Proposed setup, Advice?

[Death Valley Donnie]

I was hoping one of the old pros could review my proposed antenna set up.

Here is my TV Fool report

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...9fbe98d57a8053

After doing some research I've purchased a Wingard HD8200U and a Wingard AP-8275, however I was wondering if it would be better to go with a Kitztech KT-200-Coax. If use the AP-8275 it would be about 35 ft down cable of the antenna and if I used the KT-200 I could place it 12 ft down cable of the antenna.

Other particulars,
All my wiring is RG6 75 Ohm cable
The antenna will be on a 10 ft mast above a metal roof
I would like to operate up to 5 televisions off this signal if doable, but could settle for one or two. Should I get a signal amp for the split? What type?
There will be 35 ft of cable from the antenna to the split point then about 25 to 60 ft of cable going to the televisions.

I plan on placing a wimax internet antenna on the same mast at either 6 ft or extending the mast another 5 ft, it is about the size of a small satellite dish, requires LOS to a tower 23 miles away and operates around the 2.5 GHz range.

I would like to get as many of the digital Vegas channels as possible.

Any advice, suggestions would be great.

[Dave Loudin]

You're in a pretty extreme situation. Check the path profiles for the Vegas stations (click on a listing in the table of your report), and you'll see that you're almost completely shadowed by mountains. Only KVBC, transmitting on Ch. 2, scatters sufficiently over the mountain to be picked up directly. The antenna you've picked out will be about the best you can do for the situation. I'll let others comment on the amplifiers/splitters.

You will have much better luck with the translators that are listed first in your report.

[mtownsend]

I'm with Dave on this one. All the Vegas channels are blocked by a very tall mountain, so you'll notice that they are ranked from lowest channel number to highest because the lower the frequency, the more it is able to diffract. Only channel 2 looks like it's receivable on a regular basis. All the rest are extremely weak and will be very difficult to pull in.

The local translator stations (if they all go digital and remain on the air) might be your only realistic chance at getting a larger selection of channels. Unfortunately, the status and technical data for translator stations is not kept up to date quite as well as it has been for the major broadcasters, so it's not always clear who's really on the air and what programming they carry.

I was wondering if it would be better to go with a Kitztech KT-200-Coax. If use the AP-8275 it would be about 35 ft down cable of the antenna and if I used the KT-200 I could place it 12 ft down cable of the antenna.

The Kitztech amp is rated at 0.4 dB Noise Figure, which means you might gain as much as around 2.4 dB of net Noise Margin compared to using the AP-8275 (~2.8 dB NF). Yes, your signals should improve, but I don't know if it's enough to enable you to pull in more Vegas channels (the prognosis does not look that good, but you'll never know until you try).

The difference between 35 feet and 12 feet of RG6 is probably going to be pretty small (maybe around 0.5 dB at VHF frequencies). On one hand, you might say that every little bit counts, but on the other hand, this tiny change is not going to be a make-or-break difference on any channels. On channels you can marginally receive (occasional break-ups or drop-outs), you might see a tiny improvement in channel stability, but that's about it.

[John Candle]

Go with the winegard AP8275 preamp mounted below the antenna. Use this 4 way splitter Channel Master CM3214. Get it from http://www.solidsignal.com. . You will have ghosting on the analog channels , the digital channels will be clear. Who knows when the translator analog channels will convert to digital.

[John Candle]

Here is something to think about. Free Satellite Tv. . http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=265

[Death Valley Donnie]

Thanks for all the advice.

I finally have all my parts and I will be doing the install tomorrow and I'll let you know how it all turns out.