I dare say you will not find any definitive information regarding multipath performance. You'd have to do an A/B comparison at the same site to get anything concrete, since every location is different.

I have to agree! I just bought HD-8800 and compared with my home-made 4-bay M4 and SBGH, it has similar performance (eg, not any better).

I'm a little disappointed, since I was hoping it would have higher gain to pull in my low-UHF channels (RF 17 to 32).

Alas, looks like I'll have to try and order a CM 3023 instead Yagi (trying to avoid 91XG since many reports says it's not good at low-UHF)... but... who knows, it may work in my situation/location...

91XG: 11.8 dBi (~9.65 dBd) @ 470 Hz, which is not bad considering that the new DB4e is supposed to be designed for 14-51 has a "Boresight gain" of 11.68 dBi (~ 9.53 dBd) @ 470 Hz - not any better than the 91XG.

The Fracarro sigma 6 & 9HD have respectable gain:

• Sigma 9HD provides 14 dBi (~11.85 dBd) @ 480 Hz
• Sigma 6HD provides 13 dBi (~10.85 dBd) @ 480 Hz

and less wind-load due to their smaller size.

Boresight gain is the same gain as quoted by others. What Antennas Direct is emphasizing is where in azimuth that gain exists: right along the axis of the boom of a Yagi or perpendicular to the plane of the elements of a bowtie array.

Precise aiming required?
 

Thanks for the info Dave.

AD is the 1st I've seen to use this term. Is AD saying that precise aiming is required with the new DB4e to acheive the max gain that's advertised?

This is true of all antennas. However, maximum gain is not always necessary. You may receive sufficient signal at 95% maximum, 80% maximum, or less. If you live in an area where the transmitters are in different directions, then it may be possible to find an optimal direction where the antenna receives most of your channels without rotation.

91XG (14-69) vs. 4-Bay w/Reflector (7 or 14-51)?
 

Hi GroundUrMast,

Since you own both the 91XG and a DIY 4-bay w/reflector, I would appreciate if you could share you experience with them.

• 91xg ch 14-69 (Link2)
• M4 9 1/2 x 9 w/ curved reflector (ch 7-51) built in the USA, see also: link2, link3, link4

Which of these two choices is best suited for our location?

• M4 complete kit w/curved 1x2" welded-wire reflector (7-51 0ne-antenna solution)
• AD 91XG + YA-1713 (7-69 stacked-antenna solution)

Thank you

Thanks for your patience
 

The M4 is a very good antenna, when compared to other 4-bay panel style designs. However, it's not surprising that a 4-bay panel antenna would have less gain and or directivity than of a long Yagi style like the 91XG or 10 element H-VHF products from Winegard and Antennacraft.

When you look at the performance graphs of the M4 (image 2 & 3 at http://m4antenna.eastmasonvilleweath...Data/Data.html) neither the UHF or H-VHF performance matches the lager commercial antennas. In particular, the H-VHF performance is modest at best... better than most other 4-bay panel products yes, but not at all comparable to an antenna designed for the H-VHF band.

Also, looking at the polar plots for the M4... I'm quite confident that the directivity of the long Yagi style antennas will offer better multipath rejection than 4 or 8-bay panel antenna designs.

Bottom line: I vote for the 91XG + 10 element H-VHF (with a slight bias toward the Antennacraft product given it's traditional 300Ω feed point).

As an aside, is there any reasonable way to obtain right of way to mount an antenna on the other side of the offending trees? Besides a long coax run, there are theoretical ways to use WiFi or wired Ethernet to back haul one or more DTV signals...

again,

Thanks for your patience

M4 vs HD8800
 

Well, my target channels are about 107miles away.

I built an M4 awhile back and compared it to an HD-8800 and they had about similar performance. My RF channels 20 and 22 would get a picture signal every once in a while at that distance.. say 20% uptime.

Then I made another M4, attached it to the first one, to make an M8 (8-bay panel design), and for low UHF, I can now pick up RF 20 and 22 (OMNI and CHAN) about 80-90% of the time... of course the picture goes away during daytime or when it's hot (but I'm at work so I dont miss much), but I can watch these channels most of the time when I get home.

The M8 was designed for low UHF so I can understand why it can't seem to pick high UHF (RF 26 and higher), so in this case I am considering if getting a 91XG will get me these upper channels (and still get RF 20 and 22)... hmm..