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So, a few months ago I bought a RCA ANT751 OTA antenna to see what I could catch. My tvFool is:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...81a39c87ddef80
I liked what I saw, and decided to get an antenna for my Father-In-Law for Christmas (I know, cheezy, but he recently moved and can't get his old channels via DirecTV). Went with the Winegard HD7694P. Since their prices are very similar, I thought a comparison would be nice. Before getting into my data, my setup is as follows:
The antennas were mounted in my attic near the highest ridge. This equals about 40 ft above street level (South Louisiana=houses built on top of mounds of dirt--lessons learned from hurricanes
![]()
). Roof is wood beams, plywood, then paper and asphalt shingles. Both antennas were mounted at about 70 degrees (If you check out my tvfool, that's where my channels of interest are located at). 70 degrees would put it facing one of the longer asphalt shingle sides. From there its about 40 ft of quad-shield rg-6 through the wall to my outlet. From the outlet its a short lead of more rg-6 to a 2/1 coax switch (found much less loss from this than a splitter). One lead goes to my DirecTv AM-21, the other goes straight to my TV a Samsung UN55B7000WF. Data on channels caught will be from both the AM-21 and TV.
All signal strength is purely numeric based on the tuner. Now, the raw data:
And to satisfy my curiosity, I pointed the HD7694P due west:
I didn't test the ANT751 west, just wanted to see if the bigger antenna would pick more channels up. The HD7694P did not...
Finally, the ultimate comparison. A bare coax not connected to an antenna(to my surprise I caught a few channels
![]()
) It was just laying there in the attic along a few support beams.
Some things that may throw a wrench in my findings: The ANT751 had lots of room "to breathe" as it is SIGNIFICANTLY smaller than the HD7694P. 65" length compared to 35". At times some elements of the HD7694P came close to the wood beams (although care was taken to ensure it did not touch during my test). Weather appears to not have been an issue; A cold front passed through the area yesterday, and all stations caught were in the same high as I was. Also, just the fact that it was mounted in my attic has probably skewed the results. There is no large objects around the mount, except for the hot water heater and A/C unit (but both are about 10 feet below the mount).
Considering the size of the HD7694P, I'm not very impressed. The ANT751 at times outperforms the much larger, heavier unit. It also appears the HD7694P is much more directional.
Also, Samsung's OTA tuner appears to be superior to the AM-21 (although the DirecTV unit does split the signal into 2 tuners).
And if anyone is interested in getting the SWS2081W/27 Philips UHF VHF FM 18dB Signal Amplifier with Return Path, don't waste your time or money. I got higher signals without than with. I should have expected so with a Walmart product.
Forgive the length of the thread, and hope the information can be of use to someone in the market for an OTA antenna.
Brad
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...81a39c87ddef80
I liked what I saw, and decided to get an antenna for my Father-In-Law for Christmas (I know, cheezy, but he recently moved and can't get his old channels via DirecTV). Went with the Winegard HD7694P. Since their prices are very similar, I thought a comparison would be nice. Before getting into my data, my setup is as follows:
The antennas were mounted in my attic near the highest ridge. This equals about 40 ft above street level (South Louisiana=houses built on top of mounds of dirt--lessons learned from hurricanes
All signal strength is purely numeric based on the tuner. Now, the raw data:
| ANT751 on AM-21 |
| WBRZ 97% |
| KATC 100 |
| WAFB 88 |
| KLFY 87 |
| KADN 100 |
| KLPB 100 |
| WVLA 79 |
| WLPB 67 |
| KLWB 100 |
| WGMB 49 |
| HD7694P on AM-21 |
| WBRZ 100% |
| KATC 92 |
| WAFB 85 |
| KLFY 100 |
| KADN 71 |
| KLPB 80 |
| WVLA 80 |
| WLPB 80 |
| KLWB 90 |
| WGMB 54 |
| ANT751 on TV |
| WBRZ 100% |
| KATC 100 |
| KXKWCA (analog station) not caught |
| KPLC 40 |
| WAFB 100 |
| KLFY 100 |
| KADN 100 |
| KLPB 100 |
| KXKWLD 50 |
| WVLA 100 |
| WLPB 60 |
| KAJN 100 |
| WBMB 40 |
| KLAF (analog) clear |
| KBTV (analog) fuzzy |
| KLWB 100 |
| HD7694P on TV |
| WBRZ 100% |
| KATC 100 |
| KXKWCA (analog station) slightly snowy |
| KPLC 20 |
| WAFB 100 |
| KLFY 100 |
| KADN 100 |
| KLPB 100 |
| KXKWLD 30 |
| WVLA 100 |
| WLPB 80 |
| KAJN 70 |
| WGMB 50 |
| KLAF (analog) very snowy |
| KBTV (analog) not caught |
| KLWB 100 |
And to satisfy my curiosity, I pointed the HD7694P due west:
| ANT751 on TV |
| WBRZ 10% |
| KATC 100 |
| KXKWCA (analog station) very clear |
| KPLC 100 |
| WAFB 50 |
| KLFY 100 |
| KADN 100 |
| KLPB 100 |
| KXKWLD50 |
| WVLA 20 |
| WLPB not caught |
| KAJN 100 |
| WGMB not caught |
| KLAF (analog) clear |
| KBTV (analog) not caught |
| KLWB 100 |
I didn't test the ANT751 west, just wanted to see if the bigger antenna would pick more channels up. The HD7694P did not...
Finally, the ultimate comparison. A bare coax not connected to an antenna(to my surprise I caught a few channels
| KATC 100% |
| KLFY 30 |
| KADN 100 |
| KLPB 40 |
| KXKWLD 10 |
| KLAF (analog) fuzzy |
| KLWB 100 |
Some things that may throw a wrench in my findings: The ANT751 had lots of room "to breathe" as it is SIGNIFICANTLY smaller than the HD7694P. 65" length compared to 35". At times some elements of the HD7694P came close to the wood beams (although care was taken to ensure it did not touch during my test). Weather appears to not have been an issue; A cold front passed through the area yesterday, and all stations caught were in the same high as I was. Also, just the fact that it was mounted in my attic has probably skewed the results. There is no large objects around the mount, except for the hot water heater and A/C unit (but both are about 10 feet below the mount).
Considering the size of the HD7694P, I'm not very impressed. The ANT751 at times outperforms the much larger, heavier unit. It also appears the HD7694P is much more directional.
Also, Samsung's OTA tuner appears to be superior to the AM-21 (although the DirecTV unit does split the signal into 2 tuners).
And if anyone is interested in getting the SWS2081W/27 Philips UHF VHF FM 18dB Signal Amplifier with Return Path, don't waste your time or money. I got higher signals without than with. I should have expected so with a Walmart product.
Forgive the length of the thread, and hope the information can be of use to someone in the market for an OTA antenna.
Brad
