jocephus
1-Aug-2011, 11:25 PM
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d3e471d1b8e67bf
Like many people here, I'm planning to drop my cable and go OTA only. I'll be sending a signal to two televisions. I'm only interested in 10 channels at the top of the results list linked above - from the "real channel" column, they're 19, 32, 29, 12, 34, 44, 10, 7, 42 and 13. All of those except 10 are located in an antenna farm about 24-25 miles to the E/NE, and 10 is in the process of moving their transmitter to the farm (it's already been approved).
I decided to test my signal with an old Radio Shack indoor unamplified bowtie and rabbit ears combo. Without even aiming them, I was able to get all of the channels on my list (plus a bunch more that I don't care about), though 7, 19 and 44 had artifacting and freezing. The 3 sketchy stations had signal strength in the low 60s according to my Panasonic Plasma TV, while the stations with better signals were in the low 70s to high 80s. My neighborhood is a mix of 1-2 story homes with lots of tall oak trees. I have a couple of oaks in my back yard, one of which will have branches in the path of any outdoor antenna.
Based on all of this, can anyone recommend a good outdoor antenna? I was hoping that with my decent signals I'd be able to use something compact like a Winegard FV-HD30/HD-1080/GS-2200/GS-1100, but I'll go with something larger like an HD7694P if necessary. I've only looked at Winegard so far, but I'm open to other manufacturers, of course. I'd like to keep it small if possible because we sometimes get tropical storms with high winds around here, And I assume that wouldn't be good for a large, spindly antenna way up on a pole.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Like many people here, I'm planning to drop my cable and go OTA only. I'll be sending a signal to two televisions. I'm only interested in 10 channels at the top of the results list linked above - from the "real channel" column, they're 19, 32, 29, 12, 34, 44, 10, 7, 42 and 13. All of those except 10 are located in an antenna farm about 24-25 miles to the E/NE, and 10 is in the process of moving their transmitter to the farm (it's already been approved).
I decided to test my signal with an old Radio Shack indoor unamplified bowtie and rabbit ears combo. Without even aiming them, I was able to get all of the channels on my list (plus a bunch more that I don't care about), though 7, 19 and 44 had artifacting and freezing. The 3 sketchy stations had signal strength in the low 60s according to my Panasonic Plasma TV, while the stations with better signals were in the low 70s to high 80s. My neighborhood is a mix of 1-2 story homes with lots of tall oak trees. I have a couple of oaks in my back yard, one of which will have branches in the path of any outdoor antenna.
Based on all of this, can anyone recommend a good outdoor antenna? I was hoping that with my decent signals I'd be able to use something compact like a Winegard FV-HD30/HD-1080/GS-2200/GS-1100, but I'll go with something larger like an HD7694P if necessary. I've only looked at Winegard so far, but I'm open to other manufacturers, of course. I'd like to keep it small if possible because we sometimes get tropical storms with high winds around here, And I assume that wouldn't be good for a large, spindly antenna way up on a pole.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!