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Old 9-Nov-2011, 3:51 PM   #3
GroundUrMast
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Greater Seattle Area
Posts: 4,773
A Winegard HD7694P pointing at 214° would do well. Smaller antennas would probably work also but the additional gain would insure enough signal power to drive a two or four-way splitter with no amplifier needed.

Use RG-6 or RG-6U cable. You can find pre-cut lengths with connectors installed at the big box home improvement stores. You will also see RG-6Q (quad shield) which will work just as well but offers no benefit to over the air reception. RG-6Q has extra shielding that is needed in satellite reception applications.

The big box home improvement stores also stock splitters. Choose a splitter with the number of output ports you intend to use. If you install a 4-way splitter and only connect two or three sets, you'll need to install terminating resistor caps on the unused ports and you will deliver less signal to the connected sets compared to a two or three way splitter. Also, choose a splitter rated for OTA/CATV frequencies, 5 to 1000 MHz. Satellite grade splitters are rated for 5 to 2500 MHz and often cost a bit more but provide no useful benefit to OTA reception.

Some folks opt to use a home theater PC which lets them use Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and any other internet video/audio provider. Tuners such as Silicondust HDHR3 and Hauppauge's various offerings make over the air reception and recording in HD possible with no monthly service fee like Tivo.

Channel Master is expanding it's offerings of HD set top boxes to include DVR and IPTV functions.
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If the well is dry and you don't see rain on the horizon, you'll need to dig the hole deeper. (If the antenna can't get the job done, an amp won't fix it.)

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Last edited by GroundUrMast; 11-Nov-2011 at 3:36 PM. Reason: Corrected typo in antenna model number
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