Thread: New to Antennas
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Old 24-Jun-2010, 8:14 PM   #2
Dave Loudin
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: King George, VA
Posts: 659
Figuring out what type of antenna you need is really not hard once you know what information you need to look for and what advertising claims are just empty words. The good news is you've got the tool (your TVFool report) that shows in detail what your antenna requirements are.

You supplied your location and a projected antenna height (in this case, looks like the default 10 feet). What the report gives you is:

1) what channels your stations broadcast on (the "real channel" column),
2) how strong those stations are with respect to the minimum needed for reception (the NM column), and
3) what direction(s) the stations are coming from.

Two good pieces of good news make your situation pretty easy to deal with. First, all the stations that are practical to pick up come from one direction. Second, all the Network and Independent stations you would want have noise margins over +40dB (trust me, that's a lot!). It is likely that you could use an indoor antenna and the Terk HDTVi would be the best.

A couple things that don't show in a propagation analysis that could compromise using an indoor antenna. Will the antenna have to look through a nearby house? a lot of trees? several walls in your house? Not seeing your detailed situation (and don't worry about telling me about them), I believe you would be better off mounting a small antenna outside (which you have the legal right to do). The RCA ANT-751 would be an excellent choice. If you absolutely have to mount in the attic, I would recommend a slightly larger antenna, like the AntennaCraft HBU-33 or the Winegard 7694.

One thing you will definitely NOT need is a preamp or amplified antenna. Do not waste your money on such things. The Terk model I mentioned is not amplified.
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