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Old 03-01-2015, 03:15 PM
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Arcanine Arcanine is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
Posts: 281
Antenna Shopping!

Okay. Here is what I have to work with;

I live in Pell Lake, Wisconsin. I'm 58 miles from most of the Chicago transmission antennas (John Hancock & Sears Tower), and 44 miles from the Milwaukee antenna farm.

I have a small radio tower in my backyard, to the top, is 20 feet in the air.

While I was out in Portland, Oregon, I did a little Goodwill shopping and I got a brand new Insignia DTV Converter box. I was looking for this model specifically, because it has good reviews and it's actually very sensitive, and responsive. I got it for $14.99, brand new!

Just for the hell of it, I hooked it up to my outside FM (88-108mhz) omni-directional antenna to see if I can grab anything, and to my complete and total surprise I get quite a lot of signals. Both from Milwaukee, and Chicago. It works better when the sun goes down, I can get the lower channels fine after it's dark. During the day I can only get a couple of the high channels.

So I am shopping for a good, outdoor, antenna that will serve my needs.

I like the ones that have the small rotor built in, since I am between Chicago and Milwaukee, and both are with in range of reception, so I like to be able to aim the antenna at either city if I like.

I come from the era of, the bigger and higher your TV beam is, the clearer your picture is and the more channels you can get. I don't see the need for a monster beam anymore, given I get so much off a little FM antenna.

What are good choices?
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