Looking for Advice Selecting an Antenna

[mikes781]

Hello,

I had been thinking about installing an antenna to supplement our cable programing with OTA HD and stumbled across this page. I ran the signal analysis and was surprised to see how many OTA digital transmission could be available in my area. Seems like most of them are clustered toghether and not too far away.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d27eeb5ede690e1

I did notice that most are UHF other than ABC which is VHF. I'm not sure if I would need a separate VHF antenna to receive ABC? I don't have an existing antenna on the house and I will need to run wiring. I am open to putting an antenna on the roof and would like to run three or four lines to different rooms. The area around my home is relatively flat with no buildings taller than our two story house. There are just some tall pine trees that are probably in the line of site between the house and the direction that most of the signals would be coming from. Sorry for the noob question, but will the typical TV antennas also work for FM signals?

Mike

[mtownsend]

Hello and welcome!

Yes, it looks like you have a clean shot to the big antenna farm in Philadelphia (compass heading 298 degrees). For VHF channels, it's really best to use an appropriate antenna. I don't like relying on marginal VHF performance from a UHF-only antenna.

A good full-band antenna for the job would be the Winegard HD7080P or HD7082P on your roof. It should provide enough signal strength for you to split to multiple TVs without the need for amplification.

If you aim the antenna at compass heading 336 degrees, you can get the more distant antenna farm (north-west Philadelphia) and the downtown antenna farm simultaneously. The closer transmitters are strong enough to come through the antenna even though they are a little off-aim, so it's best to aim the antenna at the more distant weaker stations.



Yes, full-band antennas that can handle low-VHF channels (2-6) can also deliver FM signals. The FM frequencies (88-108 MHz) are just above channel 6 (82-88 MHz), and should pass through the antenna easily.

[mikes781]

Thanks for the advice. I'll take a look around and order one soon. Then I'll just have to wait for the snow to melt so I can get up on my roof without going for a ride. ;)