The Official AVS Antenna and Related Hardware Topic! - Page 180

Maybe it was supposed to read, "Not Provided."

I could go for the obvious joke here, but I'll manage to resist.

It takes a man to admit to that !!

(lol)

You know, this is really odd.
I got a FMSS omnidirectional FM antenna from Solid Signal, and it was missing the balun, which the instructions described as included. I called and they sent one promptly, apologized, etc. but these reports are awfullllllllly coincidental.....

When I buy something cheap through the mail, I really don't give a damn whether it is new or not, unless it is a prophylactic.

(WARNING! NEWB!)
Okay, I used to live in an area where picking up OTA was very easy. I went and bought a philips indoor antenna and VOILA, I had HD. Well, I've since moved. My philips doesn't work anymore due to, I suppose, distance. I went to antennaweb and entered my new information. Here's what it's telling me for local DTV channels:

RED - vhf - KLTVDT 7.1 - ABC - Tyler, TX - 268 degrees - 21.3 miles - Frequency 10
Violet - uhf - KMSSDT 34.1 - Fox - Shreveport, LA - 75 degrees - 54.6 miles - Frequency 34
Violet - uhf - KTBSDT 3.1 - ABC - Shreveport, LA - 77 degrees - 54.7 miles - Frequency 28
Violet - uhf - KFXKDT 31.1 - Fox - Longview, TX - 118 degrees - 9.7 miles - Frequency 31

Now, at minimum I'd like to get all of these channels. However, I'd also LOVE to be able to get some channels from Little Rock (about 250 miles to my NE) so that I can maybe get SEC football games. Heck, getting Dallas (120 miles West) would be great as well for when the NBA comes back. My TV has a built in QAM and ATSC tuner (I think those are the right acronyms!).

I currently live in a duplex. Getting something up on the roof is probably not an option. I could put something in the backyard or indoors. It also needs to be somewhat mobile, as I'll probably be moving in 5 months or so. Does anyone have any ideas?

What's a good one that will get me at least local (within 60 miles)? How bout local AND extended (up to 300 miles or so)? I really appreciate any help you guys could give me!

Josh

For 50 miles, you'll need a big outdoor antenna. And, for 120 miles a lot of luck. It probably won't happen. 300 miles? That's DX'ing range. It won't happen.
....jc

Do you have any recommendations for a big outdoor antenna? Would it even work that well if it was just on a tripod?

For UHF a CM 4228 or AD 91XG, for both UHF & VHF a Winegard 8200. Height is everything. A tripod might work, but something higher is almost always a better choice.
....jc

Great, thanks for the advice. I'm going to run by radio shack on the way home and pick up a VU-75 XR and a 15-1892. I'm hoping I'll get lucky and one of those will work for me. If not, maybe I'll just go all out and read up on this DX stuff.

Try the following link;

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/sizing.html

Save your money! Neither of those antennas will likely do the job. As suggested read the HDTV Primer. A wealth of info there! Buy quality stuff from CM or Winegard(and others), and you'll likely have a better chance of success.
....jc

Well in that case, I'll just save up and try to get some really good gear and go from there. I wasn't really wanting to spend >$100 on this. With all the mounting stuff I'd have to do, and it being a rent house with no roof access, I guess it looks like I'll just have to wait if there are no viable indoor options. I should be in my own house in another 1.5 years, so might as well wait til then I suppose. Thanks anyway guys.

For deep fringe reception:
1) CM 4228 (UHF)
2) Wade-delhi VIP-306 (VHF)
3) CM titan 7777 preamp
4) 30' + (antenna height)
5) CM 9521a rotator

Note: Reception is difficult beyond 70 miles due to curvature of the earth

Not me. It should be as advertised. If it says open-box, then I know what to expect. I gave Solid Signal the lowest rating available on the BizRate survey which btw, was a big mistake for taking the bait for their survey. I'm suddenly getting bombarded with spam. You cannot even unsubscribe from BizRate. You click the Unsubscribe link and all you get are more opportunities for more surveys.

Any tried tilting the antenna (CM 4228) , or any other, up towards the tree (horizon) line ? This is another suggestion I've read. My antennna protection is up to date.

Josh, what's your zip code? What about the other Tyler digital stations?

I'm in 75693.

I went by radio shack on the way home and got one of their internal antennas. It was actually able to pull in the ABC from shreveport (54 miles away). I'd keep it, but it only gets two other stations and neither of those come in NEAR as well. BUT, this does give me SOME hope that an external ant will really work for the areas i'm trying to reach.

Hey gang,

SOmeone on the Chicago OTA board wants an antenna on his roof. Does anyone know of anyone who still does that stuff for residential housing in the area, besides the one in Morris?

Josh - antennaweb seems to be severely lacking in info on your local stations. There are at least four in Tyler - KLTV, KFXK, KYTX, KETK - alll with digital stations although a couple of them have not started HD yet ("soon"). You should be able to get all of those no problem. An outside antenna like the CM4228 with a rotator will give you the best shot at getting the distant stations. The CM4228 is UHF but with good performance down to channel 7 in the hi-VHF band.

Perhaps this is a dumb question. Here's my situation.

I am 6.8 miles from one tower that carries two channels I want, one uhf, the other Ch. 13 vhf. I am 4.8 miles from another tower that has two uhf channels I want. They are at 148 and 153 degrees, so in the scheme of the universe, practically right next to each other. I have several 30'+ trees in my yard between me and the towers, no other obstructions. If anything, the ground I am on is at a higher elevation than ground on which the towers sit.

I have an amplified indoor rabbit ear/ring uhf/vhf antenna that will pull any one of the stations in at 90 "signal strength". The prolem is that I cannot tune them all in at the same time, and a windy day forces me to SD cable reception. So I'd like to get a small outdoor antenna that will be more reliable in crappy weather.

Dumb question: Will a small UHF antenna, like the small Winegard 4400 or the larger 8800 pull in the VHF ch. 13?

I don't want a huge yagi style uhf/vhf antenna, so if I am stuck with a dual antenna, I'll probably go with the Winegard/Terk Squareshooter.

But if I can get away with it, I'd like to just get a cheaper, low profile UHF. So is it possible to get ch. 13 with a UHF?

Most UHF antennas will receive high band vhf (including ch 13). Some do a better job than others.

Check out the bottom of this page, there is a section about using common UHF antennas for high VHF reception:
http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/comparing.html

At your distance I would say you have a good shot at receiving ch 13 with a UHF antenna. But everyone's location is unique, topography and man-made obstructions greatly affect signal strength.

Best advice I can give is to purchase an antenna from a source which will accept returns. Watch out for restocking fees from Internet vendors. Then get a couple of sections of antenna mast (cheap from RS) and some sort of tripod mount. A bicycle repair stand can work well at providing a temporary base to which you can clamp the mast. With a 10 ft mast you should be able to get some idea of whether you can receive a good signal, prior to attempting a permanent install.

There is not a lot of TV out your way. In the attached document, if you look at the "Transmitter Antenna" column, the red line is pointing towards you. Knowing that, if you look at KETZ-DT, they are broadcasting away from you. (You are on the back-side of their antenna and will get very little signal from them.) A similar situation exists for KLTS-DT. Other stations, like KSHV-DT, are at low power and/or broadcasting from a low antenna. Again, a significantly reduced signal.


Bob

 

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Bob - I'm a bit confused here. One of my friends says there are three other stations in Longview/Tyler, all with digital transmissions - KFXK, KYTX and KETX. They don't show up on your report (or in antennaweb). Maybe this is because both programs use the same database and these stations are missing???

I'd like some advice on using antenna preamps and distribution amps.

I'm about 3-4 miles from most of the transmitters in my area I use for getting off the air digital signal via antenna. My Lat-Long is: 39.87 (39°52') | -86.1 (-86°8')

I have Zenith Silver Sensor antenna in my attic currently feeding a single TV, a Samsung HL-R6167. I get pretty good results with all the channels but do see occaisional drop outs on several at certain times of the season/day.

I also have regular analog cable and currently split that 3 ways, 1 to a cable modem, 1 to the HL-R6167 and 1 to another TV.

I'll soon have a need to feed more sources since I'm adding an HTPC to the mix. The PC will have a max of 2 HD tuners and 2 analog tuners.

I'll want to distribute my antenna signal to 3 places: the Samsung TV and the 2 PC tuners.

I'll want to distribute the analog cable to 4 places: the cable modem, the Samsung TV, and the 2 TV tuners. I don't care about the other tv for now....

I just started looking at preamps and distribution amps and have seen some recent talk about the Winegard HDP-269 which seems like it might be a good choice for my application to use for the antenna pre-amp given my close proximity and the HDP-269's particular features. I'd be interested in any comments and/or specific other recommendations about that.

I'm wondering about using a distribution amp following the HDP-269 and for the analog cable. I was thinking that I could then get rid of the splitter completely and that that would be a good thing. Is my thinking correct on this?

I was looking at the Channel Master 3044. Would that model be good choice? Maybe there's something better? I was also looking at the Channel Plus
DA-506BID. Are the antenna preamps and the distribution amps a 'get what you pay for' thing? Will a DA-506BID be better than a 3044. What about Radio Shack or Recoton? I was thinking in the case that one or more of these devices actually made things WORSE it might be nice to try out something I could get locally and could return without a restocking fee etc.

I'm unclear about one issue in general about using a preamp with an attic antenna, the physical proximity of the AC power outlet to the antenna itself.
I haven't found very good clear instruction at the various antenna preamp manufacturer websites I've checked (Channel Master, Winegard etc) but I
gather that in most cases an antenna preamp configuration assumes that AC power is NOT located particularly close to the actual antenna?

Would there be a significant advantage to having AC power in my attic near the antenna so the cable run from the preamp to the antenna could be kept very short? I could accomplish this easily as I have a friend who's an electrician and could easily install an AC outlet in the attic for the preamp if it would be a significant help. Would this make any difference depending on the model (Winegard HDP-269 vs Winegard 8700 vs Channel Master 7777) etc?

Re: my antenna and occaisional drop outs, I'm wondering if those are possibly multipath related. I've heard that some PC tuner cards can actually handle multipath issues significantly better than some TV tuners so I was hoping that I might see that kind of improvement on the HDTV inputs. On the otherhand I'd have no problem springing for a better/more appropriate antenna for an attic mount if it would be worthwhile and would be all ears on that

thanks for any comments,

--Don

texasbrit,

You can get info about those stations on the Official FCC website.

I'm looking at rotors right now. Are radio antenna rotors and tv antenna rotors basically the same? Will they do the same job? I have a UHF and VHF antenna that I'll need to mount. Preferably an automatic rotor if those work ok, but I didn't know if I need to be sure that I DON'T get a radio antenna rotor by accident.

The stations are there. Antennaweb is very conservative, it doesn't think that you'll be able to receive them. Take KFXK for instance. It's only broadcasting at 0.25kW if they haven't gone to full power yet. And, the digital antenna is only 27 meters above the terrain(the analog antenna is 381 meters).
....jc

The Radio Shack and Channel Master rotors are physically about the same. In fact, I think they buy the rotor mechanism from the same manufacturer.

The only cheap rotor product I personally have ever had trouble with was the controller box with the Centronnix rotors, but they don't even make those any more.

A few years ago, there was a temporary rotor supply problem because of some problem the consumer rotors were having and their manufacture was temporarily suspended, but I have heard no complaints since then.

The only time someone might have a problem with residential-grade rotors is if they develop a significant strain on the rotor, which can happen with multiple antennas or antennas with reflector screens (Channel Master 4221, 4228), but ordinarily, if you cut the mast piece that the antenna is mounted to short (typically, 2 feet or less, you shouldn't have a problem.

If you have to make it much longer because of the vertical span of your antenna array, you can buy a thrust bearing for, I think, around $40 that will solve the leverage problem.

The "better choice" rotor in the furnished link costs over $1,200. I'd move to another house in another market where I wouldn't need such an antenna before I'd pay $1,200 for an antenna rotor.