Help finding antenna,near Richmond, VA
 

Hi; I'm new, rather clueless and trying to get my husband the most channels possible, since he's been kind enough to agree to ditching Dish. We live about 1/2 between Charlottesville & Richmond, Virginia. My info is at http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...5b945a43ffa2df
My husband has been interested in the Denny's stacked antenna, he is hoping to get Charlottesville stations on the backend. He's also been looking at the DB8 from Antenna's Direct. Our biggest problem is that we don't know what we're doing, and we've been overloaded with information we don't understand completely. Everyone touts their product and it's hard to feel you're getting accurate information. I've been looking and it seems our area is devoid of installers, so he'll have to install himself. We were thinking of the end of the house opposite the electric and chimney. With one of those crossbar things at the eve. There are trees all around us, not directly next to the house, at least we're on a hill. (My in-laws live at the bottom of the hill and get 5 stations with their old tv antenna.) The antenna would be on the west end of the house...it's a one story house. I'm probably missing a lot of information you need, so please excuse me and let me know what else you'd need to help with recommendations. Thank you so much for your time and bother!!

The stacker would do OK. Also consider the HD 7698P or HBU-44. Aim at 136 degrees. To try for a second group of stations consider a second antenna such as the DB8 or 91XG. Use an A/B switch to select which antenna to use. You'll probably want a preamp. The cheaper TVPRAMP-1 would be fine.

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The tvfool report is not showing any antenna height above ground.

The Signal strengths of the direction of Richmond are Weak , and the Signal strengths of the direction of Charlottesville are Very Weak.

Do not delete the first Tvfool report that shows no antenna height above ground.

To see how much signal strengths improve at higher antenna heights above ground.

Please make and post 2 more Tvfool reports use your exact address and make the antenna heights 25 and 40 feet above ground.

Thank you.
Here is the info:
25 feet:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...5b94b5cdf67c43
40 feet:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...5b9411aefd015b
Oh dear, I've just been reading more on the forums, and it seems to be a huge issue if you have more then one tv to watch...I didn't even think about it because we 'rabbit' two tvs off of two other tvs. So even though we have four tvs, we can only watch two channels....it would be nice to be able to watch all four tvs. So, I need info on that too....great day, I'm so terribly bad at this!! Thank you !!

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The signal strengths are improved at 25 and 40 feet antenna heights above ground.

No requirement to go to 40 feet antenna height above ground.

About 25 feet above ground will provide reliable reception of the Richmond Digital Broadcast Tv Stations/Channels.

Above the Peak of the Roof at about 25 feet above ground install a.

Channel Master CM4228HD antenna aimed at about 120 degree magnetic compass direction.

Here is how to aim antennas , http://www.kyes.com/antenna/pointing/pointing.html.

Use a Real and Actual magnetic compass to aim antenna , do not trust a cell phone compass.

Buy the CM4228HD antenna at , http://www.channelmasterstore.com , or ,

http://www.amazon.com.

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Install a , Channel Master , CM7778 preamplifier.

The FM radio interference trap of the preamp will be in the , in/on position.

Buy the CM7778 preamplifier at , http://www.channelmasterstore.com , or , http://www.amazon.com.

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For 1 Tv connected use No splitter.

For 2 Tv's connected use a , Holland Electronics , HFS-2D , 2 way splitter.

For 3 Tv's connected use a , Holland Electronics , HFS-3D , 3 way splitter.

Buy the , HFS-2D and HFS-3D , splitters at , http://www.hollandelectronics.com , or , http://www.amazon.com.

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Here are some above the roof antenna mounts.

http://www.ronard.com/909911.html.
Use the , ronard(911) , 5 foot tripod antenna mount.

http://www.ronard.com/34424560.html.
Use the , ronard (4560) , eave antenna mount.

http://www.ronard.com/ychim.html.
Measure around the chimney and use a , ronard (2212) , ronard (2218) , ronard (2224) .

Buy the ronard antenna mounts at , http://www.ronard.com , or , http://www.amazon.com

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Home Depot has , 10 foot 6 inch length of 1 and 3/8 diameter , TOP RAIL , chain link fence , PIPE , that makes good antenna mast pipe , the pipe can be cut shorter , the price is low at about 10 dollars.

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As always trees and tree leaves , plants and plant leaves , have a Negative Effect on Broadcast Tv Reception with a Tv antenna and so do buildings and other obstructions including your own roof and building.

Some and not all Negative Effects are.

Absorbing and Blocking Tv Reception.

Multi-Path Reflecting Tv Signals Bouncing All Around.

The Best Practice for Reliable Reception is to install the antenna at a location that has the least amount to no amount of obstructions of any type or kind in the directions of reception including your own roof and building.

The directions of reception at your location are , South East , East , for Richmond.

And West North West for Charlottesville.

For Reliable reception of the Charlottesville Tv stations at about 303 degree magnetic compass direction , I recommend a higher antenna height of about 40 feet above ground.

You can Test the reception of the Charlottesville Tv stations with the Tv antenna at about 25 feet above ground.

Aim the antenna at about 303 degree magnetic compass and rescan for channels.

Thank you for the information Tower Guy, I'm printing it all out for my husband. I appreciate your help.

Thank you Teleview, I appreciate all the trouble you put into this...even links~! Wow...I'm very grateful for all the information, it's so helpful. It doesn't all seem so overwhelming now. Thank you!! I'm printing it out for my husband. (I really appreciate the money saving mast...awesome!)

I'm only a few miles down rt. 522 from you. By recommendation from telview I purchased a Clearstream 4 antenna plus the vhs kit . I removed the screen off the antenna witch slows the antenna to receive signals from front and back. I receive good reception from both Richmond and Charolettsville. If you don't care about receiving channel 12 out of Richmond then you won't need the vhs kit. I don't need a preamp. I don't receive channels 16 or 27 from cville but they are just repeats of the major networks. No big loss. Hope this helps as to reception in this location.

Thank you kalawn! My husband will be pleased to hear that! My in laws don't get channel 12...as a matter of fact, my sister in Lakeside doesn't get it...apparently they have some issues, but that's not a big deal with us, we don't watch anything on it. I appreciate the info a lot, thank you again!!

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kalawn location -->On The Hill<--> has Much Stronger Signal Strength Tv stations of both directions.

The Tv stations are in the Green reception zone and are LOS=Line Of Sight.

The Tv stations are easy to receive.

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tabgp are Much Weaker Signal Strength in the Yellow and Red reception zones and have , 2 Edge Path Obstructions=hills/mountains.

The Tv signals are not so easy to receive , this is why I am recommending the CM4228HD antenna and the Preamplifier.

And get the antenna height up some where about 25 feet.

Thank you Teleview, you are so incredibly helpful!! Thank you!

THANK YOU!!!! You all are so helpful. We got a smaller, cheap antenna to see if we got signals okay. At first we only got channel 12, then my 12 year old figured out we had the tv set to the wrong input (we have no idea HOW we got 12 on that!) we got over 20 channels, just 6 feet over our roof height! We pointed it different directions to see what happened and pointing it toward Charlottesville we got those stations, and Richmond on the backside AND Ashland on the side! My husband is just tickled to death. He had been a HUGE Denny's Stacker fan, but after about 6 attempts to contact him with no results, he's decided to go with the recommendation of Teleview...which ought to be tickled no end with the results. Thank you all, you've been wonderful help!

THANK YOU!!!! You all are so helpful. We got a smaller, cheap antenna to see if we got signals okay. At first we only got channel 12, then my 12 year old figured out we had the tv set to the wrong input (we have no idea HOW we got 12 on that!) we got over 20 channels, just 6 feet over our roof height! We pointed it different directions to see what happened and pointing it toward Charlottesville we got those stations, and Richmond on the backside AND Ashland on the side! My husband is just tickled to death. He had been interested in Denny's Stacker Antenna, but after about 6 attempts to contact him with no results, he's decided to go with the recommendation of Teleview...which ought to be tickled no end with the results. Thank you all, you've been wonderful help!

what antenna did you end up going with? how strong is your reception on vhf channel 12?

Sorry for the double post...I had a heck of a time getting tvfool to work on my computer last night and thought it didn't post the first time.
So the antenna we got to test is just a little RCA 60 mile antenna. Channel 12 was crystal clear on the front side and just a little pixalated on the backside when we pointed it to Charlottesville. I think my husband is going to get a big antenna, up high and mess around to see where he gets the most...seems to be pointing to Charlottesville and getting the Richmond signal off the backside...I'll post when he's done with his rig...may take about a month or so for him to get it all together.

You all are so helpful. I'm bothering you again. Okay, so we've pretty much decided that the best signal is near the chimney, our chimney isn't in good shape so we have to go with a tripod. Now we're stuck on grounding. I have read and re-read the stuff I've found, but we're confused. We want it very safe. We have no idea about the electric ground for the house, do we call the electric company? We're about as stupid as you can get with regards to grounding. We're both paranoid about putting a giant lightening attraction device on our roof, and overwhelmed with the information that we don't understand. Do any of you know a site that gives grounding -for-dummies information for a roof mount tripod??? Thanks so much.

A strap style clamp like this, http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp...ce=google_base or a bronze clamp like this, http://www.alightingstore.com/1-25-i...ze-screws.html are good choices for making a reliable and lasting connection to a mast or tripod frame. It's very likely that the big box home centers will carry this type product in their electrical departments.

#10 AWG copper wire, insulated or bare is readily available at the same big box stores, in full rolls and by the foot. Solid or stranded is fine. Use this to run from the mast or tripod to the electrical service ground. The big box stores will have clamps like this, http://www.homedepot.com/p/Blackburn...1-10/202907615 for connecting to a ground rod. Avoid sharp bends in the wire run. The mast ground can be any length... but try to use the most direct route if at all possible.

This graphic, http://ecmweb.com/qampa/code-qa-95 is very generic, but it shows the common locations you might find the grounding cable that runs from your service panel to a rod driven into the ground, usually outside below the electrical meter. If you don't see a cable connecting to a ground rod, the National Electrical Code would direct you to several other places that are suitable sources of 'ground'. A clamp on the metal conduit entering or exiting the meter base is a viable option.

If you are not comfortable doing this work yourself, a licensed electrician should have little difficulty installing an Inter-system Bonding Termination devise for you. Example: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded...IBTB/202194170 Then you would have a convenient and permanent connection point for grounding antennas, phone service and (yuck) cable TV service.

To complete the antenna system grounding, a coax grounding block should be installed close (10' or less) to the exiting ground rod or alternate connection to the electrical service grounding system. Use a short piece of #10 AWG wire to connect the grounding block to the electrical service ground rod. The coax from the antenna to the ground block should be run outside the building, then the 'output' of the grounding block can be run inside. http://www.amazon.com/1GHz-Single-F-.../dp/B001I5610E

Here are a few illustrations that may be helpful. http://ecmweb.com/code-basics/articl...sion-equipment While it's not just one or two sentences, it's fairly brief and has some decent graphics.

And lastly, http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=901 post # 20 is a summary

Thank you so much GroundUrMast! We'll go over it all, and we may just get an electrician to make sure we don't mess it up! You're so helpful, I really appreciate it.

Hello....we've been working on getting everything up and running. So far so good! One question regarding grounding. Looking at the NEC illustration it seemed that they ran the grounding wire down the same path as the coax...so that's what my husband did, with bigger curves in the grounding wire, but they run down the side of the house next to each other. But then he ran across information that said they shouldn't be close to each other, should we change it?
We ended up with the Denny's stacker....my husband wasn't happy just buying an antenna, so we bought several antennas....the UPS guy is our friend now! Anyway, Denny's did no better or worse then the larger ones, and it's smaller and stood up to the wind in a couple of big storms well, so my husband went with that one, and returned the others. We get all the Richmond stations (6.1,.2,.3/8.1,.2/12.1,2./23.1,.2,.3,57.1) out of Charlottesville we get the 19s and 29s and we get the 65s out of Ashland. At night we get some tropo channels from Fairfax and DC.

Thanks for the project update.

If the coax had no insulation on the outside, and the ground wire was also bare, I can understand why one would want to avoid running them together. Even at that, it would be a fine technical point at best. Insulated coax next to bare or insulated ground wire that terminates at the electrical service ground rod or equivalent connection point gives me no 'heartburn' at all. I'd leave it as is.