[jcthomas]

A friend is being relocated to the Boston area (Rutland MA). He presently enjoys OTA HDTV at his existing home and would to get set up at his new residence. He is looking for a good antenna installer in the Boston/Rutland area. Recommendations anyone?


Regards.

 

[Prelude2k]

Hi jcthomas,


Rutland isn't exactly that close to Boston at all, it's about 60 or so miles away, in the Worcester area. Your friends best bet would probably to go to Starks Electronics in Worcester and pick up and antenna and ask if they know of any installers in Worcester. I don't live to far from Rutland, and had absolutely no problems putting up an antenna and pointing it to Boston. I get all the Boston locals with a roof top antenna with an amplifier which didn't take long to point at all.


-Mike

 

[jcthomas]

Prelude2k: Thanks you for the reply: Which antenna and pre-amp are you using? I suggested that he consider the Channel Master 4248 UHF antenna from Stark with a UHF only Winegard pre-amp (4700) but would like to hear of your real-time experience. Thanks again for your help.


Regards,

 

[Prelude2k]

I actually have two antennas on the roof right now. One of them was purchased from Starks about 15+ yrs ago that my father had put up, so I don't remember the exact model number of that or the amplifier. It's a dish shaped directional antenna mounted on the roof (sorta like the UHF TV ANTENNA CONNOR REFLECTOR on their WWW site), and it's split about 4 times to different TVs in the house. All the Boston stations come in with that one about 70 - 95% signal strength. The 2nd antenna is a cheap 7' UHf/VHF from radio shack with their standard outdoor amplifier with internal power source. This antenna is pointed to pick up a PBS station (WGBY) in Springfield which is exact opposite direction of Boston, and I use a jointenna from Starks to connect the two. If I do point the cheap Radio Shack antenna towards Boston, it's the same strength as the dish shaped antenna.


-Mike

 

[jcthomas]

The titantv site lists the Boston PBS (ch 19) as on the air now. Is Boston ch 19 not broadcasting HDTV or is there some other reason to go for the Springfield Station?

 

[Prelude2k]

Yes it does broadcast HDTV, however I put up the antennna before they started broadcasting since WGBY has been broadcasting for awhile. WGBH also multicasts ALL the time, so the quality isn't as good as WGBY which currently shuts off multicasting when HDTV programming is on. There is also an analog channel 19 in Western Mass. that occasionally conflicts with me since WGBH isn't at full power, so it breaks up occasionally.



-Mike