Tv Reception with Tv antennas
 

As to the mileage numbers that are listed with antennas , the numbers are a general guide that do not mean much because of all the variable factors , open space , hills , mountains , trees , buildings , and etc. . Received signal strength is more important.

Thanks, sounds like if I just want to put up one antenna on a rotor, which I would prefer to do. That I should go with the HD7084 and be able to pick up all channels 2-69 if there signals are strong enough. I do have one more question? It compares gain on the winegarddirect website. One gain is listed as db gain over reference dipole and the other is front to back ratio. Whats the difference between the two, and how do I read it when it compares them to the different channel numbers they list as examples. On the bottom of there web page
http://www.winegarddirect.com/viewit...4P%29&p=HD7084

Thanks again

Winegard uses a 'standard dipole antenna' as the reference to compare the performance of their antennas against. An antenna specified with 10 dBd of gain will produce that much more signal than the reference dipole antenna.

A high front to back ratio means that a signal arriving from the rear of the antenna will not be received well.

For example, if you have two stations on the same channel, one to the east and the other to the west, an antenna with a high front to back ratio will be able to receive the station it's pointed at while receiving little interference from the station behind the antenna.

On the other hand, if you had desirable signals coming from opposite directions, an antenna with low front to back ratio would be able to receive signals from the front and rear without need of a rotator.

Sometimes you'll see the unit dBd which is the same as saying 'decibels referenced to a dipole'. Some vendors use an isotropic antenna as the reference standard and specify this using "dBi". A standard dipole has 2.15 dB gain compared to an isotropic antenna. So to compare the gain specifications of different vendors, you may need to add 2.15 to the dBd value or subtract 2.15 from the dBi value to get an 'apples to apples' comparison.

Do you think the HD7084 will give me good enough reception on my UHF channels? Says that its range is 45 miles approximately and all of my channels are over 55 miles away. I would like to just install one antenna for all the VHF and UHF channels on a rotor. Or do you think there is an all channel antenna that would be better than the HD7084.

Thanks

Mileage estimates are an unscientific method for marketing and sales to explain their product to customers who lack an understanding of the more precise gain figures provided by more reputable antenna manufactures.

TV Fool provides information regarding your predicted reception conditions that just a few years ago would have required the expertise and expense of a consulting engineering firm to obtain.

Using the predicted values from your TVFR, we can use the gain specifications of reputable antenna vendors to far more accurately match your conditions with the right antenna vs. using crude marketing mileage estimates.

I believe your best hope for reliable UHF reception is an XG91. IMO, reliable reception of real channel 4 will require more gain than any available consumer grade antenna can provide, but if you want to try, an HD8200U would be the best available option. For reception of real channel 7 and 9 I would use an Antennacraft Y-10713, it lends itself to stacking better than the YA1713 by Winegard. If needed, a second Y-10713 could be added to improve reception.

If you need to make this a single combination antenna installation, I would recommend the HD7698P.

Thanks for your replies. I think I have it pretty well figured out now. And I should go with an HD7698P antenna and not worry about getting channel 4 WHBF out of the Quad cities since it's on low VHF. I'm just hoping I can get this massive antenna up my steep hill and up the 35' tower. Any suggestions on how to haul this antenna up the tower. Should I climb the tower first and lift it up with a rope or try and carry this up while I'm climbing the tower. How do you guys do it? Any thoughts on how to do this the best way would be appreciated.

Thanks Dave

I climb, safety in, then haul equipment and tools. Having someone on the ground who can control a tag line and act as a second set of eyes is highly recommended. Using a haul rope and tag line allows you and the person on the ground to raise and lower equipment without getting tangled in the tower.

My career in telcom included some tower work including training in high angle rescue. I don't think you need to invest in a Class III rescue harness, but a basic sport harness, related accessories and training in their safe use is worth the money IMO. You also need to be able to inspect the tower and determine with certainty that it's safe to climb and support the loads you'll put on it with ropes and equipment.

At the risk of being accused of fear mongering, I know of real incidents where falling from even six feet has resulted in death.

Thanks for the advice I appreciate it. Having fallen 35' out of a tree with a chainsaw in my hand taught me a valuable lesson. I don't want to repeat that fall again. My tower does have a slight lean to it I know it's not straight up vertically. Is this going to cause a problem with my rotor do you think?

Thanks Again

I'm guessing at how sever the lean is... If the tower is safe to climb, I'd expect the rotator to tolerate a bit of 'out-of-plumb'.

Hello Again, Just got my rotor and HD7698P antenna with a pre- amp installed as directed with the help of all you good folks. My problem now is I don't pick up any stations at all no matter what direction I aim my antenna. What could be wrong? How do I go about figuring out if I did something wrong? I put in a guy wire from the antenna to the house so that I could run the rotor cable and coax cable off the ground. I wrapped the coax and rotor wire around this guy wire and also put on plastic ties to secure it to the guy wire. Would this create a problem? Please help me!

Thanks Dave

Tv antennas and Tv reception
 

Hello, Got my HD7698P antenna working and can pick up KWWL 7, KCRG 9, KIIN 12, KGAN 51 and their sub channels out of Cedar Rapids. Also with the rotor I can aim it towards Madison and pick up WKOW 26, WISC 50, WHA 20, and WMSN 49 and their sub channels. Which I'm happy to see that I'm receiving these channels. My question now is can I add another UHF only antenna and stack it with my HD7698P and join them together before the pre-amp so I don't have to run another coax to the antenna? Will this help me pick up even more stations or not? If so which would be the best UHF antenna to stack with my HD7698P. Please let me know your thoughts on this and if I should bother adding another antenna or not to pick up more stations.

Thanks Dave

Wow. You're getting down to predicted -15 dB noise margins, so it's going to be really hard to do any better. You most definitely do not want to try to stack anything. It's a real crapshoot as to which channels will be better and which ones will be worse. There will be losers.

Tv antennas and Tv reception
 

For your reception situation you Can Not combine the HD7698P antenna and the UHF antenna together. The two antennas will cross talk and the reception results will not be good. As a test you can connect them together with a splitter connected in reverse , go ahead and try it , the results will not be good.

Tv antennas and Tv reception
 

For reception of the madison stations install a Winegard HD9095P UHF antenna with a Winegard AP8700 preamp in a fixed position aimed at the Madison stations. Two separate coaxes of the two separate antenna systems will go all the way to the Tv location where one of the A/B switch will be used.

Thanks Everyone,
Sounds Like I'm doing good with the channels I'm getting. Once I got it installed I was thrilled with the stations I was receiving. So I guess I was just interested in seeing if I could receive even more channels. Thanks Again for all your help with my antenna and installation I really appreciate it.
Dave