NYC burbs, almost there....

[kpanov]

Hello, I apologize in advance for a novice posting. I'm the researcher, not the engineer. :)

We live about 30 miles north of NYC, but have a large mountain in between us and the city, and also some very large trees. However, we've begun to experiment with the OTA options available and are pleasantly surprised by what we can do.

We're about to ditch FIOS and move to OTA reception. My husband purchased a Channel Master 3010 and a Winegard AP-8700 pre-amp, and installed them on the roof (about 30' off the ground), and we're almost there, but not quite on the reception. We get WCBS-DT beautifully, as well as WABC-DT. Fox (WNYW-DT) is nicely available, but there is some pixilelation. WNBC is not available at all. There is a short run from the roof, through a splitter (see below to hang off the other televisions) then to the main television (A Panasonic with a digital tuner). The final goal is to have two other televisions hanging off the connection (about 30' runs from the main television), one being a tuner on the Mac (for recordings).

As I said, we're nearly there on the reception. The main television and the Mac tuner are working nicely, and if we can pick up WNBC, we'll be done.

My question is whether another antenna would help in our situation. I've been reading on the Winegard lines, and wonder if a more powerful antenna would help, or are we lucky to get what we have? All the stations we're interested in are NYC stations, so the atenna would only be pointing to the south. Below is the TVfool report. Any help is appreciated, and again, I apologize for the novice posting.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3da3622135951d51

Kathleen

[Tigerbangs]

You have the wrong antenna: plain and simple: the CM-3010 is an urban antenna, and not meant for fringe areas: you need a fringe-area antenna: Since NYC has 3 VHF channels, you need an antenna that does both VHF high-band plus UHF. Good choices would be the Winegard HD-7696P, the AntennaCraft HBU-44, or, my deep-fringe prescription of a Winegard YA-1713 VHF high-band antenna plus an AntennasDirect XG91 UHF antenna combined using a Pico-Macom UVSJ, then run into your preamplifier. The last choice is more complicated, more expensive, but far more powerful than the other choices.

Your splitter needs to be mounted in the line AFTER the power supply for the preamplifier: if you mount it in the line between the preamp (on the roof) and the power supply (indoors), you risk blocking the power supply's DC power to the preamplifier that is necessary for the preamp to function.

if you choose to use the two-antenna solution, be sure that the antennas are mounted on the same mast separated by at least 4', with the UHF antenna mounted above the VHF antenna.

Please remember that a preamplifier is useful for recovering line and splitting losses incurred when conveying signals over a cable, but it does NOT make a digital signal a better signal, only a better antenna can do that.

[kpanov]

I think we're going to try the HD7696P and see what happens. If we can get away with single antenna, it'll make it easier.

Thank you for the help. OTA is a whole lot better than what I remember.

[Tigerbangs]

When you install the new antenna, please use a compass to aim the antenna properly, and post your results here so we can see how you did.