[Dick]

I'm located in Lake Neepaulin near the Sussex, NJ airport and watch New York City stations. Before the digital transition, I had acceptable reception with an attic antenna, although results seemed to worsen over the years (9/11?). After the transition, to see if I would get any signal at all before investing time and money, I temporarily mounted the same antenna (with converter) on the roof and got a few New York stations. In September I installed a permanent eave mount with this same antenna. I'm able to receive channels 2,4,5,9,11,13,31,41 and 68. Reception varies with the weather, but is acceptable on most channels most of the time. Traffic at the airport is infrequent and isn't a factor. I estimate that in general there is some pixilation/interruption about 10-15% of the time except for channel 7 which on rare occasions appears, but is not watchable and has no sound.

Here is a list of what I have installed:

1. Antenna – Radio Shack, Model? – Bought 17-18 years ago but in
excellent condition as it was in the attic.

2. Mast mounted amplifier – Antenna Craft Permacolor Model 10G212

3. Downlead – RG-6, RCA, 35 feet

4. Grounding Block – Radio Shack

5. Converter – Insignia, Model NS-DXA1

6. TV – Sony, Model KV27V36

I’m also attaching pictures of the antenna, view from the antenna facing ~147° (NYC), and typical signal strength as shown by converter. When I installed the antenna there was about 50% foliage on the trees.

I'm would like to know in what order to try improvements. Easiest would be a different amplifier. Specs for the one that I have list a 50-890MHz frequency response and 30db gain. Would the CM 7777 do better?

Another option may be to gang another antenna. What would be recommended, do they have to be the same, how far apart and which should be on top?

A neighbor a few miles away recommended a CM 4228, but I’m not sure how good this is for VHF and since it measures 35 or 40" vertically, it might preclude the option of ganging a separate VHF antenna.

Lastly would be an entirely new UHF-VHF antenna(or maybe go back to radio). It would have been nice if all stations switched to UHF so that only one type of antenna is needed.

The problem with the digital conversion was that if one didn’t already have an antenna that picked up some sort of signal, you couldn’t know if investing in a more elaborate/expensive set-up would help or not. Also, as far as the coupon program went, if you bought a converter and then found out that you couldn’t get reception I understand that they weren’t returnable. I'll certainly appreciate any advice and/or recommendations that you have. Thanks, Richard Aaron