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Old 21-Jan-2011, 3:55 PM   #1
Blaz1295
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Help, can I OTA and which antenna?

I am about 25 miles out of town in the middle of the woods on the backside of a hill. I know great location but with my son's medical bills i am trying to ditch DTV. Here is what I am looking at:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...3cf4de66e06a7a

Just wondering if I could use an attic antenna or just mount one on the roof where the dish is now. Also, is there a good OTA DVR to record shows?

Thanks
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Old 21-Jan-2011, 4:09 PM   #2
John Candle
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Tv Antennas and Reception

How many Tv's will be connected??
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Old 21-Jan-2011, 4:25 PM   #3
Tower Guy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Blaz1295 View Post
Just wondering if I could use an attic antenna or just mount one on the roof where the dish is now. Also, is there a good OTA DVR to record shows?

Thanks
I'd get a Winegard HD7696P and a AP8700 preamp. Aim the antenna at 55°, and you'd get all the networks. Getting good reception in the attic is iffy for you.

The stations at 225° are strong enough too, but lack a full complement of networks and would not be easily combined with the 55 degree group.

The DVR to get is the Channel Master CM-7000PAL.
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Old 21-Jan-2011, 4:42 PM   #4
Dave Loudin
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Just to be sure the terrain modeling is as accurate as possible, use the "start maps" option to start. At the resulting google map, drag the icon to the place you are considering and update the antenna height to the right value (you can even play with antenna height to see what help it might provide.) Make the radar plot and share that with us.
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Old 21-Jan-2011, 7:39 PM   #5
ADTech
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If you are indeed on the "backside" of a hill and you're on the "wrong" side of the hill, you will find that TVFool's modeling will be overly optimistic due to their terrain averaging algorithm.

If so, actual reception will be far more challenging than the forecast would suggest.
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Last edited by ADTech; 21-Jan-2011 at 7:46 PM.
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Old 21-Jan-2011, 7:39 PM   #6
Blaz1295
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I would like to have all 3 TVs connected but can do just 2 if it helps.
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Old 21-Jan-2011, 7:58 PM   #7
ADTech
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If you can get a good enough signal for reliable reception on one set, there's almost always a way to provide a good enough signal to all of your sets. If necessary, amplification can be used if there isn't sufficient signal power available to overcome the losses in your distribution system. By and large, that makes the total number of sets a secondary piece of data, well behind the requirements of getting an adequate signal in the first place.

If it comes down to either using a much larger antenna (at additional cost) to overcome distribution losses or an amplifer to overcome those lossses, the amplifier often wins.
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Old 21-Jan-2011, 9:01 PM   #8
Blaz1295
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I am very much on the wrong side of the hill and opposite side of the city from the towers. All the towers are NE of the city about 10-12 miles and I am SW 25 miles. Is there anything I could get to test the signals before buying stuff that will not work?

Are the futuristic looking antennas made to catch signals or buyers? Most lures are made to catch fisherman not fish
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Old 21-Jan-2011, 9:40 PM   #9
Tower Guy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Blaz1295 View Post
Are the futuristic looking antennas made to catch signals or buyers? Most lures are made to catch fisherman not fish
A very good observation!

In a challenging location the best system is a 91XG for UHF and a Y10-7-13 or YA1713 for VHF with a 7777 preamp.

Last edited by Tower Guy; 22-Jan-2011 at 1:47 PM.
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Old 21-Jan-2011, 10:23 PM   #10
John Candle
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Tv Antennas and Reception

You have been researching Tv antennas and you have discovered that the market is flooded with scam antennas. The real outside on the roof Tv antennas are from , Winegard , Channelmaster , Antennacraft , Antennasdirect. What ADTech is Not telling you is that there are no perfect alogrithms. I prefer an optimistic algorithm. Not a pessimistic algorithm like antennaweb. I prefer to know what is out there and what I can or can not do to receive the Tv stations. Also what ADTech is not telling you is that it is better to use a bigger antenna , a bigger antenna collects more signal , an amplifier just makes what goes into the amplifier stronger , an amplifier does not create or collect more signal , and the amplifier is additional cost. Turn on the light when it's dark and see what it is. Follow Tower Guys advice. And yes you can connect 3 Tv's

Last edited by John Candle; 22-Jan-2011 at 11:16 AM.
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Old 21-Jan-2011, 10:34 PM   #11
John Candle
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Tv Antennas and Reception

Both Tower Guy and ADTech abereviate words and numbers assuming that every one knows what it is. The 7777 is Channelmaster CM7777 preamp..the preamp has inputs for VHF and UHF Tv antennas. The YA1713 and Y10-7-13 are both Tv antennas that have metal receiving element lengths sized and spaced for VHF channels 7 thru 13. You have a channel 8 station. Multipul channel antennas have metal receiving elements of many different lengths and the elements are spaced so the elements react with the other elements so as to increase the reception of all the elements. These multipul channel antennas receive very well for 90 % of reception situations. In dificult reception situations a cut to channel or a antenna that has limited band width will have 3 maybe 4 dB better gain then a multipul channel antenna. And the cut to channel or limited band width antenna is better because the area is bigger with elements the same size. From a certain point of view one might say the cut to channel/limited band width antenna catches more signal with elements that are all about the same size over a large area.

Last edited by John Candle; 22-Jan-2011 at 11:21 AM.
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Old 22-Jan-2011, 3:35 AM   #12
Blaz1295
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Can I use the mutli-plexier I have on my DTV setup now? It is 2-in and 8-out setup to my DVRs. It would be great if I could run from the antenna to this and not recable everything.
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