digital antenna for OTA?

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Holy Cow! Find a new installer. A CM 4228 is one of the best antennas available. As far as distance, U don't know until U try. I receive a station from 147 miles(but the mountains are no doubt helping).
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Answered nicely by SD73. All you need is an antenna the receives UHF and/or VHF frequencies.


BTW, Tim there is an Official Antenna Topic!

....jc

I'd done alot of searching about antennas and had not seen reference to a "digital" antenna. After listening to him expound for a while about how the cm 4228 was not the right kind of antenna for hidef, which was counter to what I'd read for a few years, I began to wonder if he really knew what he was talking about. But I gave him the benefit of a doubt with regards to what was possible in this area since he'd been installing antennas for a long time. He said I'd have trouble in this area even with a 40ft tower, which I have trouble believing because the terrain around here is perfectly flat.


What I don't understand is why I get a perfectly good signal with a $70, battery powered, hand held, 2.5" tv on the station that is 30 miles away, and nothing from that station when I hook up the cm4228 to my television. Granted, I have not put the amplifier (cm7777) in-line, but I thought I'd get a little bit of signal. Instead, I get snow. Tomorrow, I am going to do some testing with increasingly longer sections of RG6 to see if it is an amplification issue. If the handheld tv can get the 30 mile station perfectly fine right next to the tv in the house, I should also be able to get it with the cm4228 in the same spot, right?

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Yea, just like the plumbers out here that think they know how to install heating systems.
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You are obviously talking analog, so you've got a bad installation. Whether it's a bad connection, too long of a coax lead, or really bad pointing, something is wrong.
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Right. Maybe not the same quality, but the station station should be viewable.


How long is the coax run from the outdoor antenna position to the tv? How high was the 4228 mounted(above ground)?

....jc

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That is pretty much what the installer was saying. He sounded very matter of fact about it.


What I first did was take that handheld television all over the place to see what kind of reception was possible. I checked on the ground, in the attic (~17ft high), and on the roof (~25 ft high). I was able to get the 30 mile station pretty well in the attic and on the roof. What I mean by that is the picture was clear, as clear looking as possible for a 2.5" LCD tv, and constant regardless of orientation. It faded only slightly on the ground if I moved around. So this made me optomistic about my chances.


I never gave much hope for the 70 mile stations initially. But when I got PBS (~70 miles), I thought otherwise. NBC and CBS are in the VHF range, so I wasn't expecting to pick them up. However, on the roof, if oriented correctly, I got a pretty good picture for CBS. The tv never once locked onto NBC. BTW, the ABC station is ~30 miles.


My preferred location is the attic because I don't want a fight with the HOA.


So I placed a tripod in the attic, attached the antenna to a mast, and put it into the tripod. The rg6 run was about 100' with 3 splices, including the balun/rg6 connection. I rotated the antenna and nothing gave any semblence of a picture for ABC. That was demoralizing. It was after this that I called a local installer to get his take on the situation.


I realize that the attic isn't the best location, but it is the one I prefer for a few different reasons. The problem is most likely orientation since the antenna is directional. The little hand-held I'm sure is omni-directional. In fact, the installer recommended getting one of those saucer-shaped antennas that are commonly seen on campers, primarily because it is omnidirectional, but also because it was "digital".


I just wondered if I was missing something when he kept harping on a digital antenna. I didn't think I was, but I decided to do some checking any way.


Tim

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Richard,


40 miles isn't nearly as tough as you seem to feel. I'm currently right at 40 miles with a medium radioshack antenna, in my attic, with snow on the roof today, and able to pick up a 2.5Kw digital channel (temporary license) without amplifier. Fortunately it is in the lower UHF (channel 28).


Granted, if the towers weren't on the highest transmission point in the US (and the most inhospitable!) and I didn't have a clear line of sight from my attic, I would have to go with an outdoor and a mast. But the point is, I can get it.


When I lived in the midwest hinterlands (not a derogatory, I very much liked living in the midwest), I pulled in an analog high UHF channel from 70 miles with a simple mast on my roof. Admittedly, there I did have a big radioshack antenna.


Anyway, have a Happy Holidays everyone!

Tom

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Well.....that was precisely the problem. The tv was set to cable. I switched that off, and "viola!", there was the ABC channel. Boy do I feel like an idiot! I switched it this morning after wrestling the antenna through the attic access and taking it outside. Soooooo, I wrestled it back up into the attic and put everything back into place.


I'm going to wait until Monday evening, MNF, to determine whether or not to put the amplifier in place.


NBC (5), CBS (12) are pretty snowy, but they are there. I wonder if I'd be able to get them if I was to put up an omnidirectional VHF? A yagi would be a tight fit in my attic.


As for the local installer, he is not really up to date when it comes to HDTV reception, although I pretty much began to realize that the more I listened to him. He is right though in that the NBC and CBS stations are a reach. They may not come in well enough....but I'd need a VHF to know for sure.


Thanks to everybody for your suggestions and help!


Tim

Tim,


A couple of very good sites: http://www.2150.com/broadcast/ , http://antennaweb.org , and http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/programming/broadcast.php . Collectively they will tell you many good things about the size of the antenna you need and how hard it will be for you to get the signals. I just checked antenna web for zip 32960 and it does not look very good for your being able to get digitals at the 70 range. You definitely would need an outdoor mast, large antenna, and amplifier to lock in well.


I don't know the terrain in that part of FL, if you've got hills then you're not going to be very lucky. The good news is you might be in the West Palm Beach DMA which hopefully will be going up on Directv's HD locals by the middle of next year.


Good luck and Happy Holidays,

Tom