New to forum and need advice

[natalie467]

Hello there,

We've been without cable for 3 or so years. I don't watch a lot of tv so it isn't a big deal, plus sometimes trying to watch without interference is a pain so I don't bother a lot. But I do like to watch the local news, a few shows and SNL and half of the time they won't come in, or they'll come in and go out out (pixleate) every few minutes. For example I wanted to watch SNL (WHDH 7.1) and it wouldn't come in, but channels 4 & 5 came in fine. Couple of days later I wanted to watch something on ch5 (WCVB) and couldn't get it in (although it was on another TV but still! It's frustrating.) My husband likes the Spanish stations but those rarely come in and if they do its again, only for a couple of mins at a time.

This is my report:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...5134d48abc2001

I entered in an antenna at 16ft high.

We use 2 antennas, one is this one:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/antennas...=1218809260470
Which is hangin on the front of our house (single story).

The other is a grey hoverman that we made. Sometimes I think it works better than the store bought. The grey H is hanging in the room maybe 8ft high. My husband just said we get between 14 to 20 something channels, this is after doing a channel scan on the TV. Then again, many of those channels come in easily on either TV:gettv, metv, decades, PBS, Create, Bounce, gosh I don't know them all.

It's just difficult trying to get the local ones in a consistent manner. What can I do to improve things? Local and some of the spanish ones, univision and there one from Puerto Rico, I think it was called PR.net We got it in once and it was iffy then.

We're willing to invest in a better antenna and have a friend put it on the roof. Any advice will be appreciated.

[shoman94]

The C2V antenna is a great antenna and should provide you with all the channels you want mounted on the roof. You might need a preamp but I would try it without first. I would think that aiming at 250 degrees magnetic would be a great starting point.

[Tower Guy]

Two observations:

For Boston stations you should aim at 238 degrees but the two Spanish stations are in the 266 range. You can try to split the difference, but that will weaken reception from both directions.

All your stations are 2 edge, which means that an indoor antenna will be problematic.

[tomfoolery]

I would start with moving the antenna to the roof or chimney, with the clearest line to the transmitters (avoid trees, of course), and searching around for a spot with the best reception. That C2 is a respected antenna, but if you need more gain, the DB4e has more than 4dB on the C2, at least from a glance at the published specs. And the DB8e has yet another 3dB. You don't need the VHF element that the C2V has, which simplifies things a bit if you're looking to buy. Use a clean run of RG6, straight to the TV, for testing.

It may also help to tilt the antenna back a bit, to aim at the top of the ridge between you and the transmitters, especially with a 4-bay, with its pointier gain vs elevation curve.

[ADTech]

It sounds like you need to optimize the location of the antenna. It's probably in a poor signal location.

Try to get it up in the air, especially out from behind common impediments like buildings and trees as much as you can.


Your C2V, as noted by tomfoolery, has no need for the VHF module in Boston, so remove it and connect directly to the back of the C2's loop element.

The C2 has a 70° horizontal beam width, plenty enough to cover all your UHF stations. It's not terribly picky about aiming, but that wide pickup pattern can make getting its location more important so as to minimize unwanted reflections.