Jeannette, PA: Antenna advice - I'm at the bottom of a hill.

I used to get about 8 analog channels, now 1 or 2 digital depending on conditions.

I see two choices:

1. Big TV mast.
2. Putting repeater antenna on the hilltop which is a forest.
3. Become King and have things done my way.

With a big mast, even with lightning arresting provisions, the thought of running that cable into my electronics is troublesome. Wireless would be a better solution.

Frankly, #3 might be easier. haha

Regards,
Tom

PS. TVfool says I should have ootals of noodles. All I can say is Where's the pasta?

TVfool drives me nuts - every time I want to change mast height, I have to completely reload all my information. You would think they would make it easy to experiment on their site.

Here is a URL to my location with a 5' mast height:

My TVfool Results

One thing that is interesting is that I have 140' of property in the direction of Pittsburgh stations. My house is located on the nearest edge while the rest of the property goes up a gentle grade. So if I located my antenna at the far end of my property, I would gain about 10' in altitude. With about 1/3rd acre, I think I would have room to experiment finding a sweet spot.

I was looking around for those tilt up 3-tube triangular towers that were so popular back in the 60's for ham radio. It seems like they are not popular any more. I've heard that the cost of any kind of tower is insanely expensive. I suspect somehow liability/law suits have ruined that industry.

Thanks
Tom

Thanks so much!

Ah, the Interactive TV plot. I had found this earlier and then forgot how to get to it. Yep, its easy enough to edit height and then do the Radar plot again.

I wish the map itself had actual contours even at the expense of the nifty color strengths (Oh, where is the key for the color values?)

They could even have given a little graphic tower/pylon with a graduated scale of height in feet with strength - even color coded. Its all about bang for the buck regarding height.

Thanks again,
Tom

Up to now, I have been moving at glacial speeds, but the other day, months after I turned my cable box in and canceled service, they actually disconnected my cable.

So the Basic Cable I was mooching has finally been removed.

So I hooked up my Channel Master 7000 with a powered RCA rabbit ears/loop antenna and got channels 4 and 22.

So now I'm in big trouble because I have to get 2 to watch Steeler football.

A cousin lives on the hillside on the opposite side of the valley i'm in and gets at over 6 channels and said 2 is even difficult for her. I am worried because she gets 4 no matter how her powered ears/loop [same model as mine ironically] are oriented while 4 for me is very difficult to get. What I don't understand about tvfool is that they seem to include stations that do not exist. For instance, they claim a LOS station 56.1 which simply does not come up on any channel scans.

I know that for a specific FM station, you can string rhombic wire up and get real good signal if you have a "large yard." Since FM is right by 5 and 6, wouldn't this be feasible?

I'm now trolling Craigslist for rotors and antennas....

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Somewhat off topic, but what about lightning arrestors? I would want to buy the highest quality possible (not RS). Would this be C-D or CM?

Thanks
Tom

Hi paco...

I was playing around with a Gemini line amp (only VHF section works - UHF appears to be dead) and have a single setting that gets 2, 4, 25. 22 will lock but it is all block noise. Since I need 2 for football and it took so long to find the antenna position, I'm not too eager to mess around with things to try to get 22 which really isn't that important to me.

What I don't get is that there are 3 channels which should be stronger than 4 that I don't get.

56.1 should be monster strong but it does not show up.

8 (FOX) should be stronger than 4.

I just don't get it.

A guy has a CM4228 w/10' mast just over 1 hour from me for $25. Wish he was closer.

Found that FOX 53 is what I should be trying to get. Not 8.

I've got a bunch of other things I have to deal with so my progress here will be spotty.

(!) Thinking of hanging a 10' long VHF antenna from my ceiling fan that I don't use. Would be nice rotor system! HaHa

Tom

For a couple of nights, I found an indoor hotspot where I got 2, 4, 11, and 53 which is all the networks with a single antenna setting. I am not able to achieve this 100% of the time - its probably dependent on someone having their garage door open - haha!

(I have the "high-power" RCA ANT1250 Made in China rabbit ears w/loop with individual VHF and UHF gain knobs. A cousin has one too and gets 3 to 4 more channels than me - she is on the other side of the valley I'm in. I wonder how much better the "best" indoor amplified antennas are?) There is a $25 CM4228 that is 50 miles from me w/10' mast but I'm thinking any kind of outdoor Yagi hanging from the blades of my ceiling fan (obviously would not run that fan any more!) would be the ultimate in expeditiousness.

I read that when the signal strength is pulsing all over the place, multipath is present. Boy, do I have multipath so maybe the Yagi wouldn't be that bad an idea. Need to find a used one or build one out of plastic pipe and clothes hangers.

Thanks so much,
Tom

Finally solved my reception program for all Pittsburgh stations.

I bot a used CM4228 which I have on a hospital IV stand which I can roll around on my front porch.

With the antenna alone, I could get 2, 4, 11, 13, 16, 19, 21, 40, 43, 53 with some fussing around depending on conditions. (Sometimes, I could get all with one antenna position, other times, it would be very difficult to get 1 or 2 stations.)

Then I added a CM7777 mast mount high gain preamp.

Now I get all stations with one position, 95% of the time. There are still times, I have to do a minor adjustment (move 6") to get a station that is noisy.

When there is no signal (broadcast black) there is just the slightest onset of diagonal lines which may be due to strong "local" channel effects, however, it is of the order of where I place my CM7000 D2A box relative to my power amp/components/etc.

I still want to get it on a pole above the porch and am looking for the Alliance control box for the rotor assembly I have found in the attic. I know that controller is around here somewhere.....

Regards,
Tom