The Official AVS Antenna and Related Hardware Topic! - Page 464

a small winegard 7xxx series aimed at your further stations, your nearby stations will be picked up from the back of the antenna.

Right, Section 207 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 allows for installation of an antenna in your own patio or balcony but not on the buildings roof. So an attic install may be my best bet because my balcony is on the southeast side of my condo.

Wow, there are twelve 7.x.x.x series winegard antennas. Got any suggestions on how to narrow the search down?

That is not correct. If the roof is part of your property, which for townhouses should be the case, then you can install an antenna on it. I think the allowance is 12 feet.

A single combo antenna will not be reliable in your location due to the off-axis locations for the La Jolla and Tijuana sites.

You will require two antennas: A "medium-range" high-VHF antenna pointed towards La Jolla for channels 8 and 10 (ignores LP VHF-9, Estrella TV), and a UHF antenna pointed towards Mt San Miguel.

I'd suggest the ClearStream 5 for the high-VHF duties and a 4-bay antenna such as the DB4 with the reflector removed (makes it bi-directional) combined with a UVSJ (included with the C5). Barring local building and other local concerns, it ought to work.

Here is my tvfool result:

I installed this G-H to replace a 90 mile RS:

The G-H is aimed about 350 and 15 feet up, and I rarely get ch34 and ch28 occasionally pixilates. Just like the RS.
Which of these would be a better performing replacement?
Channel Master 4221HD

Antennas Direct DB4

Wineguard HD4400

I'm only interested in the first 5 stations.

John:

Where is it located, inside or outside?

Do you mean PBS virtual 34.1 on real channel 38, and Fox virtual 28.1 on real channel 36? It looks like overload from signals that are too strong. Are you using a preamp or a distribution amp?

The G-H or the 4221HD should be more than enough for your location, unless something is blocking the signals.

What are you using for reception, a digital TV, an analog TV with a converter box, or a tuner for a PC? How long is the coax from the antenna to the TV? Any splitters for more than one TV?

The Winegard 4400 doesn't get a lot of love, but it's dirt cheap, feather light, and beats almost anything on freqs below RF26. See HDTVPrimer.com antenna comparison charts. How can you go wrong for 22 bucks?

Don't buy a DB2 or DB4 right now- they are being rescaled for the 14-51 range, so wait for the new one.

Looks like you could make that 4400 yourself if you new the exact specs.


with the way things are going they might as well just rescale them for channels 14-30.

Thanks for the replies. To answer rabbit73, I am talking about virtual 34.1 and 28.1. The antenna is outside, and is connected by 40 feet of RG59 to a RS amplified splitter going to 2 old Directv satellite receivers, and thence to Samsung LCD TVs.

Interestingly, both TVs will display 28.1 and 23.1 using their internal receivers, but the satellite receivers cannot do so. I much prefer to use them because of the integrated channel guide.

I'm extremely interested in cutting cable and was wondering were to start with my location. Such as what type of antenna.
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...03d9f2f6dbafeb
This is my tvfool report, thanks for the help.

A) Switch that RG59 to quad shielded RG6

B) Lose the amplified splitter. You're signals are too strong for that.

This 2bay is probably all you need with those signal strengths for the channels you want. As others suggested, you're probably getting signal overload and eliminating the amp may be all you need to do to fix your dropouts.

Yoricksdeath, Are you in Virginia or California? If you are in CA and interested in receiving the Barstow translators, I have had quite a bit of experience with those as my uncle used to live in Hesperia. They are low power but broadcast from a good height. They can be seen as you drive north on I-15 through Barstow. Any small UHF antenna such as pictured just a few posts above yours in this thread should work fine. The antenna should definitely be mounted outdoors, although a northwest facing window might work if there is no other alternative.
Do be aware that all but KHIZ and KCET are still analog and standard definition. The local newspaper used to list the channel numbers and their corresponding source stations in the TV section. As I recall all were from LA except the CBS station was from Bakersfield.

...or 2-30

My thanks to all. I'll change the cable and try eliminating the amp to see if the G-W will do the job first.

Yes im in California. I'm near Hesperia too. As for the antenna which one pictured above? there are a few choices. Thanks for the information sounds like i should be able to get this going.

He said "condo". If it is really a condominium ownership, at least as defined in North and South Carolina, the outside of the unit belongs to the association, the inside to the "owner". That is why, when they want to be real jerks, even the railings are not usable and a weighted base is required.

"Condominium" is not a type of housing or building, it's a legal instrument to describe communal property. Apartments, townhomes, carriage homes, and even single-family detached homes can all be condos.
When condos are built, the Land Surveyor of record will come in before the drywall is installed and measure the airspace of the unit, stud-to-stud. That airspace, including the drywall and the flooring, is what the homeowner owns in full. Everything else is communal, and the key point for antennas is "exclusive use" versus "limited common element".
There are some townhouse subdivisions where the homeowner owns the whole thing- land, building, and everything else-but it has to be defined that way during the planning stages.
To find out how your property is defined, check the land survey that you got at closing. There will be a text legal description and a drawing that represents the space that is fully owned, and the communal spaces that are partially owned. There can be a lot of gray areas, especially in balconies and patios, but a good condo survey will define those areas clearly.

I have the Winegard 4400 here in Texas. It is very well made and available from several internet sources. One nice thing about the flat panel 4 bay UHF antennas is they have a low wind load. I remember it can get quite breezy out in the high desert.
Do try to check the newspaper or other local source to see what stations are translated in Barstow. I remember back in the 90's there was no FOX affilate if that is critical to you. You are probably also aware that KCET is no longer PBS.

KCET is still PBS; just not subscribed to the national feeds.

Hi,

Just like KCSM KCET has pulled the PBS plug, according to their website.

KCSM has had no problem getting programming I like.

---------------------------------
1) Why is KCET becoming an independent station?
KCET and PBS were unable to reach agreement on a reduction in PBS fees and on providing KCET more programming flexibility.

2) What will happen to the PBS programs on KCET?
KCET will continue to air the PBS schedule until December 31, 2010. Beginning on January 1, 2011, many of these PBS programs will be shown on KOCE-TV. You can visit www.koce.org for more information, or call KOCE at 800.278.

-------------------------------

SHF

Thank you for the correction. I am sure KCET as an independent will have good programming also. The question is whether they can survive.

Hi,

IMHO KCSM could not survive without pulling the PBS plug, they had been moving away for years.

They have to have programming that is not duplicated on NCPB to gather enough pledges. Their 24/7/365 pledge notes continue.

Their pulling the plug was done along with a call for $2M by the end of the year (Two Months) or they would go off the air. The company that built their HDTV equipment made a press release about their $$$$$ equipment being sold to KCSM about the same time. Really bad timing. Also the bill for rebuilding Sutro was coming due.

http://sutrotower.com/

While they have just as good HDTV signal as KQED both transmitting from Sutro tower, KCSM often shows 16:9 material letter boxed and pillared to my dismay. Perhaps they can pay less for programming this way.

I made this post to [HDTV-in-SFbay]:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HDTV-in-SFbay/




The same can be said for KCSM and I suspect KCET.

SHF

For any one who owns an 91XG UHF antenna, has any one measured the physical dimensions of this antenna?

I am curious what the follow measurements are:

Boom length.
Driven element length.
Director lengths.
How many directors.
How much distance between the driven element and the reflector mounting bracket.
The length of the reflector frame.
The dimensions of the reflectors.
The diameter of the elements.

Thanks in advance.

Bruce.

There is this from our good friend Hollands:
http://imageevent.com/holl_ands/yagis/91xg

Thanks for the link.

I may make an attempt to build a home-made version of this antenna.

I'll let you know how it turns out and I'll include pictures of it once it is done.

Bruce.

I was wondering if the XG could be rescaled for 700Mhz just by drilling new, wider-spaced holes for the directors. Would this work?

No, because you would also need to make the directors, and probably the folded dipole driven element, slightly larger for the lower design frequency.

Makes sense. But I wonder if it could help a little on the lower freqs.
That will be quite a project to build a homebrew version; probably one of the most difficult factory antennas to replicate. I'll be interested to see how it turns out.