help me dump cable NW of Chicago

[malina3105]

Hi -
We live 60 miles NW of Chicago. Would like to get Milwaukee channels too if possible. Antenna would be roughly 20 ft off the ground, would like to feed 4 tv's but would settle for 2. Toward Milwaukee is relatively clear but toward Chicago we have a fair amount of trees. Here's our info:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3dda326be889e3be

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

[Billiam]

Something like a Winegard 7084HD coupled with a pre amp like the Winegard 8275 would probably allow you to get every channel on that list down to WIFR TV 41. You will need a rotor unless you want to install two separate fixed antennas pointed towards Chicago and Milwaukee.

[Tower Guy]

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

My suggestion would be the HD7698P with an AP8700 preamp.

[Billiam]

My suggestion would be the HD7698P with an AP8700 preamp.

That would also work provided that he is not interested in the VHF Low stations that show up on his report.

[John Candle]

A rotor , one antenna and one Tv works well , the person that has the remote controls what to watch. Having one antenna and a rotor connected to more then one Tv is a source of conflict of what Tv stations to point the antenna at. The best way to do it is have two antennas , one antenna points at Chicago and the other antenna points at Milwaukee. From each antenna a coax cable goes to a location where 2 four way splitters are at , it is best to locate the 4 way splitters at a place where there is power for the preamps and it is easyer to run the coax in pairs from each splitter to the Tv locations. At each Tv location is a Remote control A/B switch so the Tv watchers can switch antennas with out moving from the chair. . Or you can put up one antenna point it at Chicago or Miwaukee and be happy with that.

[Tower Guy]

That would also work provided that he is not interested in the VHF Low stations that show up on his report.

WOCK-CD on channel 4 with a NM of 7.1 is unlikely to be received. TVfool does not add low band noise to the calculation, resulting in optimistic low band reception expectations.

[Billiam]

WOCK-CD on channel 4 with a NM of 7.1 is unlikely to be received. TVfool does not add low band noise to the calculation, resulting in optimistic low band reception expectations.

Tower Guy. I have not had any experience receiving VHF Low Digital signals. In other words , what you are saying is the noise floor on channels 2 to 6 is different than on channels 7 to 13? And that you need a higher NM on these lower band channels when compared to VHF Hi in order to receive them? Is that correct?

I am getting a pretty solid picture on a Channel 7 here with a NM of about plus 3.5. I only get dropouts when it gets really windy or some kind of weird atmospheric conditions crops up and then I lose it for a few minutes.

[Dave Loudin]

Yes, in practice the noise floor on VHF-low is higher than for VHF-high.

[Tower Guy]

In other words , what you are saying is the noise floor on channels 2 to 6 is different than on channels 7 to 13?

Yes, the FCC added 4 db of noise for low band when they calculated the DTV table of assignments.

The actual amount of noise varies considerably. In a commercial environment channel 2 can have 29 db added noise. Also, according to the data in the MSTV DTV report, channel 6 has 6 db less noise than channel 2 in all environments.

http://www.mstv.org/docs/techinfo.pdf

[malina3105]

Thank you so much for your advice. Would anyone have a recommendation for a rotator that would work well with the HD7698 and an AP 8700 pre amp?


Thanks again!

[John Candle]

Here are 2 Tv antenna rotors. http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=460 , http://www.channelmasterstore.com/Antenna_Rotators_s/33.htm