DTV Antenna Location

[holmesuser01]

I thought I would never be posting anything in the digital forum, but here goes...

I finally cut the satellite TV service after 8 years. The commercial load, and lack of anything other than Roseanne, The Golden Girls, and a couple of others made me do it. This and the price increase notice.

For now, I've got a little ad-on Zenith DTV tuner connected to rabbit ears, and running on my 32" Sanyo CRT set. I'm going to have to install a better antenna to pick up the stations that are about 65 miles away, in our viewing market.

I still have my antenna rotor unit. I can install it on the chimney like the old antenna was, or....

What do you think of installing the antenna in the attic? There is room for it. Would the asphalt shingles cause any problems?

Also, I need some suggestions on a good antenna for this.

Thanks!!

[jbattles]

i still use my analog outside antenna it works better than the new ones and I pick Atlanta stations which are 90 miles away from me. I ditched the dish a year ago and don't miss it.

[electroking]

You understand most stations are on UHF, so you do need an antenna with UHF
elements. Locating it in the attic is certainly better than near the ground.
Good luck!

[jr_tech]

Plug your location into "TV Fool" for an estimate... If you can roof mount, It will be better than attic, 65 miles is a long distance for ATSC digital. A Rotor is always good!

http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?opti...pper&Itemid=29

jr

[old_tv_nut]

Some distant cable head ends are getting better results with digital than they did with analog, but I believe those results are reliable because the antennas are always mounted very high. In your case, you are over the horizon, and will quite likely see some time of day variations as refraction changes. Very early in digital, we did an experiment/demonstration from the PBS transmitters north of Milwaukee to an approximately 200 foot high (IIRC) receive antenna in Glenview, IL, a distance of about 75 miles. We were about 15 miles short of line of sight (this I do recall). We typically saw reception problems around 5-6 pm as the solar heating was lessening. There is no substitute for height, so I would recommend roof mounted, both because there will be no attenuation and because it's higher than the attic.

[DavGoodlin]

Also make sure you use RG-6 cable and a mast-mounted pre amplifier helps tremendously.

[Ed in Tx]

If the TV transmitter antenna is at 1500 ft, and your receive antenna is 20 ft, the total "line of sight" is 61 miles. Several things can effect that like topographics, buildings, atmospheric conditions.

You can play with the numbers here...

http://www.qsl.net/kd4sai/distance.html

[holmesuser01]

Good ideas here.

When the transition was happening, the broadcasters all said that rabbit ears would be all that was necessary to receive crystal clear reception. Well, here in the mountains, most folks I know have some real BIG roof antennas. I had one, too, but took it down when I installed the satellite. My house looks so much better without a big monster antenna up there...

When DTV came on, after analog went away, I got all kinds of calls for service because suddenly, nobody around here could get more than 2-3 channels anymore, using the rabbit ears. Alot of us got a dish.

I'm going to use RG-6 cable. It's still run up to the roof. A UHF antenna is much smaller than the VHF was. I need to pick something out to buy.

My house is on a ridge. The entire area is in a plateau with taller mountains all the way around us.

We've never gotten but one Tennessee station due to these mountains, so I have to aim for the South Carolina channels.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by holmesuser01

A UHF antenna is much smaller than the VHF was. I need to pick something out to buy.

From the TVFool analysis, it appears that you might have several VHF channels to contend with... perhaps a UHF only antenna would not be the best choice. Several models are available that are designed for UHF and High VHF that are considerably smaller than those that include Low VHF. When the FCC "repacks" the TV spectrum, and moves the channels away from the upper UHF, It might be desirable to have Low VHF as well!

jr

[AUdubon5425]

I have rabbit ears on my window sill above the TV - you can see several transmitter antennas from that window. Still, in a heavy storm, reception screws up.

Oh yeah, gave up cable 3 years ago; don't miss it a bit.

[earlyfilm]

Originally Posted by holmesuser01

What do you think of installing the antenna in the attic? There is room for it. Would the asphalt shingles cause any problems?

I live 50-80 miles away from the transmitters and I get a good digital signal with a rabbit ears on top of my set for all the UHF digital channels.

I had an old UHF DB-2 and I switched that for the rabbit ears. Still on top of my TV, it worked better and it gave me a perfect picture better than 99% of the time. So, to get a picture for the remaining time, I purchased DB-8 and mounted it in my attic. Duh, worse reception! Thinking my new antenna had a mechanical problem, I brought it down and tested it on top of my set. It works fine there and gives a stronger signal than the DB-2.

Conclusion: The shingles absorbed more signal than the brick siding, which I found damned astounding! This conflicts sharply with my previous analog UHF experience in both Memphis and Dayton, OH, where I used the same old DB-2 in my attic for distant analog UHF PBS stations.

With today's digital, you should not have any problem getting the stations on UHF, but those few misguided stations that chose to remain on the VHF bands are now impossible to get even with the biggest VHF mid-band that I can get my hands on, and those two problem stations are CBS (WUSA) and ABC (WJLA).

James

[holmesuser01]

Originally Posted by earlyfilm

I live 50-80 miles away from the transmitters and I get a good digital signal with a rabbit ears on top of my set for all the UHF digital channels.

I had an old UHF DB-2 and I switched that for the rabbit ears. Still on top of my TV, it worked better and it gave me a perfect picture better than 99% of the time. So, to get a picture for the remaining time, I purchased DB-8 and mounted it in my attic. Duh, worse reception! Thinking my new antenna had a mechanical problem, I brought it down and tested it on top of my set. It works fine there and gives a stronger signal than the DB-2.

Conclusion: The shingles absorbed more signal than the brick siding, which I found damned astounding! This conflicts sharply with my previous analog UHF experience in both Memphis and Dayton, OH, where I used the same old DB-2 in my attic for distant analog UHF PBS stations.

With today's digital, you should not have any problem getting the stations on UHF, but those few misguided stations that chose to remain on the VHF bands are now impossible to get even with the biggest VHF mid-band that I can get my hands on, and those two problem stations are CBS (WUSA) and ABC (WJLA).

James

I've got an asphalt shingle roof and was suspicious of signal loss thru them. Either way, I've got to do a roof antenna, again.

[Username1]

Also, don't forget that when they all went digital, the fcc allowed them all to cut power back. The idea was that the overall quality of the picture would be greater to a large majority of viewers, and that people in fringe areas previously would not need to be covered now because the signal cliff would be occurring far closer to the transmitter, if you are looking at the coverage maps.... The end result, You will need a larger antenna with digital, than you needed with analog. And higher antennas now is even more important.

Also, new VHF antennas are smaller because they did away with the lower VHF frequencies.

For quality reception for me, I want from Analog Radio Shack $21. Color Special 40 mile UHF 30 Mile VHF antenna to a deep fringe HD7698P to get most of the original channels.... Had to go from second floor closet mounted antenna, to 15 feet above the roof with the new one.

I'm 60 miles from the NYC transmitters.

It will be interesting to see what happens when they move to the new WTC they will be approx, 500 feet higher with their transmitters. They have all applied to lower their power, but the coverage looks to be the same, some better, some worse.... I guess I'll see.... 2014??

The strange thing is that summer reception is better, less drop outs, more stations are full time good watchable stations.....

Never had cable/dish tv.

[W3XWT]

"but those few misguided stations that chose to remain on the VHF bands are now impossible to get even with the biggest VHF mid-band that I can get my hands on, and those two problem stations are CBS (WUSA) and ABC (WJLA)."

At my current QTH in Virginia, on a clear day I can stand on my roof and see the tower at 4010 Chesapeake St. N.W. (the site for WJLA and WUSA) and not receive either one on the portable DTV set I'm holding while standing there...

ATSC? The electronic equivalent of replacing a late 1930's Packard with a rusted-out Yugo...

[Username1]

go to tvfool.com and rabbitears.info and do some looking at the station coverage maps and see if they think you are getting a signal where you live.