The Official AVS Antenna and Related Hardware Topic! - Page 476

With the OP's high signal strength on WKRC VHF 12, he should have no trouble receiving it with the 4228HD with reflector bars removed.

A small unobtrusive RCA ANT751 should be all you need for your channels of interest. It is a well built antenna that should last for many years. It also comes with a J-mount to install it on wall that faces the towers; or roof or gable end of the house.
Point it about 220° or so, (compass direction).

At the San Francisco airport "Museum" there is an exhibition of vintage TV gear, including a beautiful collection of mint condition indoor antennas from the 50s an 60s. If you can't get there, check out the photos:

Exhibition with descriptions.

Antennas

Caption

Thanks. The second from the left, center UHF portion, is a ...uh.....umm......FRACTAL.

Actually closer to a upwardly polarized zig zag lpda sized wrong.

I think it's nothing more than a FAT Vertical Monopole for Omni UHF,
where the (twisted?) vertical structure improves SWR vs a simple whip:
http://imageevent.com/holl_ands/dipoles/monopole

Look closely at the blow up. Its not twisted, just bent.


At the flea market today, I saw a pair of rabbit ears with a small plastic parabola in the middle for uhf. Upon closer inspection, it just had a simple wire around the outside of the plastic parabola, so it was just a plain uhf loop.

ok i am new to the whole ota antenna game, my father is getting ready to retire and wants to get rid of cable but keep cable internet. Because there will still be cable coming into the house and the qam tuner on the tv's all pick up a few channels will i gain any channels by adding a antenna... also is there any way to combine the channels coming in through cable and the channels from the antenna since it will be 2 different sources. Also is one antenna able to work for all 3 different tv's in the house sometimes 2 running at once.

That's not always the case. In many areas if you have only cable internet you won't get any TV channels.


Nope. You'll need 2 seperate cables.


depends. You need to post a TVFool report before we can help you further

With a suitable antenna for your location, you can receive any main or sub channels your local cableco may not carry. Which ones, depends on what's available OTA and which ones your cableco carries.


No, you will need separate cables to each TV and an A/B switch at each one to jump between the two sources.


You can connect multiple TVs to one antenna, providing the signal received is strong enough. Splitting the signal weakens it significantly, though. The weakening comes from splitting the signal, not how many TVs are on at any given moment. Depending on signal strength, you may need to add a suitable preamp before the splits, or a distribution amplifier/splitter.

i had to go look for what tv fool was haha but heres what it came up with

sorry says i have to have 3 posts so its not working

It would be good to see what you might have on the internet cable before looking to an antenna.

Currently using a DB2 antenna on the side of the house and would like better signal. Right now we are receiving 30-40% signal strength if we are lucky and about 5 local canadian channels including 2 American (sometimes up to 5 extra if we rescan). Would adding an amp. help increase signal strength? How about replacing the antenna with a better one one...and include an amp? Would a DB4 antenna be better? Should the antennas I look at be multi-directional? I guess MD means that it looks at different towers?

Here is the tv fool report....we normally receive 2, 6, 17, 10, 12, 15 (canadian) and sometimes 3.0001 3.0002 (american) and on the odd scan 5.0001 and 5.0002 (american)....and rarely on the "odder" scan vermont 33.0001/2/3/4

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...60b514edf3eda3

What you do will probably depend on how long you will be having the analog VHF stations available. If your recieving 2, 6, 10 and 12 OK, a DB4 probably won't hurt. Those are the VHF's, and if you want a better signal, you might hunt an old used antenna to pick them up. You will probably lose those stations eventually, and then the DB4 would be good. But I wouldn't get the DB4 now unless your receptio on the DB2 is OK for the VHF stations. That make any sense? As for the odd scans, a rotor will help. When you get good atmospherics you can get them in the scan. Then do not rescan, but use the rotor to turn the antenna correctly. Or you could try a multidirectional antenna, and you might, or might not get good results. What stations do you absolutely want?

Thanks for your reply...but I'm a bit confused The 2, 6, 10, 12 are actually 2.0001, 6.0001, 10.001, 12.001....I don't think they are analog signals....aren't these digital? I receive those channels clear but most of the time I get digital signal low...so I'd like to boost the signal. Main goal is to get 2.0001, 6.0001, 10.001, 12.001, 15.001...the local canadian channels and if possible 3.001/2 and 5.001/2 (american) which we get sometimes. Why would a rotor help and not an amp? Wouldn't an amp help boost signal? Note that the current antenna is on the side of the cabin and there are alot of trees around..it's in the country.

TV FOOL might not be current; the chart seemed in indicate they were analog. The rotor would be useful as the antenna you are using is somewhat directional. Generally the first thing to do to recieve a weaker signal is to point the antenna to the transmitter. An amp wll only help if the signal is present and steady. An amp might be the second step. The trees don't help, and may argue for the rotor, to find a duct through them. Of the options, I'd rank using a rotor as 1st, putting up a second antenna pointed generally toward desired stations and joining the two antennas as 2nd,
adding an amp as 3rd. If you could buy some things to experiment that you could return, that would be good. Almost everybody's reception situation is different, no one solution is possible.

I have the antenna suggested above - thanks.

Just want to make sure on the direction - 220° compass direction is aprox 90° away from pointing the antenna right at the 2 towers...Is that right?

Just want to make sure, so I am not up on the roof too much asking my wife "is that better?" !!!

Thanks again - this antenna looks like a great fit. I won't be installing it till we get power hooked up sometime next week hopefully.

montl,
Looking back at your TVFool, it appears you should aim at ~117° compass direction, not 220°, as I previously typed. I do apologize for that error!


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According to Wikipedia, CBFT is digital on channel 19, CBMT is on 21, CIVM is on 26, CFTM on 10 and CFCF is on 12.
I am curious about the odd channel numbers being discussed with four digits after the decimal place. I have only seen that type of nomenclature with cable TV. Is it specific to some unusual tuner?
If it were me, I would get a large UHF/Vhf High and put it on a high mounted rotor and try for everything in the area.

I would like to cut the cable or dish network in my case...what would the experts suggest with this report?
Antenna. amps, anything?

Thanks!

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...40330e7da04b19

1. Move
2. Experiment with different antenna heights to see whether you can improve signal strength with a height you can live with,

FWIW, I tried this location in your city that I got from Wikipedia, and I got signal strengths about 30dB better than your table showed, and curiously, they were about the same at 100 feet as at the 14 foot height that you used.

41.510192
-112.015011

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...4033664d28a320

I am right along the mountain, and may not have the best line to the SLC area where most of the signals come from. And moving isn't a viable option...lol

Another option to investigate; ask a local dish retailer if they still offers a locals-only package.

Are you actually trying to use an antenna now?

Can you locate a very high Gain UHF antenna & high Gain Preamp on
top of a nearby hill and then run a long length of coax to your house?
TVFool might not have enough resolution to show the difference, so
could you give us some accurate coordinates for that location?

I guess that is what I am asking, what equipment (ant, amp) is the best to get weak signal? I do not have any now, just dish network. I have an indoor, and it only gets the chan 12 from that list of chan on tvfool.

That's useful information. If it were I, the next step would be to get a cheep antenna, like a Radio Shack single bowtie, and get it up a few yards outside on a pole or tree limb, in such a way it could be turned. It will take a while, but a search for the SLT stations should be made. If you can get a steady picture, even if broken at times, or pixilateing, on any of them over a period of days( as atmospherics could get you almost anything for a few minutes), then I'd procede with a more permanent arrangement. Remember when turning the antenna, the reciever will not act immediately to a signal, as was the case with analog. Its possible you are completely "over the cliff" and nothing can be done. It's also possible you can recieve some stations. I think I'd want some proof reception could be had before buying a lot of stuff.