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Old 14-Jan-2010, 11:21 PM   #2
mtownsend
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 632
Hello and welcome!

Quote:
Originally Posted by zuiko View Post
Would a big high gain VHF/UHF antenna in the attic with some kind of pre-amp be enough or would it have to go on the roof or would I need some kind of tower?
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Are the channels you listed the strongest ones on the list? I just want to make sure there aren't any super strong stations nearby that can make reception of more distant stations difficult (e.g., signal overload, adjacent channel interference, etc.).

Also, are there any low VHF (ch 2-6) channels that are on your list that you might be interested in?

Do you plan to split the signal to multiple TVs?



Since the stations you listed have Noise Margins in the 0-15 dB range, then the typical solution for this would be a rooftop antenna. If you have a "low loss" attic (minimal material that might block signals) and enough room for a good sized antenna, you can probably get away with one of the larger antennas in your attic. The amount of signal loss through your attic is an unknown variable, so your degree of success will depend on that.

If you do go with a rooftop installation, you can probably go with a slightly smaller antenna.

Since the four channels you listed are in the range of 7 to 69, you should get good results with an antenna in the Antennacraft HBU-22, -33, -44, -55 family of antennas or the Winegard HD7694P, HD7695P, HD7696P, HD7697P, HD7698P family of antennas (these range from small to large).

If the antenna was on the roof, I think an HBU-33 or HD7694P would be about the right size for signals in your range. In the attic, you probably should go one size higher to make up for the reduced signal strength.



Quote:
Would I be better off going with two antennas (a UHF and a VHF) instead of one?
It is also possible to use two separate antennas for UHF and VHF. Either solution will work. I don't see any particular need to go with two antennas, but it may be worth investigating just to see if the "fit" of the antenna(s) can be improved with separate antennas. You might find that a compact UHF-only antenna combined with a large VHF yagi can be arranged better within the space of your attic.

The two antenna solution can outperform the combo antenna solution, but your signals are strong enough so that I don't think this added performance is absolutely necessary.



As long as you don't have any strong local signals that might overload an amp, then a pre-amp is probably a good idea for your situation.

If you have separate VHF/UHF antennas, then a pre-amp like the Channel Master 7777 would be ideal because it has the option of taking two separate inputs based on frequency band.

If you have two antennas and a pre-amp that doesn't have separate band inputs, be sure to combine the antennas with a UVSJ instead of using a plain combiner/splitter. The UVSJ is a "diplexer" that can merge different frequency bands into one coax with less loss than a simple splitter/combiner.
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