Updated TV Antenna Thoughts

[Oldpath05]

I have been using a PCT MA2-4P amplifier for about 3 years with good results. $35 on Amazon.

Is this the one you have must go behind TV ehh?>> Amazon.com: PCT 1-PORT BI-DIRECTIONAL CABLE TV HDTV AMPLIFIER SIGNAL BOOSTER WITH PASSIVE RETURN PATH: Electronics

 

[KYErik]

I was living in Salem, IL and was able to pull in most channels out of St. Louis (75 miles away) using a large "traditional" 60 mile rated RCA antenna on a 7 foot pole and an RCA preamplifier with FM trap. Without the pre-amplifier, I could get no channels. Aiming the antenna properly was essential. I also tried a basic amplifier- but that made the signal worse. Some days the signal was better than others- but I got most of the stations 80% of the time. I was so far away that electrical interference was an issue. On many days, reception on some stations would suddenly get bad around 9am but then improve by 3-4pm- rain or shine. I guessed that shop between me and the radio station was running some equipment.

TVfool.com is a good website for seeing what type of antenna signals you can expect at your address. Despite the name, it is a reputable website.

 

[George2615]

I have 2 of these antennas with built in amplifier and rotor
HDTV Outdoor Amplified Antenna HD TV Rotor Remote 360 deg UHF/VHF/FM 150 Miles | eBay
One on my garage roof tripod about 30' off the ground. Picks up 36 HD digital channels from stations 70-90 miles away.

Bought a second one for my travel trailer. Mounted on to a removable mast pole on rear bumper. At 15' off the ground I get 26 channels. Works much better than the factory camper winguard bat wing antenna.

Check on TVfool as mentioned for OTA stations in your area.

 

[lakngulf]

I finally settled on the HD Stacker antenna with the Winegard LNA 200 preamplifier.
Had good email conversation with the guy who sells the HD Stacker and gave it a try.

Put it together today with a make shift arrangement

Worked like a charm

One of the suggestions made was to disconnect power to the amplifier to see if it was working. I was shocked. With it off I lost the picture I was viewing. Happy so far. Now to get it installed on a pre existing pole as high as possible.

 

[frugalangler]

One of the suggestions made was to disconnect power to the amplifier to see if it was working. I was shocked. With it off I lost the picture I was viewing. Happy so far. Now to get it installed on a pre existing pole as high as possible.

That isn't really a valid test, as the amplifier will not pass the signal thru when not powered, you'd need to remove it from inline to do that A/B test.

 

[lakngulf]

That isn't really a valid test, as the amplifier will not pass the signal thru when not powered, you'd need to remove it from inline to do that A/B test.

Shows how much I know. The stations I picked up are 40 - 60 miles away. I was able to get stations from North and South, with the antenna pointed north. Maybe the tractor FEL was a good conductor.

 

[cqaigy2]

Looks pretty good! Only thing i'd suggest is another tractor, in case you need to do a little work around the place. I had to try a number of locations for the antenna, before i found a spot that worked for the channels i wanted to receive. Your going to love how good the pictures look on the HD channels, nature and sports shows, look great. No compression on the OTA like there is on sat and cable.

 

[RalphVa]

Have tried several. None work very well or any better than rabbit ears. Use DirecTV to get local channels as the most reliable.

Ralph

 

[lakngulf]

Have tried several. None work very well or any better than rabbit ears. Use DirecTV to get local channels as the most reliable.

Ralph

There are websites where you enter your exact address and get an idea of what is available and strength. tvfool.com is one.
A very good one is DTV Reception Maps | Federal Communications Commission

I currently have the DirectTV local channels (Family Plan). I get more local channels with the antenna, clearer picture, and cost payback will be only six months.

 

[buickanddeere]

I have taken over my Mom's farm house and plan now to disconnect Direct TV and go with OTA antenna. Will be at the house for summer gardening and fall/winter hunting so TV programming needs have greatly reduced, after my Mom's passing in August. Some time back I posted a thread and was about to settle on a Winegard HD7698P or Channel Master CM-4228HD EXTREMEtenna 80.
I am about equa-distance between Montgomery and Birmingham channels, but the websites show Bham to be a bit better.

Now I go to Winegard website, run the address test and they recommend this:

Supposedly, it has some built in amplification and works great (according to several reviews).

Anybody have experience with this antenna? What do you think?

I put one of those little critters on the eve, about a foot above the peak of my Daughter's house in Sarnia. Surrounded by tall trees with heavy leaf cover. I wanted to install the top rated channel 7-51 Winegard HD7698P but she started to chirp about an " Ugly Antenna". I had my doubts that something that small and unobtrusive would work. Much to my surprise it does alright, in fact very good considering the low cost and small size.
The cable from the antenna to the TV is critical. The Amazon shipper slipped a cheapo RG-59 into the order instead of the RG-6 requested and paid for. After the daughter kinked the cable into a mess in a door frame ( don't ask ) I installed a RG-6 from Walmart. Picked up two more transmitters with the low loss cable.
Picks up everything from Detroit except FOX and CW plus the local stations. One of these days I'll extend the antenna 6 or 8ft higher into the air as an experiment. So far 9 transmitters received with a total of 25 channels.
She has high speed internet so most TV viewing is via a Kodi Box and a Fire Stick. Every now and again the Kodi crashes and they use the antenna. If they want local news, weather, sports etc they switch to antenna.
If you keep in mind that the Flat Wave is a modest antenna designed to received near and medium distance transmitters, it is an excellent unit.

 

[buickanddeere]

I looked at things with that zipcode and it does favor Birmingham. The only advantage with the Winegard HD8400P is that it would be better for FM radio and WVUA channel 6 if you want to receive that. Otherwise, I would still stick with the HD769xP models. The HD8400P is also a much wider antenna.

The Stacker is simply a VHF-High antenna and a UHF antenna mounted together. It will have the same channel 6 problem as above. If size is an issue, the HD7694P is nearly the same size and offers almost the same gains as the Stacker, and far less mounting and weather problems.

The biggest issue is going to be what kind of terrain do you have to deal with and how high can you get the antenna. Also, the longer the antenna boom and the higher the gain, the more directional the antenna will become.

The channel 7-51 antenna have the advantage of not receiving as much of the FM radio broadcast band. The FM radio signal causes tuner overload and intermode interference . The absence of the channel 2-6 elements makes the antenna much smaller and less susceptible to wind and ice damage.
As previously stated, a good antenna mounted amplifier is vital.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I bought a $50 RCA antenna that is supposed to pick up VHF too, but I still can't get Fox7 Austin from about 50 miles away. I get all the other channels easily, even with the cheapie UHF $24 dollar antenna. But just can't get the Fox7...

 

[lakngulf]

I bought a $50 RCA antenna that is supposed to pick up VHF too, but I still can't get Fox7 Austin from about 50 miles away. I get all the other channels easily, even with the cheapie UHF $24 dollar antenna. But just can't get the Fox7...

Interesting that Fox is your most difficult to pick up. When I tested the first time I did not get my Fox6 Birmingham, and no Fox20 Montgomery. I had to aim the antenna just right to get it. Still have issues with PBS, which is ok.
Now I have my antenna in its final location, aim it just right and I have Fox6 Bham, NBC Bham, CBS from Bham and Montgomery, and three ABCs. Plus the other channels that go along with them, and PBS seems ok in new location.
Why did I use this location? Because this is where there was a splice in the Direct TV cable run into the house. I checked and they ran RG6 all the way so this saved my having to purchase cable and make the crazy run into the house. I am a happy camper now

 

[TractorGuy]

I have an Antennas Direct 8 bay bowtie antenna on a rotator that is no longer made. The power and direction signals are sent through the coax so I didn't have to run any additional wires. Our PBS station is almost 180* from the other stations but I have the antenna somewhere in between and it picks them all up without moving it unless the wind blows hard or we get heavy rain. None of our station towers are over 30 miles away with the primary stations about 15. Our direct TV dish was mounted on a mast on the peak eave of the house so I took the dish off and used the mast and coax left behind for the antenna.

 

[bunyip]

We run VHF and UHF on digital TV and now operate on bands 3-4-5, prior to digital there was band 2 with a few band 1.
We are fringe and run a Log Periodic band 3-4-5 (it varies depending upon location, repeaters etc) and I find they are physically compact yet offer high gain, not as directional as a yagi and nowhere near as bulky as a phased array.
Without amplification and running an eight way splitter we have an output of 55dbuv average across all channels.
The TV's vary but most of the better models will operate at a low level like quoted, some of the cheaper units give in at below 65dbuv and will need an amp.
Typically a Log Periodic (Fracarro LP 345 in our case) offers 9db gain which is not bad for something that is only 1 metre long, as a bonus they are a 75 ohm antenna so do not need a balun and come with a waterproof 'F' connector.
Apart from that we run Netflix on NBN fibre optic through the broadband network.

 

[lakngulf]

We run VHF and UHF on digital TV and now operate on bands 3-4-5, prior to digital there was band 2 with a few band 1.
We are fringe and run a Log Periodic band 3-4-5 (it varies depending upon location, repeaters etc) and I find they are physically compact yet offer high gain, not as directional as a yagi and nowhere near as bulky as a phased array.
Without amplification and running an eight way splitter we have an output of 55dbuv average across all channels.
The TV's vary but most of the better models will operate at a low level like quoted, some of the cheaper units give in at below 65dbuv and will need an amp.
Typically a Log Periodic (Fracarro LP 345 in our case) offers 9db gain which is not bad for something that is only 1 metre long, as a bonus they are a 75 ohm antenna so do not need a balun and come with a waterproof 'F' connector.
Apart from that we run Netflix on NBN fibre optic through the broadband network.

Huh? You lost me

 

[grsthegreat]

We live way in the boondocks...far from any antenna and in the trees. I bought this Winegard FlatWave Amped Digital HD Indoor Amplified TV Antenna-FL55S - The Home Depot
From home depot, and it works great. We now get 15 over the air stations, very goid quality picture. I hooked it up thru my tv hub box and get reception on 5 tvs with 1 antenna.

 

[bunyip]

Huh? You lost me

Frequencies are allocated into bands so band 3 is the upper range of VHF from channel 5a to 13 (could be 12).
The remainder are the UHF frequencies but I cannot recall the cut off but I think it is about channel 32 for band 4.
It is an international standard with some minor variants such as we use PAL and 625 lines whereas you use NTSC and I think 525 lines but frequencies are essentially the same.
There are a multitude of antennas on the market some of which are extremely directional and others offer very high gain.
dbuv is decibels microvolts which is the measure of the signal strength as it enters the TV from the wallplate/outlet.
My apologies but I used to be an electronics tech before I entered the medical profession back in the early 70's and I still dabble in it.
NBN is our high speed internet system owned and mismanaged by the government to give us all a better deal, it is proving to be a dismal failure but we are stuck with it and being government owned could we expect anything else?

 

[MossRoad]

Huh? You lost me

He's down under...

 

[bunyip]

No I'm not