to try out after the transition. Haha.

The C1C is a passive antenna. You can always add a high quality external pre-amp in the event you actually need an amp. Most indoor antennas with preamps use them to overcome negative gains and are, in general, pretty much crappy quality (noisy or susceptible to distortion).

I played with one yesterday in Kansas City at a family member's home. It was an easy location (7-15 miles from all towers) with all UHF stations and it picked them up perfectly in a second floor office. The most difficult one was KCPT (UHF-19, only 55 kW at about 14 miles) which required a slight readjustment of the position of the antenna.

The C1 Convertible is an evolution of the original C1. The base was redone to give the flexibility to use the antenna outdoors with the reflector, indoors with the reflector (it sits nicely on a shelf), indoors on a flat surface without the reflector, or hanging on a wall with no reflector (requires just the right conditions in order to work best). The indoors WAF is much improved if you can use it without the reflector.

Without the reflector, the C1C is bidirectional with a 70 degree beam width in each direction. With the reflector installed, it becomes more directional in the forward-facing direction with its maximum gain and best multi-path rejection.

The ClearStream antenna's tapered loop is still the best one I've seen for "cleaning up" multi-path. It isn't going to get any better.....

I agree with you.
That's really a convenient one, based on their reviews

Here's the link: (ok, first post, can't add the link)
Easy to find on mcm electronics site.

It's Stellar Labs Part #: A218-003/MCM Order #: 30-2160

It looks pretty close, Max amplification: 28 dB, $14.95. I have no experience other than maybe cables from Stellar Labs. Any thought's on this one ?

My current setup in Atlanta works pretty good, an old set of RE's and bowtie. The kind that used to come w/ TV's a long time ago that mounted to hole in the back of the tv via a shaft at the base of the RE's. I just cut a piece of 2x4 and drilled a hole in it for the shaft. It looks fine to me, but I'll probably be the only one who thinks that. I might give this MCM model a try.

It probably wholesaled from the factory in China for $2. You can guess what kind of electronics are in there.....

A narrow beamwidth suppresses multipath from buildings/bridges
between the desired transmitter and your location.
To reduce multipath, you also need high Front/Back Ratio, since worst multipath
"usually" comes in from rear reflections. Most indoor antennas do neither.....

The best you can hope for is an indoor antenna which has a significant NULL
that can be directed until it minimizes the multipath signal...without also
nulling out the desired signal, such as would happen with a typical UHF loop.
Hence the SilverSensor, Terk Klone and R-S UFO are good indoor performers.

The ClearStream C1C comes with a reflector which is MANDATORY in order
to provide a reasonable Front/Back Ratio...when you remove it for indoor use,
there is ZERO suppression of multipath coming from the rearward direction...
And it has a very wide beamwidth....enough said....

==================================
As the economy draws further down, stores are severely cutting back inventory....
If you don't figure out how to order off the internet, your options will continue to shrink.....

Ordering off the internet from REPUTABLE dealers can be just as safe as giving
your credit card to the minimum wage geeks at BestBuy....either can steal the number....

I have a separate credit card with a fairly low max limit I only use for internet,
so even if it gets messed up my primary card is unaffected.

I also check out lesser known websites:
http://www.resellerratings.com/

Yeah I'll probably get one of those reloadable visa cards and use one of those. I want the Terk HDTVa.

Since the original Silver Sensor is unamplified, I assume you are referring to the PHDTV3 . Have you checked your local Target store? I don't see it on their web site, but I have seen it at Target stores in my area. I haven't tried this antenna, but others here have had good luck with it.