Hello all,
I have been using TVFool for many years; Thank you for all the great info. We recently moved to Tucson, AZ, and it's my first time posting for helps.
I read the recent post by DesertRat (
http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.p...ghlight=Tucson ) with much interest because I am also in the NW area of Tucson.
My location is:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...5b94f9637b9d00
As DesertRat described, Tucson has the main cluster of broadcast towers on Mt Bigelow in the East/NE, and some repeater towers in the South/SW. I receive most of the repeated channels from the south/SW, using an amplified rabit-ear-set placed inside my southern-most wall of my 2nd floor back bedroom. But I cannot get NBC, the one I want the most, from the South. I can get both the stronger (27.1 on 28 PBS) and weaker (9.1 on 16 ABC) ones, just !not! the NBC (4.1 on 4) from this same area. I bought a DB8e, the strongest antenna from my readings, tried aiming it to this 148-158 degree. Still no better results than my rabit-ear.
So this is my first question. Any idea why I cannot get channel 4 from the south? I have 2 theories: One is that maybe a nearby Police/Fire dispatch antenna is intefering with channel 4. I can see some very high, thin antenna sticks in the same direction to my channel 4 area. Or, Two is that channel 4 is a low-VHF which is much harder to pull in? But I think the rabit ear would be better for VHF already, and it's only 10-11 miles away anyway?
Then, my other attempt is trying to get the main broadcast from Mt Bigelow to the East instead. It'd be nice to also get other channels not repeated in the South like Fox and MyN. With the DB8e pointing to the 69-79 degree direction, hand-held outside my front window just to test (one 10-ft RG6 cable to a single TV), I can get ALL the channels listed in my TVFool profile. I even get some repeated channels from the South with this aiming (so I get 2 sets of PBS). This really surprised me since my location is in the mountain shadow, like DesertRat described. And admitedly, some channels are on the edge, sometime getting pixelated as the DB8e moves with my tired arms.
Excited with this, I proceed to set the DB8 in my attic (my house is in an HOA, and in a small lot, making an outdoor mount option not realistic). In the attic, I lost all from the East, only get some from the South and they are even weaker than my rabbit ear in the bedroom; and still no NBC! This test is still using a single TV, but with a longer, 25-Ft RG6 cable.
So here is my second group of questions:
- Would adding a preamp to attic-mount help pulling East channels? Which unit?
- I have barely enough space in the attic to house a long-boom style antenna of up to 8-Ft long, 1-2 Ft wide in the front and 4-5 Ft wide in the back, and luckily this thin box of space is pointing at the right direction for Mt Bigelow, but it's right next to the roof. Would an antenna of this style perform better than the reflecting-disc style DB8e? Which unit?
Thank you all in advance for your helps.