[ErMaC]

Some of you may have read my post about a week ago.


Unfortunately I have currently found myself in a very particular situation. The housing office at my apartment complex does not allow any antennas/dishes/whatever to be attatched to the building itself (so I can't stick an antenna on the roof) and the only place I would have to stick an antenna would be on my little patio area.


I am on the ground floor, and my little patio area is plenty big for an antenna. Basically the space I have to work with is a 8ftx8ftx8ft cube, at ground level, with some trees around me. I'm at the edge of my property, so there are only a couple trees or so, but it's still a problem.


What should I buy to place outside on my patio to pickup DTV signals? And where should I point it?


I live in Santa Ana, CA, at 1601 W. MacArthur Blvd in one of the apartments there. The window onto my Patio faces South =( which means very little likelyhood of line-of-sight to Mt. Wilson or anything.


Is there anything I can do?

 

[Prjoy]

ErMac,

For direcTV on the 101 Degree and 119 Degree sat positions are as follows:


City: SANTA ANA

State: CA

Zip: 92701

Latitude: 33.7502°N

Longitude: 117.8577°W


Satellite: 101.0°W

Azimuth: 151.4°

Elevation: 46.8°


Satellite: 119.0°W - Also for Dish network

Azimuth: 182.1°

Elevation: 50.7°


You should have no problem clearing the trees around your patio. As for the broadcast stations, the closest stations are LA at 35 miles at a bearing of 340 degrees. Does your apartment have windows on the north wall or are you land locked in the south side? Signals look like they would be strong enough to support an antenna on the inside of the house. It can be done. First choice of course is the out side. Best thing to do is using a simple 3 dollar UHF dipole from Radio Shack and some coax and matching transformer. Attach it to your receiver and try different locations in and out side of your apartment. It is common to find a hot spot where the signals from all or most stations work with out problems. As for the sat dish. Just find a good location on your patio that allows you to see the part of the sky with the azimuth and elevation shown above. The elliptical dish will get both sats. Now if your are going with dish the bearing will not be much different. The 119 Degree sat is the same for both, but here are the one for Dish.


Satellite: 110.0°W

Azimuth: 166.0°

Elevation: 49.9°

Satellite: 148.0°W - requires second dish

Azimuth: 226.3°

Elevation: 39.2°


OTA requires some experimentation on your part. A good antenna to get is from APS (Antenna Performance Specialities) They are very good antennas and handle multipath very well. Used one in my attic for a while.


Here is the web site:
http://www.antennaperformance.com/new/


Look for the UHF antenna section and either the U60 or U92 model will do well. Does not require a heavy structure to mount it as they are very light.


I use the U92 and it is the best performer of any UHF antenna I have used in the last 2 years of watching OTA HDTV.


Good luck. e-mail me if you have other any questions.


Pat



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HDjunky