Hoping for some advice?

[Cash_Mayday]

Good evening, new guy here, lol. I'm getting ready to set up an antenna and was looking for some advice/recommendations. Right now I'm looking at an Ant751 on a J mount on the end of the house. That would put it about 20 feet above the ground with a pretty clear line of sight. There are trees in the area, nothing within several hundred ft. of the house toward the NW. I'm on the top of a small hill, but if your familiar with the area, Paris Mountain is maybe 10 miles NW. Cant really see it from here though.

I'll be running about 40 ft of coax from the antenna through the attic to my network panel, from there a splitter, and out two two tv's. First one is about a 10' run and the second one about 30 feet.

Not sure if I'll want a pre-amp, distribution amp or anything at all, as this stuff is outside my area of knowledge. Here's a link to my report:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d8e0388fbc00a88

Any comments, idea's, suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Even suggestions for other/better antenna's, I haven't ordered anything yet. Thanks.

[MikeBear]

Preamp??

With those high signal levels, a bent paperclip stuck in the back of your tv set should get all 7 stations from the top!

Install an antenna that's good for both UHF and high VHF, aim around 320 degrees magnetic and run it to a single tv set. See what happens. Then you can consider splitting it to another set. I think your Ant751 would be a good choice for starters.

[Cash_Mayday]

Thanks, yea the close stuff is pretty strong. I've got a cheap Amazon knockoff Mohu Leaf looking thing sitting in a spare room now feeding both tv's. I get quite a few of the local "pbs type" channels, and WYFF strong. The main ones I'm after are WYFF (NBC) WSPA (CBS) WLOS (ABC) and WHNS (FOX). They are all between 334 and 19 degrees magnetic, with WLOS being the farthest at 42 miles. Will the ant-751 maybe catch WLOS @ 42 miles?

Also, the "spread" between the main channels I'd like is 45 degree's, is it asking too much to get that from one antenna? Thanks for looking.

[MikeBear]

Go up to FMfool.com and run the report with the same settings as your Tvfool. Then post the image of the report here. The url for that won't link through, so you must post it as an image.

45 degrees is doable in many cases with a single antenna, you typically aim in-between the stations for that. I'm aimed between my UHF stations, and am receiving a 60 degree spread using an HDB91x antenna. That antenna is WAY overkill for you though.

[Cash_Mayday]

http://tinypic.com/r/2v3ko6s/8

Here you go, there are quite a few radio stations in this area. Thanks for looking.

edit...well, that didn't work. Let me try again.

[Cash_Mayday]

http://i59.tinypic.com/2v3ko6s.png

All those about 4 miles out are the ones sitting on top of Paris Mountain (from my opening post) I think, theres a lot of towers up there. Must be closer than I realized "as the bird flies"

[MikeBear]

Buy a few of these FM traps (they are cheap, might as well get a few as you might reconfig your antenna setup and need an extra one), you need them as your local FM stations are flame-throwers. http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/DISTRIBUTED-BY-MCM-FM-88-/33-341

Aim your Ant751 antenna directly at WHNS for starters, and the rest are likely to still work fine. Once we know the results of how that works out, we can go from there.

[Cash_Mayday]

Thank's, I'll add some to the list. Should it be outside at the antenna, or inside at the splitter or does it really matter?

[MikeBear]

Thank's, I'll add some to the list. Should it be outside at the antenna, or inside at the splitter or does it really matter?

In your case without an amp, it can be inside BEFORE any splitter. So you will need a short coax jumper for later when you add the splitter. The traps aren't polarized, so can be hooked up either way. Sometimes people need to put TWO of them in series. I suggest you might be one of those, so get two jumpers or a male/male F connector to join them.

I highly recommend you concentrate on getting things working with a single tv set first with no splitter.

Antenna ---> FM Trap ---> Tv set.

That makes things much easier to trouble-shoot, if you encounter problems.

Once you know how that works, you can reconfigure for a second tv set.

[Cash_Mayday]

Thanks, I can set it up initially without a splitter, one TV is the "main line". It gets watched 90 percent of the time and will eventually get some kind of OTA DVR.

[Cash_Mayday]

I plan on ordering some stuff today so that I can install this weekend, thanks again for all the help above. One quick question, does everyone think the ANT751 is the best choice or what about the hd7694? I'm liking that one also.

[Spencer]

You could make your own antenna for alot cheaper and it might pick up a few more channels.

http://m4antenna.eastmasonvilleweather.com/index.html

[Cash_Mayday]

Hey guys, back with a question. Rule of thumb, at what length cable run do you need an amp of some sort? I got the ant751 mounted today with mixed results. I've actually lost a couple of stations over the indoor amazon thing, but the cable run is a good bit longer. Overall signal strength is about the same as the amplified indoor "leaf", except that I totally lost WHNS, WLOS and WMYI. The 751 is above the roof line, aimed at 320 degrees via compass. (WHNS is at 322 @ 26 miles).

Total cable run is now probably near 150 ft., with an FM trap and an in-line coupler being the only things in the line.

Last night when I temporarily hooked up the 751 indoors at the location of the old indoor ant., I could get WHNS and WLOS but no WMYI (it is in the opposite direction though). It was clear last night and overcast today.

Think an amp of some sort will get me back on track? At the tv I've got no signal at 100 percent. (per the tv meter)

Thanks for looking.

[Cash_Mayday]

After feeling like Noah since last Saturday evening, we had clear skies again yesterday. I re-scanned the TV and I now have WHNS and WLOS at about 50 percent signal strength (per tv). So obviously there is a signal, I guess the tv won't bother with it if its below a certain threshold? I guess the main problem is the added cable length and the cloud cover.

Anyway, earlier this week I went ahead and ordered the RCA pre amp to try. It should be here tomorrow, hopefully it helps in inclement weather. My question's are, should I switch the built in FM trap off and leave the one currently in my line, or switch it on and replace the inline trap with a coupling? Or use both? Also, how far away from the amp can the power supply be? Thanks for the help.