West MI help!

[Whyteboar]

Hi all,
So we finally decided to eliminate the cable bill and try OTA. The channels that come in are wonderful. The others are rather jumpy, when they are there at all. I've tried everything I can think of, so now I'm asking for help. I've researched here a fair amount so I'm not starting from scratch. That said, here goes-
My map: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3da3625909ccb379

On my roof is a bowtie 8 bay antenna pointing about 210 degrees on the compass.

In the attic is a thin element yagi (used) antenna element I got for channel 13 which is at an entirely different angle. 322 degrees.

Tieing them together is a simple splitter, obviously run backwards. The one resulting lead goes to a signal amp in the attic. One output (so far) goes to the kitchen TV. The only 'extra' connector I have is in the line between the attic antenna and the spiltter: one to convert from two wire to coax. It's a cheap push in, but mostly works.

What I'm having trouble with is channels 3 and 8. (5 and 6 bite too but I don't care about them) The antenna advertized as a full spectrum, wide angle reciever, but they might have exaggerated a bit. I tried moving the attic antenna to point to 190 degrees in an attemp to pick up 3 better, but it actually made everything below 15 worse. (where possible)

So I'm clueless. How do I get channels 3 and 8? If it's a seperate antenna, how do I tie them together effeciently? Arrrgh!

Thank you for any help you can provide-

Craig

[Tower Guy]

So I'm clueless. How do I get channels 3 and 8? If it's a seperate antenna, how do I tie them together effeciently?

You have two problems in your existing set-up.

1. The antenna for 3 and 8 is aimed at 210, but the stations are located at 191 and 193 degrees.

2. The antenna for channel 13 is also picking up 7 and 8, but with multipath. The multipath from the 13 antenna gets added to the good signals on 7 & 8 from the main antenna which causes the dropouts.

Is your antenna really capable of VHF reception? If so, aim it at 192, not 210. If not, get a real VHF antenna.

Next get a channel 13 Jointenna. Unfortunately, Amazon is out of them. Warren Electronics claims to have them. http://www.warrenelectronics.com/Antennas/Jointennas.htm

The channel 13 Jointenna will prevent multipath on channels 7&8 from getting into the feed to your TV set.

[Whyteboar]

I truly appreciate your willingness to share your knowledge with those of us just starting at this. I will do as you recommend and let you know.

Craig

[John Candle]

Simpler yet. 2 Winegard HD7695P 's one pointed at WXSP 15 and the other one pointed at points along between WOTV 20 and WZPX 44 so as to get all of that group of channels , you may have to give up WZPX 44 and have the antenna pointed at 20 and 7. An amplifier can help on the antenna that is pointed at 7 , 20 , 44. 2 separate coax runs with radio shack remote control coax A/B coax switches at the tv locations. The antennas are on the roof and separated at least 6 feet. The real advantage to this separate way of doing it is , No antenna crosstalk , no reduction in signal quality , no reduction in signal strength. I suggest no antenna pre amplifiers to begin with , see what you can get.