[rabbit73]

Originally Posted by t56281

I have the antenna located in my attic in the middle of my house. There aren't any trees immediately blocking it. Maybe I need to look into putting it on the roof? My concern is that we get strong winds and driving rain here, but I'm sure there is a way to do it safely. I do not have a preamp, but am up for trying it if you think it might help. Is there one that is favorable over the others? Thanks for your help!

Your report does indicate that the signals are strong enough to overload a preamp and tuner, but the report assumes that your antenna is outside and in the clear. However, your antenna is in the attic, and the signals might be much weaker than indicated on the report.

For example, you might have aluminum siding or an aluminum foil thermal barrier on the sheathing; both will block TV signals.

I understand your desire to have the antenna in the attic to keep it out of the weather. There are some experiments you can try before putting the antenna outside, but they might not work. Do you have a signal strength indicator on your TV that will tell you if you are making any improvement with tests?

Originally Posted by t56281

Currently with the C2MAX, CBS is the weakest and ABC is the strongest for whatever reason.

Is your antenna aimed at 315 for ABC or 211?

If you want to try a preamp in the attic, I suggest the Antennas Direct Juice or a Channel Master 7777HD at low gain 17 dB setting. The Juice is a medium gain preamp that is resistant to overload, but it doesn't have an FM filter. The 7777HD does have an FM filter, but it might not be sufficient. You have two strong local FM transmittrers that mught interfere with the reception of NBC and CBS that are on VHF-High channels.
http://www.fmfool.com/modeling/tmp/3...e/Radar-FM.png

If the simple VHF dipole for the C2MAX doesn't have enough gain for NBC and CBS which are your weakest desired channels, you can add a VHF antenna like the Stellar Labs 30-2475 to your C2MAX and combine them with an Antennas Direct UHF/VHF coimbiner.
https://www.newark.com/stellar-labs/...SAAEgJSpvD_BwE

https://store.antennasdirect.com/UHF...Combiners.html

If the attic experiments don't work, you must put your C2MAX outside.

Originally Posted by t56281

Thanks everyone - I think I will try to put it up on the roof this weekend. Do I need to ground it even though it is plastic?

If the antenna is outside, the coax shield should be grounded with a grounding block that is connected to the house electrical system ground with 10 gauge copper wire for electrical safety and to reject interference. For further compliance with the electrical code (NEC), the mast should also be grounded in a similar manner to drain any buildup of static charge which will tend to discourage a strike, but the system will not survive a direct strike.



You are not required to ground the coax shield for the attic antenna, but it might be necessary to reduce the FM interference. It is possible to add an FM filter if necessary.