VHF height, trees and TV Fool readings

[Flint Ridge]

Assisting a neighbor with his antenna setup.

I have the UHF dialed in fine with a home brew nikiml GH10 modeled to allow certain backside gain.

Now I'm working on the VHF and like my nearby location TV Fool results show the best "forecast" at like 5' off the ground. Now I know that's not the case as it would be facing the house. But my thinking is I need to be above the trees. I know VHF is not affected as much, but curious.

Target is the weakest VHF Ch 12. Here is the 5' report. http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...8e030df207ab9a

I've ran it every 10' all the way up to 65' which is where I would prefer to put the VHF. http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...8e03b8ed860398

I could go higher, say 75' but don't see the need for that. Plus it puts me on a nice flat section of the tower, all other sections are tapered. (Rohn G60 I think) http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...8e036c671cd845

Peak VHF on Ch 12 shows 5' @ 8.2NM(db)
Barring that result 65' shows peak @ 6.5 while also providing highest reading for other VHF @ 14.5.

Guess I'm right back at the 65' mark and presume VHF is best above the trees and in general not as variable a few feet up or down.

I've built a GH6 that should give me about 14db of gain. 125' of RG6 with longest run RG6 about another 60'. 3way splitter. I was going to try the RCA amp I have laying around on both combined (28db) and VHF(14db) and see what I get. Any idea how much amp I might need?

[Flint Ridge]

Well, as I had upgraded everything in my OTA world, it was prudent to help my neighbor who lost his tower last fall. Did get him a temp setup with a 91XG and the 10-13-7 or whatever it is called all ran through an RCA amp. Got some of the channels most of the time.

As he helped me retrieve my "new" tower from out of state, I helped find and get him lined up with one as well and brought it home etc. It's been up for a few months, we put it up the same day we put mine up.

So last weekend it was GH10 on top with Kitz-Tech KT-500 amp and this weekend the GH6 fed into the RCA amp on the combined side (28 db of gain, w/FM filter). UHF comes in on RG11 and the VHF on RG6, all new, all compression fittings fed into UVSJ and split to 3 tv's. So although his UHF antenna is a bit weaker than mine, I have split mine 5 ways.

Dialed everything in via a laptop out in the yard with the Areo-M, nice to just be tied off up top, chat on cell phone via earpiece and nudge it around until the SNR is peaked on the weak stations. TV Fool really helped me to dial it in already with the overlay satellite views. It looked familiar when you are 80' up.

So here it is. GH10 @ 85' or so. Tower is an old Rohn G60 80'. GH6 @ 65', which should have been the sweet spot. He has better signal than I. On his I used just a CM balun. Mine has a cut balun, extra FM filter etc and simply must just be too much or something wrong in my math on the cut balun. But is holds solid. Will take that out "sometime".

The GH6 VHF does very well. SNR was 27 or so on the Aero-M on the weakest station.