What do I need to recieve more signals
 

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...c57261a5f830b5

I have an 8 bay bowtie, its just in the main floor living room for now pointing straight east,

I get everything in the list Up to channel 20 in the list. Most are fuzzy except 31 and 40 which are very clear. I will be putting it up 25' outside for now with a rotator. Now to get even more channels Especially PBS channel 50 will I need a preamp and which one? Is a bowtie with a taller tower good to get the signals in the grey.

Hello and welcome!

Channel 50 appears to be borderline usable. My guess is that you will be able to get it, but it might not be completely reliable all the time. Things like bad weather, trees, and other variables may be enough to cause some pixellation and channel dropouts. At this range, there's no way to know for sure until you try it.

To maximize your chances, a pre-amp is definitely required. BUT, you big problem is that you have some really strong local channels. Channel 31 is only about 6 miles away and it is strong enough to overload most amps. The trick here is trying to get WQLN (ch 50) in the sweet spot of the antenna while minimizing the the pickup on CITY-TV-2 (ch 31). A highly directional antenna might help in this regard so that you can get CITY to land in the first deep null of the antenna. An antenna rotator that lets you make fine adjustments on antenna aim will probably also be needed.

The Winegard HDP-269 is an amp that has a better-than-average tolerance for overload. You'll want to use a lower gain, higher overload tolerant amp like the HDP-269 rather than higher gain amps like the Channel Master 7777 (which will overload easily in your situation).

BTW, to get channel 50, you may be better off using an Antennas Direct 91XG. It has better gain on the upper UHF channels than most 8-bay bowtie antennas.

Neither of these antennas will help you with WICU (ch 12, NBC) because it is on VHF. If you want a shot at this channel, you best best is to use a Winegard 8200U. There used to be better VHF-capable antennas from Wade-Delhi, but they are no longer available.



Height will probably not make that much difference in your case. The desired channel is over 80 miles away, and the curvature of the Earth is your biggest enemy. At these distances, changing the height by 20, 50, or even 100 feet will probably have a minimal impact. You can experiment with the height settings in the tvfool analysis to see if it helps at all.

If you really want more signal, your best bet is to gang multiple antennas together for added gain.



Quite frankly, trying to get stations reliably from 80 miles away is going to be tough. Some people have had success with stations down to Noise Margins (NM) of about -15 dB with a carefully built setup, but your results may vary. The threat of amp overload from channel 31 is going to make your situation a bit more challenging. Good luck!

thanks for the info. I ll get it up on the roof and take it from there

How many Db before a signal is to strong and cause overload?

Any time the "Pwr (dBm)" numbers get into the -30s or higher, it's a concern. Since amps boost everything in the spectrum (not just the one channel you're watching), you must consider the total RF energy going into it. Many people don't even realize that a nearby FM transmission can cause their amp to overload even though their TV signals might no be that strong. Any signal within the amp's operating frequencies can contribute to overload. Lots of channels in the -40 dBm range could add up to be just as bad as one -30 dBm channel (it's a logarithmic scale).

I'm seeing multiple TV signals in the -10s and -20s range (local analog broadcasts) on your tvfool report. Considering how strong these are and how many there are, it seems like this is beyond the signal-handling capabilities of most amps out there..