This should have been simple.. I thought

[JohnnyP]

I live in town and am trying to pick up just my local channels. I bought a basic antenna then swapped for a slightly "better" and now I have an amplified indoor antenna. With each I pick up almost all the channels I need to pick up before I can cut the cord. I can not for the life of me pick up 3/15.1/PBS. I can 17, 18, 30, and 34 and some others but not 3. I dont get it. I tried 2 TVs (just in case?) and still nothing. Is there something that Im doing wrong?

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...2c1584cc235295


Thanks!

[timgr]

It's a VHF-low station at channel 3. The wavelength is very long. Your small antenna just isn't very sensitive to that long a wavelength. All the other channels you mention are UHF, with a much shorter wavelength.

According to this site, you can make a pair of rabbit ears work at VHF low frequencies by adding metal balls to the ends of rabbit ears - a "capacitive hat" - won't improve the tune but apparently improves the match (impedance match). http://www.hdtvprimer.com/antennas/RabbitEars.html

What I would do ... do you have an attic or closet where you can put a larger antenna? I'd get an inexpensive all-band antenna and put it somewhere indoors, in place of the fancy amplified antenna. Maybe a 5884? You don't need an amplifier for those stations - it's not helping you. http://www.antennacraft.net/Antennas...llChannel.html You have lots of signal in the air ... but you need a physically larger antenna to get ch. 3.

[JohnnyP]

Thanks for your quick reply! Once I read your reply I started to research more into other options (just to compare other brands not that there is anything wrong with your recommendation) and I found this,
http://www.channelmasterstore.com/Ma..._p/cm-5016.htm
to my understanding it covers the 54 to 216mhz range and that would be suitable for me to pick up 3?

To answer your question I could attic mount as I have a way to run from the attic to the basement and back into the wall to the TV. Its single story and it would be less the 50ft run to my main TV.

Since I have your attention, is there anything special I should use as far as a splitter to connect multiple TVs?

[timgr]

Compare the specs. Look here - http://www.channelmasterstore.com/v/...ct%20Sheet.pdf and here http://www.antennacraft.net/pdfs/5884.pdf

Very similar in performance to the 5884 - 2 dB gain vs 2.5 for VHF low (that's a 47% difference in terms of signal power), 50" boom length vs the 5884's 58", $89 list vs. $43 and free shipping by Radio Shack... up to you.

Really, for VHF low (ch 3) the boom length is going to be the most salient characteristic, wrt how much gain the antenna has. A serious VHF-low antenna could have a 12-15' boom length. Comparable boom lengths are going to perform similarly.

At a 50' run you will probably have enough signal amplitude to use a passive splitter. There are plenty of them on the market. Split anywhere along the run that you wish. Test if there is a difference with the splitter in the circuit or not. If you need more amplitude, a medium gain amplifier at the mast would be plenty.

hth!

[timgr]

And, you'll need a 300-to-75 ohm balun to go with the 5884. http://www.amazon.com/WINEGARD-TV-29...dp/B0029U2XH2/ It's not included.