Hello,
I have been using a set of rabbit ears for almost 2 years now in Seattle, WA. It's worked relatively well, but we'd like to get the antenna out of the living room if possible.
My current antenna:
Terk HDTVi (
http://www.amazon.com/Terk-Technolog.../dp/B0001FV36E)
My tvfool.com specs:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...2df9c8a8ea3615
Some general info that might seem helpful (or not):
* 2-story house wired with coax in every room, the living/den actually have 2 connections, everything meets in the basement
* I have an old Directv dish on my roof (on the lowest part of a highly sloped roof) which is also wired into the house, it's located at the southern end of the house
* Our TV is on the 1st floor, at the Northern part of the house
Where I'm looking for improvement:
* I'm mostly looking for improved consistency, and slight improvement
* Sometimes people walk by the tv/antenna and it messes with the signal
* Fox is a little "blippy" at times
* I'd love to get 28.1, which is just inside the yellow graph on my spec page. We kind of get it now, it's not watchable, but comes in for 1-sec, off for 3-4 secs, etc. It makes me think we could get it if we had an improved antenna, or used a higher location.
Here are my different thoughts for a solution:
1. Take the Terk antenna and put it in one of the upstairs bedrooms, then connect all the wires to feed it into the living room (bedroom->basement->living room). However, when I make all the connections, the TV barely gets a signal, if any at all. I'm suspecting that the signal from the Terk antenna isn't strong enough to make the journey to my TV in the living room, since it has to make so many hops (bedroom to basement, and then basement to living room). I'm wondering if it would be worth getting some sort of amp or preamp to help the signal from the antenna make the journey.
2. I called an installer, but they want sometime close to $500+ to set something up for me, and that doesn't include a $229 rotor. I also might have to pay extra since my roof is so steep. I'm not even sure I need a rotor, since all my channels are basically due South from my house. They recommended I buy a Channel Master 4228 HD from them.
3. I was thinking I could just unscrew the dish on my roof and install the CM 4228, even though the position would be at the base of my roof instead of the top. Then I could just use the existing wires outside to feed it into my system. I wouldn't help much if I needed some sort of amp, since I'm not sure how I would power it outside, but it's just a thought.
If you don't see a theme here, I'm basically trying to do the least amount of work to get better results. I have no problems paying for an installer if that’s what I need, but I’d hate to spend 500-1000 dollars when I could have just done something really simple with my current setup. Even buying the 4228 is only about a $100, and putting it where the dish is already standing seems safer than paying someone to climb my steep roof.
Any thoughts? Thanks in advance! I’m having problems finding local advice, I guess I’m the only one in my neighborhood not using pay TV.