Installing 2 antennas answer please ASAP, Installer is on his way!
 

I had another thread going but no answer so thought I would start a new thread. My husband and I are new to this which seems to be a common first line to many posts as I've gone through many posts as to not bug you guys but alas, I am here. We have an (RCAANT3036WR) 60 Mile Long Range Antenna (just purchased for $56 from walmart) and Radio Shack 12-259 Preamp but am replacing it with a winegard 8700, also new. Here is our analysis...
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...60b5e0b9a2e98e
Our issue is that we can not get channel 6.1 ABC and the 12.1 PBS is also very sketchy. We put the antenna on the top of the house aimed at 85 degrees. I am very pleased that we get the ION channel so do not want to change direction but thought that since we get 100% of the 3.1 KYW channel that seems to be on the same line as the 6.1 of which we literallly get a "no signal" option??? Any ideas? We do get (34 channels) all other networks including the CW. We are shooting for signal at three tv's. Would like to be able to run tivo also. I am curious. My husband travels a lot for work and this has been pretty stressful for him so I am hiring an antenna installer to move our antenna to the highest part of our roof and he is coming out on Today. At only $86 per hour I'm guessing it really should not take him more than a couple of hours. I am wondering if it really will be worth it to move it (I am guessing that it would go from about 25' high to 35' high) and And number 2, we did have another smaller antenna that did get the Harrisburg stations perfectly so is it possible to have him just add the other antenna to the mast or will we get some ghosting and need some sort of switch to go back and forth? We were hoping to add a DVR to the setup and if we need to add a switch then the dvr would not work if the switch was not flipped. It may be a crazy question but I thought I would ask. The other antenna was an RCA ant751R. I was extremely happy with the quality as it was rated for 36 miles and pulled in up to 55 miles, i just wanted to get a bigger one that was maybe more consistent with it's signal but if we added the smaller one to my larger RCA I would get all the channels I wanted...Thoughts? And Thank you!!!

If adding reception of WPVI-ABC, real channel 6, and WHYY-PBS, real channel 12 is the goal, increasing the height of the antenna is a logical next step.

The ANT3036WR is generally the correct type antenna, it's designed to receive real channels 2 through 69.

Reception of real channel 6 is more difficult due to higher noise levels at that frequency.

If this fails, you're facing a decision to consider a more capable antenna such as the Winegard HD8200U and possibly higher mounting options such as a tower.

Combining the signals from the ANT3036WR and another antenna will almost always produce less reliable reception. Use of a second antenna is usually done with the aid of an A/B switch.

Another possible solution for using multiple antennas involves an additional set-top-box tuner. SD tuners are fairly cheap. HD tuners cost a bit more... Channel Master and Pico Macom are a couple of examples of HD capable STBs. With one antenna feeding the existing TV tuner and the second antenna feeding the STB, the TV remote will usually let you select the HDMI or video input of the TV.

In your case, you would potentially need a DVR dedicated to each antenna.

Thank you so much. The installer has suggested a rotator instead of 2 antennas. I have googled rotators and hav not seen any stellar products out there, any suggestions? We raised the antenna upon your suggestion, thx. You were correct of course, wpvi is not coming in too great even at the new height.

For medium to large size antennas, the typical consumer grade rotators are a bit weak, IMO. However, the NTE U105 and U106 combined with the TB105support bearing is a strong combination. http://www.nteinc.com/ecgproducts/pd...na_rotator.pdf

The next step up comes at a price. The Hy-Gain AR-40 is a very robust unit compared to the consumer grade antenna rotators.