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Old 2-Sep-2011, 4:43 PM   #24
GroundUrMast
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Greater Seattle Area
Posts: 4,773
Early on, Dave Loudin recommended a Winegard HD7696P which is a relatively long outdoor design.

I think the suggestion is good for your situation because that antenna offers far more gain than any of the small indoor antennas. The idea is, that while you should expect some signal loss due to indoor mounting (just how much remains to be seen when the roof has a load of wet snow on it), you can count on the antenna gain to overcome up to 12 dB of the building penetration loss as compared to a set of rabbit ears. This is not the same as adding an amplifier, which could increase the signal level while adding unwanted noise and distortion to the signal. Antenna gain is better than amplifier gain because you get both, increased signal strength and a net improvement of noise margin (that means you get stronger signal without added noise).

If you have a metal roof, or other construction materials which reflect or block TV signals, an indoor or attic mounted antenna is not going to work for you. If the roof is of wood or composite shingles and the mounting location is not obstructed by metallic ducts or foil insulation, I would definitely try an attic install. If you don't see the desired stations, you still have the option to move the antenna out of the attic.

The HD7696P is more than enough antenna for an outdoor install... (on your dish mount perhaps?)

As an alternate idea, I would expect the compact RCA ANT-751 to easily wall mount outdoors. Free of building penetration losses, it would be capable of reception of all the signals in the green and yellow section of your report when pointed in their direction. (I would not choose this antenna for an attic install though.)
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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; 2-Sep-2011 at 4:50 PM.
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