Antenna choices?
 

I have a place located on the North side of a lake – directly on the lake (zip 54179). It is located about 60 miles North (& slightly West) of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The antenna would be facing south, across the lake toward Green Bay approx. 50-60 miles Southeast. The surrounding area is heavily forested. I would REALLY like to mount a quality antenna in the attic. The place is a 2 story, wood frame, vinyl sided building.

The tvfool.com thread is:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...d2433b9dbf24d6

I’m not sure, but does the report indicate the top 6 stations are green, thus an indoor set-top would work. I’d be surprised, so I’m not sure about the report.
Ideally, I would like to locate the antenna in the attic of the second story of the wood framed house.

I would be running the antenna to 1 or 2 plasma or lcd 46” tv’s for watching over the air broadcast stations.

I don't see any green stations. The best you have are yellow ca 15-30 dB NM. Nothing is LOS.

It seems like the color designations (ie indoors, attic, outdoors, impossible) are quite optimistic in most cases. Clearly, if you have say 50 dB NM, you are near certain to pick that up on an indoors antenna, as long as you aren't otherwise obstructed. The report takes no account of other local obstructions, like buildings and trees, and the building materials of your home. Wood frame and vinyl or wood siding are likely the most favorable possibility, as long as you don't have foil in the walls or aluminized bubblewrap or such in the way.

Considering that you're not keen on a big rooftop array (like I have now), in your case I'd probably go big and try for the attic installation. All the stations at heading 160 that you might realistically hope to get are UHF, so I'd pick an Antennas Direct DB8e and point both panels that way. If that does not work out, you can move the antenna to the rooftop. Put the antenna with both panels pointing at heading 160, well clear of any wires, piping, chimneys etc in the attic.

Ohh. Ohh. Heavily forested. That's bad.

You may find that you get nothing till you get above the trees. Or your only shot may be a location where the 160 heading is through a gap in the trees. Trees are bad news for UHF... Look here at the section "Trees and UHF" - http://www.hdtvprimer.com/antennas/siting.html

Thanks for the evaluation. I"ll try the attic mount 1st and see what happens.

Is there a difference btwn UHF, VHF and digital. I thought all stations had to convert to digital? Does the antenna need to be digital?

Thanks for the advice on the antenna type.

Nearly all TV broadcasts in the USA are digital now. UHF and VHF refers to the actual frequency that the TV channel broadcasts on. Digital and analog are ways to encode the signal into the broadcast frequency.

There is a lot of info about this on the net. https://www.google.com/search?q=UHF+...utf-8&oe=utf-8

Any antenna that you buy or even have owned for 50 years, will be digital and HDTV.

The main difference among the different bands of antennas, depends on the RF, or REAL channel that they are designed for.

VHF LO, is 2-6.
VHF HI, is 7-13.
UHF, is 14-51.

You don't have anything in the LO band, so that will save you some weight and wind load.

Good additional info, explanations & references.

I looked at the DB8e & a friend says he makes the same ones using very heavy gage wire. Will try that first.

What is the purpose of the reflector mesh behind the DB8e bow-ties? The DB8e is a UHF antenna. Does that mean it will not pick up channel 11?

The DB8e is a 70+ mile antenna but the following 2 are much longer range (and cheaper) - what am I missing?

LAVA HD2605 Ultra G3 Motorized Outdoor HDTV
UHF/VHF Antenna

LAVA HD8008 Omni-Directional Amplified Outdoor
HDTV Antenna

Reflectors block signals from the rear and help focus incoming signals on the front.


Antennas can and do pick up signals outside of their bands, but their sensitivity is reduced as the frequency becomes farther away from the tuning center. It's a slope, not a steep cutoff. I wouldn't think you'd have much of a chance getting LUK, but who knows?

Antenna mileage claims are sometimes fudged and only useful in comparing units by the same mfr.
Claims that companies like this make of 125 and 150 miles though, are nothing short of ridiculous.

Flim-flam fraudulent advertising.

Same as a mirror behind a light source. It focuses and directs reception is one primary direction.


At 55 miles and with only modest transmitter power, the WLUK signal will be too weak for out-of-design-band reception. Plan for it separately.

I had previously purchased a Lava HD8008 and am 65 miles away from the broadcast towers. It's definitely not worth it in the long run. I did get channels, but the amp built in to the unit is garbage. I'm starting from scratch. Don't waste your money on Lava.