Set up for mom
 

My mom lives in Oscoda, MI. I thought about placing the antenna on the roof on her ranch house. As you can see from the report, there isn't much that is viewable. She does have an RCA ANT751E that works well for WBKB 11.
I thought if I upgraded she could maybe pull in WDCQ & WNEM. Any antenna recommendations or is this just a pipe dream?
Attachment 3468

WDCQ and WNEM may be tough. You'll likely need a bigger antenna and some luck. Before pursuing, you might want to check the Rabbitears.info report to see if there are any differences relative to the old database on this site. Other folks here will probably help you with that, so stay tuned...

I'm curious why you're after WNEM since she already gets a CBS affiliate in WBKB?

WNEM has MyNetwork TV, Cozi and Ion.

I wonder if a Channel Master CM-4228HD would perform well.

If you can mange to install the antenna high enough to avoid nearby obstructions such as trees and buildings, the the CM-4228HD, Antennas Direct DB8e, Antennas Direct 91XG, etc. would likely add one or two stations on real channels 20 & 24 (WUWB, WCML). This may require a rotator to optimize the aim each time you change channels (and others possible pros & cons)... But there may be off and on DX reception in addition to what the reception report suggests.

That said, none of the antennas listed above have intentional support for any of the VHF frequencies. Another option to consider would be a Winegard HD7698P which covers the UHF band as well as real channels 7 through 13.

(Based on you TVFool report and rabbitears.info https://www.rabbitears.info/searchma...&study_id=1974)

Would a pre-amp not work seeing that WBKB 11 is so strong.

A preamp only helps with the losses in the coax and splitters attached on the output side of the amplifier and in the case of a poor quality tuner that has a high noise-figure. Amplifiers can't differentiate between useful signal and noise so they will amplify both, and on top of that the amplifier adds some noise. So you are actually loosing ground if you try to make up for antenna performance with an amplifier.

If you can't see a reliable signal with the antenna, a short run of coax and a single TV, you need change the antenna or where it's mounted/aimed. Only when you have a reliable signal in that test configuration should you decide whether amplification is going to help or hurt.

Given that you already have the RCA ANT5751R which includes reception capability for real channels 7 through 51 you could opt to combine it with a large UHF only such as those already mentioned. A UVSJ (UHF/VHF combiner) and coax cables are all that would be needed to accomplish that.

Are there any high gain antenna's that will only get VHF-HI 7-12 and UHF 13-36 that aren't huge?

VHF-High real channels are 7-13
UHF real channels for reduced band are 14-36

High gain antennas must be bigger for increased gain.

The next step up from the RCA ANT751 for VHF-High and UHF is the Winegard HD7694P.

I suggest you go with GroundUrMast's idea:
Aim the 751 at WBKB and a high gain UHF antenna at WDCQ and WNEM.

https://forum.tvfool.com/attachment....1&d=1565033253

I wish... But physics comes with some laws that are pretty much impossible to break. Small antennas have less capture area and are therefor unable to collect as much signal power as a larger well designed and built antenna

OOPS: I didn't see rabbit73's response before I posted... I should have just said, "What rabbit73 said." :D

I think at this point if I can get channel 20 and 24 she'd be happy.

The Winegard HD7694P is only rated for 45 miles. WCML is 61 miles away.

https://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=hd7694p

Yes, that is why our later advice was for separate UHF and VHF antennas, with the UHF antenna having higher gain than the UHF section of the 7694.

High gain UHF antennas that are needed for weak channels are very directional. They must be aimed directly at the transmitter. Your UHF channels are in different directions.