Help with antenna choice & placement

[tmanXX]

I want to purchase an antenna that will allow me to pick up all of the green and hopefully the yellow stations. Getting some of the red would be even better...

Here is my Signal Analysis: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...e1c6a35743c684

Ideally, an indoor antenna placed on an exterior, southern facing wall is what I was first thinking. Maybe something like HD Frequency Cable Cutter Indoor/Outdoor HD Digital TV Antenna (CC-17).

Then I was thinking that might be enough. If no, I may have to mount something outside to reliably get what I want. In that case, would have to buy some sort of mount and either attach it to a pergola in my back yard or to my chimney. The antenna that I was leaning to is Antennas Direct, inc DB8e Extreme Range Multi-Directional Bowtie UHF Antenna.
If mounted outside, would I need to mount it above my roofline or is just 10' or so enough?
Could I get by with an attic mounted one?

I request some assistance from those with experience before I blindly purchase something that may not meet my needs.

Thank you in advance!

[StephanieS]

Greetings TmanXX,

Envious TVfool plot. Many have wished such easy reception chances.

This said, working Sacramento and Chico look like your main markets you can catch. San Francisco is likely out of reach.

Sacramento is a cool place for over the air broadcasts due to the geography. It's amazing you can be 120 miles from Sacramento up the I-5 Corridor and still have line of sight back to Sacto transmitters from the northern California foothills.

Anyhow, I digress.

If I were putting a system on, I'd use a two antenna system that would operate independently. The reasoning here is for Sacramento, you don't need much. An Antennacraft HBU11k will do everything and then some orientated to magnetic heading 190.

Now, Chico has opportunities for reception. However, Northern California has a lot of signals this is where adjacents and co-channels can become issues. Try listening to a weak radio station, Alice 97.3 from the Bay Area for example. Go 3 blocks and you may hear three different signals swapping over each other on the same frequency.

Chico's CBS, FOX and PBS are doable according to this map. Even the ABC might be fun to stick a Antennacraft Y10713 beam up to see if you can make 150 miles work. However, Chico's ABC, FOX and PBS report co-channel interference. Translation - there may be signal to receive from Chico, but there is signal from elsewhere that'll prevent you from decoding the Chico signal. Notably, KGO from the bay area is on Channel 7 as is Reno's NBC affiliate. Neither would likely decode for you, but could provide enough signal to keep KRCR from decoding *if* reception was possible.

The short story is with all this co-channel interference going on you may see most of Chico or you may only see CBS. You just have to stick something appropriate in the air to try.

As the antenna for Sac signals, the aforementioned HBU11 pointed at magnetic 190 is an excellent antenna for your signal situation.

Now, the Chico dedicated antenna system. Remember, this is a wildcard. Your expectations must be "let's see what I get." If you build a dedicated antenna system for Chico and expect reliable reception of all signals from up north, you'll likely be irritated and feel you wasted money. With all the co-channels mentioned above, we just can't predict what all those clashing signals will cause.

If I built this separate antenna system to *try* for the majority of Chico signals I would install a Antennas Direct DB8e for UHF orientated to magnetic heading 333. I would add the Antennacraft Y10713 for an attempt at KRCR ABC. Orientate the Y10713 to magnetic heading 318.

So, this is (3) antennas. Mount on your roof with DB8e on top of your 10' pole with both panels facing the same heading. 4' below on mast mount Y10713. Purchase Antennas Direct EU385CF antenna combiner. This combines two antennas into one coax. DB8e coax to UHF input, Y10713 coax to VHF into single lead down into home.

On a separate location on your roof, Mount HBU11k on J-Pole and orientate to magnetic heading 190. Run coax into home.

Both coaxes come inside and feed into an A/B switch. This allows you to toggle between signals and antenna systems. Run antenna feed to TV or distribution amplifier to other TVs.

It's complicated and it's much work, however to have a shot at those red signals from Chico, this is pretty much what I see it needing for you to have a chance.

Then again, you could go easy and just buy the HBU11k and mount it be plenty happy with Sac signals.

It's all how much effort you want to put into it and if you'd be irritated after installing the Chico system that you only added one or two channels.

It's up to you how "big" you want to go.

Cheers.

PS. None here advocate attic installations. They are prone to multipath and signal problems. Yes, you could likely install in the attic for Sac signals and have a moderate chance of success. Chico will not be received under any circumstance by an attic system. Your best solution is to always mount on the roof with no obstacles or foliage in your immediate pathway.

[tmanXX]

WOW! Awesome reply. Thank you!

I am surprised that I should be able to get most of the local channels with a $35 antenna. Is it worth spending more and getting the next size up? No amplifier needed?
As for the Chico stations, since its sort of a separate installation, I will get the HBU22K installed and see if I'm happy with what it gets. If not, I will start exploring those options.

Cant wait to place my order and get this installed.

Thanx again!

[StephanieS]

Preamps are best used in weak signal situations where you have long coaxial runs. They don't "improve" signal. Instead, they more compensate for signal loss over long runs. Say, 150' and split 4 times.

You have healthy amount of your Sacramento signals. If you intend to run to more than 2 TVs with 150' total run of coax a distribution amp may be needed. When you split signals you degrade the signal coming down from the antenna. Many find this out the hard way splitting a signal 4 ways and then two of the TVs have troubles with certain signals and they are unsure why.

RE: The next size up mounted outdoors. Sure you could do it. Do you need it? Probably not. The benefits may not yield much other than some off the wall foreign language or religious programming. You could put a DB8e in the air for your Sac signals. It'll work fine and do a great job. In your case the HBU11k mounted out doors will provide the vast majority of Sacramento broadcasts and likely a chunk of the peripheral broadcasts will be received. An HBU22 would be my choice if I were doing an attic install. Why? Roofs slice and dice signals. Think of adding a solid object a signal must pass through to get to your antenna. It'll be weakened and therefore require an antenna with more gain and ability to compensate for the signal's weakened state.

Yup, you could up and receiving a boatload of Sac stations with $50 or so invested in antenna (HBU11k) and coax.

If you wanted to play with a single antenna option that wasn't the HBU11 or HBU22. A DB8e could be fun to point one panel to magnetic 181 for Sac (more than plenty) and the second panel point to magnetic 333 for Chico CBS and FOX attempt. This set up runs you up well past 100 bucks for antenna, mounting gear and coax but gives you some ability to test if you see Chico's strongest two signals at your locale. The only tripping point here may be the DB8e may have an issue with KVIE and KXTV which both operate in the high-VHF band. These two signals have good signal so chances are reasonable that the DB8e will see them without a small supplemental antenna to augment VHF reception (HBU11).

Cheers.

[tmanXX]

Awesome! Thanks again StephanieS. I just ordered the HBU11K and 50' of coax. This setup will only be pushing one device, a TabloTV. I use that as my OTA tuner/DVR.
I will start with just the HBU11K and work from there if its not adequate.