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Originally Posted by twestwood
I tried the coat hanger antenna from youtube,I'm on a budget, but left it inside by the tv just to see if I could get any channels. No luck. I have some trees,25 to 30 feet tall, about 75 feet away from the house and I was wanting to put my antenna on my old dish mount which is about 12 feet off the ground. The roof ridge and chimney may cause some interference depending on the direction of signal (Atlanta stations).
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It looks like you have quite a few channels mostly in the north, but spread over a wide range of directions. Most of the transmitters within range of your location serve the Greenville market. There is one channel on low-VHF (WCES, ch 6), all the other channels are on high-VHF or UHF (ch 7 and higher). The signal strengths are a little weak, but are still strong enough to be easily within reach of a rooftop antenna.
This means the following:
1) If you want to get all of these stations, you will need an antenna rotator to cover such a wide range of directions. I don't think you'll be able to keep the antenna in just one position to get all of the channels at the same time.
2) If you care about WCES, then you'll need a full band antenna (full VHF and UHF). If you are willing to sacrifice WCES, there are channel 7-69 (high-VHF and UHF) antennas available.
3) With the proper rooftop antenna and rotator setup, you should be able to get most of the channels down into the "red" zone on the list. A pre-amp can help you get channels further down into the red zone, and is recommended for a situation like this.
If you are on a limited budget, you need to consider the cost of a roof mount antenna, antenna rotator, and pre-amp. This should give you quite a few channels.
A dish mount (usually a J-mount type arm) is not going to be adequate to support an antenna rotator and antenna together. A separate antenna mast mount of some kind is recommended.
If you go with a lesser setup, then something has got to give. A less capable (i.e., less expensive) setup will still work on some channels, but you'll very likely end up missing out on some of the other channels. Whether you go with a less expensive, fewer channel setup or a more expensive, more channel setup is up to you.
The alternative, of course, is to go with a pay service like cable or satellite, but then over time, that ends up being more expensive than any one-time antenna setup costs. You'll have to decide on which option works best for you.
As for some starter recommendations:
>> Use a chimney mount (like
this) or a wall/eave mount (like
this) to hold a vertical mast above the roof. It recommended that the antenna end up about 5 feet above the top of the roof.
>> An antenna rotator like the
Channel Master 9521A works well.
>> Some good full band antennas (to include WCES) are the Winegard HD7084P or HD8200U, or the Antennacraft HD1200 or HD1800.
>> Some good high-VHF / UHF antennas (does not include WCES) are the Winegard HD7696P, HD7697P, or HD7698P, or the Antennacraft HBU-44 or HBU-55. Since these channels don't support channels 2-6, they can eliminate some of the longer antenna elements and you end up with a slightly narrower, lighter antenna (although they don't really cost any less than the full band antennas).
Hopefully, this is enough to get you started on your research. Feel free to ask questions.
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I do have a tv that is about 5 years old, and am not sure if it will handle the digital signal. I could track down the user manual if it has the info there.
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If your TV is 36" or larger and built after July 1, 2005, it is required to have a built-in DTV tuner.
If your TV is 25" or larger and built after March 1, 2006, it is required to have a built-in DTV tuner.
All TVs, regardless of size, built after March 1, 2007, are required to have a built-in DTV tuner.
Our digital TV broadcast standard is called ATSC. If your manual states that the built-in tuner can receiver ATSC (it's quite common to see something like ATSC/NTSC/QAM in the tuner specs), then it does have ability to tune to DTV broadcasts.
FYI, QAM is the standard for digital cable signals and does not apply to OTA broadcasts. NTSC is the standard for analog TV signals used by both OTA and cable systems.