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Old 2-Aug-2014, 2:10 PM   #1
corvairbob
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what can i use for an antenna?

well i asked this before but then got caught in regisration and the question got lost so her goes again

first off my zip is 49442 muskegon mi. about 5 miles from lake michigan i have a good line of sight at 30 foot elevation from the ground to the west.

what i have done so far is i got 2 antennas like the ones you see on ebay and pointed them to the east and did a signal search i got about 5 stations. then i turned it to the west and did the same thing and got about 40 stations 6 from the east and the rest from the west Milwaukee. then what i did was connect both antennas using a splitter and pointed one to the east and one to the west and did the search, now i get 5 stations. so i started all over and either antenna i get 5 stations and only from the east. so i must have burned out the amps n them by using the splitter.

then i get this antenna from Israeli. they said it was the best one and that got me 7 channels from the east and 5 from the west but they are the east channels none from Milwaukee.

so what am i doing wrong here besides getting thes from ebay? the one from Israeli has a box on it and the box has no connections to the rest of the antenna. if i remove the box i get the same amount of channels. so i figure that is junk.

any help here. if you use my zip you see i have a lot of channels available to me. today it seems i have less to the west than before. but it seems i should be able to get more from the east. even if i do a search with the antennas pointing to the ne and se i shoe get more then i do. seems i get better from the back of the antennas then the front. thanks
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Old 2-Aug-2014, 2:48 PM   #2
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Post a TV Fool report for your location. Then we can offer better advice.
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Old 2-Aug-2014, 3:57 PM   #3
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Old 2-Aug-2014, 4:22 PM   #4
corvairbob
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http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...e1c63fe37fbe1a

that is the link to the zip code i was using. the zip code is 49442

the antennas are on ebay like this one and this one
351133015152 HDTV-1080P-Outdoor-Amplified-Antenna-HD-TV-Digital-Rotor-Remote-360-150-Miles

351104130498 High Quality & Gain Outdoor UHF DTV DVB-T DTT Antenna

what else as far as channels all of them that will be practical abc cbs nbc pbs ind
starting from the north and the east half of the chart
42,50,9,32,26,46,29,13,15,48,44,10,19,7,28,45,24,25,33,5,

as many of these as i can get. if i need 2 antennas then what equipment should i use to couple them together to get the most. to the west are a few but being i have so many to the east looking west may not be practical. thanks that is all i know i can tell you about.
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Old 2-Aug-2014, 4:25 PM   #5
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Can you mount your antenna or antennas outside on your roof or on a small mast in the backyard? If so, how high up?

No idea what these antennas are since a Google search brings up nothing. Must be something like the Lava type antenna.
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Old 2-Aug-2014, 4:40 PM   #6
corvairbob
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in the tv signal section on this forum i entered 30 high on the roof and 40442 for zip.

the antennas are the ones ebay has listed i have not clue to the kind they are but the numbers if entered in ebay should ring them up.

351104130498 High Quality & Gain Outdoor UHF DTV DVB-T DTT Antenna they say uhf only.

the other one
351133015152 HDTV-1080P-Outdoor-Amplified-Antenna-HD-TV-360-150-Miles.

this is one if it works





this is the other.
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Old 2-Aug-2014, 4:41 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by corvairbob View Post
in the tv signal section on this forum i entered 30 high on the roof and 40442 for zip.

the antennas are the ones ebay has listed i have not clue to the kind they are but the numbers if entered in ebay should ring them up.

351104130498 High Quality & Gain Outdoor UHF DTV DVB-T DTT Antenna they say uhf only.

the other one
351133015152 HDTV-1080P-Outdoor-Amplified-Antenna-HD-TV-360-150-Miles.

this is one if it works





this is the other.
Still no links showing. Only question marks.

Are you open to buying a real outdoor antenna and then mounting it on a rotor on the roof? If so, you can get most of the channels down to the red level in your report.
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Old 2-Aug-2014, 4:44 PM   #8
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Are there any channels in red that you wish to receive? If not, what is the lowest channel in yellow that you wish to receive?

I saw the antennas on Ebay. Cheap stuff. Won't survive a Michigan winter IMO.
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Old 2-Aug-2014, 4:47 PM   #9
corvairbob
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i can but then every time i change positions i have to do a channel search. i don't know how to get away from that? i tried moving the antenna and then adding the channels but they did not come in but if i did the search they came in. that is why i wanted to do 2 antenna so when i did the search i could get them all at one time. any thoughts

if i cold get the picture to work i would post it but it wants a url and i don't have that info for my computer.
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Old 2-Aug-2014, 4:50 PM   #10
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Two antennas pointed in different directions coupled into an AB switch would do the trick. I do recommend buying better antennas though. Again, which channel on your report is the weakest channel that you wish to watch?
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Old 2-Aug-2014, 4:52 PM   #11
corvairbob
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Originally Posted by Billiam View Post
Are there any channels in red that you wish to receive? If not, what is the lowest channel in yellow that you wish to receive?

I saw the antennas on Ebay. Cheap stuff. Won't survive a Michigan winter IMO.
what is the difference in trying to get the ones in red compared to yellow. are the red ones the furthest away? or the ones labeled with the c?

and they need to survive the winters for sure.
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Old 2-Aug-2014, 4:56 PM   #12
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Originally Posted by Billiam View Post
Two antennas pointed in different directions coupled into an AB switch would do the trick. I do recommend buying better antennas though. Again, which channel on your report is the weakest channel that you wish to watch?
i tried using the a b switch but i got the same with the searches every time i moved the switch i had to do a search again. so i got a device that looks like a splitter but they said it would either split or couple the signal. it i put multiple antennas on it i got one output if i one antenna on it i could get multiple outputs.
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Old 2-Aug-2014, 5:06 PM   #13
teleview
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Last edited by teleview; 4-Aug-2014 at 12:36 AM. Reason: Clarify information and typos.
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Old 2-Aug-2014, 5:57 PM   #14
Billiam
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What kind of TV are you using? Something is wrong if you lose your signals by switching antennas with an AB switch. That should not impact your signal coming to the TV at all if one antenna is in use while the other is not.
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Old 2-Aug-2014, 7:40 PM   #15
corvairbob
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i was using one of those digital boxes only because i have a setup in the garage to test this and get it corrected. but i did try it on the proscan i have in the living room and that did the same thing. it would get the channels when i pointed it towards ne and when i moved it to the se the ne channels would go away and i had to search again.
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Old 3-Aug-2014, 12:08 AM   #16
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Originally Posted by corvairbob View Post
what is the difference in trying to get the ones in red compared to yellow. are the red ones the furthest away? or the ones labeled with the c?

and they need to survive the winters for sure.
Channels in Red on your report are the weakest signals. Yellow are fairly strong and Green are strong. Grey you can forget about.
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Old 3-Aug-2014, 12:10 AM   #17
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Originally Posted by corvairbob View Post
i was using one of those digital boxes only because i have a setup in the garage to test this and get it corrected. but i did try it on the proscan i have in the living room and that did the same thing. it would get the channels when i pointed it towards ne and when i moved it to the se the ne channels would go away and i had to search again.
Very odd. I have a Samsung TV and that will not usually lose a channel that I've scanned into it even after I rotate my antenna to another direction. If I rotate it back to the other direction and punch in that channel it will be there. Same thing with the Insignia Digital Box and Insignia TV that I own.

What digital box are you using? I have heard some TV's have this problem but not sure about digital boxes. You may unfortunately be using the wrong TV in that respect.
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Old 3-Aug-2014, 1:08 AM   #18
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Some TV set have "rotor-friendly" tuners that allow either additional channels to be scanned or to be added manually but other so not.

If you nave one of those that do not have that feature, your choices are: 1) Replace the TV set with one that has a friendly tuner, 2) Deal with rescanning when it's needed, 3) Attempt to build a mini-cable headend with antennas pointing in different directions, or 4) Just accept that reception from one direction is adequate. Trying to pound a square peg into a round hole will just leave you frustrated.
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Old 3-Aug-2014, 1:27 AM   #19
corvairbob
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sounds like i'm in a fix. what i will do is point the antenna in the se and scan for channels and then move it to the ne and see if it will keep the channels i try to enter, there may be a place in the menu i missed i will get the book and double check and if i can't find any reference i will see if i can locate a proscan forum and ask them for help thanks.

what would be needed to make the cable headend to be able to point 2 antenna in different directions. is there a diagram on the site i can look at with parts listings.?
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Old 3-Aug-2014, 1:30 AM   #20
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Originally Posted by corvairbob View Post
sounds like i'm in a fix. what i will do is point the antenna in the se and scan for channels and then move it to the ne and see if it will keep the channels i try to enter, there may be a place in the menu i missed i will get the book and double check and if i can't find any reference i will see if i can locate a proscan forum and ask them for help thanks.

what would be needed to make the cable headend to be able to point 2 antenna in different directions. is there a diagram on the site i can look at with parts listings.?
Yeah, it could be a shortcoming of your TV. If you can afford it, I would recommend the Insignia brand of TV. Inexpensive yet they have a good tuner for over the air viewing and it will hold your channel in the listings for you even if you can't receive it at that time.
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