Antenna Needed for my 30ft TV tower?
 

Since I'm the only resident in my postal code, you all now know where I live and who I am. Hi I'm Craig from Smiths Falls.

My TVfool report is

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...8e032fdce93a7b

What Antenna do I need?

I have a 30ft TV Antenna Tower in my yard and I would like to mount an antenna to it so I can cancel my Cogeco cable and use Netflix and a couple of Roku's around the house. The tower is 20 yards from my house.

Will I benefit from a preamplifier? It seems likely I can only reliably get signals from the North and North-North East is that correct?

What other equipment will I need to split the signal to 3 TV's in the house?

Welcome, Craig from Smiths Falls:

Thanks for the tvfool report. NNE to NE does look like the best direction. When I click on Pending in your report, CHCH on real channel 22 at 45 degrees true pops up.

We don't know yet.

What channels do you need?

If it's just the Canadian channels, maybe an Antennas Direct C2V or a Winegard HD7694P aimed about 40 degrees magnetic, with a Channel Master 7778 if needed.

If you are trying for a few US channels, you will need to rotate your antenna, or use a separate antenna for them.

If you don't need CIII-TV GTN analog on real channel 2, because you have GTN on real channel 14, then you will not need a big VHF-Low antenna.

Try it with just one TV first. If your TV has a signal strength indicator, it will help. Then, use a splitter. You can use two 2-way splitters in cascade to feed one longer line, and two shorter lines.

http://forum.tvfool.com/attachment.p...9&d=1443470855

If you don't have enough signal, replace the splitter with a Channel Master 3414.

Thanks for the help.

I've now looked over all the channels using tvfool's Online Coverage Map Browser, and things are finally making some sense. The channels I would like to receive are in 2 primary locations directly north and directly south in the usa.

To the North is a) CBOT 25 CBC, b) CIII 14 Global c)CJOH 13 CTV d) CICO 24 TVO. These are the English language non-religious channels.

To the South (I'd love all of ABC, NBC,CBS, FOX, PBS) will realistically attempt for a) WWNY 7 CBS (FOX) I doubt but would like b) WWTI 21 ABC c) WPBS 41 PBS

How would I attempt receiving both North and South signals? I've read this (http://www.tvantenna.com/support/tut...combining.html)
and a few other articles and it seems 2 directional antenna's would be best since the difficulty of getting electricity to the antenna tower for a rotator.

Intially I'd buy a Winegard HD7694P aim it in each direction from multiple positions and confirm/deny the signals available and then purchase a second Winegard HD7694P antenna and aim it in the alternate direction and use an A/B antenna switch or some Chanel Master product?

The 2 antennas mentioned the Antennas Direct C2V and the Winegard is one preferable as far as superior TV reception / quality (I have an Telecom Tower Climber friend installation is not a problem) or is the only way to know by testing it out?

The CBS might be doable, but the ABC is going to require some effort. It's showing a NM of 2.1. Pretty low for reliable reception. But these are only an estimate.

My vote is a DB4 or DB8 with the reflectors removed. Removing the reflectors allows the antenna to receive channels from the front and back sides. Which in your case means from both the north and south.

You'll have to be careful if you use a preamp as you have a few close, strong signals that can cause overload to your tuners making reception worse instead of better on the weaker signals.

Those are fairly strong and in the same direction. The Winegard HD7694P is suitable.
The 7694 has more gain on VHF-High than the "V" dipole of the C2V for real channels 13 and 7.
That will be a little more difficult, as rickbb said.
It is possible to remove the reflector to make an antenna bi-directional, but the DB4e and DB8e are UHF antennas not optimum for VHF-High channels like 7 and 13.
The Jointenna is no longer available, and you would need more than one.
I favor the two antenna approach, but your tuner must be able to add a channel after a scan like my Sony, otherwise you would need to rescan after every antenna change, but there are ways around that.
Your plan is a little more ambitious than I thought it would be. I suggest a bigger VHF/UHF combo antenna like the Winegard HD7697P or 7698 with more gain for the south, and a Channel Master 7778 preamp.
Yeah, there are problems with a rotator, like who wants to wait while it swings around, who gets to decide which direction, and who wants to repair it in January?
You will certainly need it for the south, and it might help with the north antenna if your coax run is 90 feet to the house before splitting.

You can see that there isn't much WWNY signal left by the time it reaches your antenna:

http://forum.tvfool.com/attachment.p...5&d=1444701858

And the curvature of the earth blocks the WWNY signal, but VHF signals can diffract over peaks a little better than UHF signals:

http://forum.tvfool.com/attachment.p...6&d=1444701878

Ottawa-Gatineau gets it's OTA TV from 2 transmitter sites: Camp Fortune in Gatineau, and the Rogers tower in Manotick. They are in roughly a 35 degree arc from Smith's Falls, and neither is very hard to get from your location with a 30' tower. I guess that we can assume that you are looking for digital signals, so don't trouble yourself worrying about getting the analog stations. Your area has 2 VHF-high-band digital stations: CJOH, CTV on channel 13, and WWNY, channel 7, CBS from Watertown. If we eliminate WWNY from the mix, you can probably use a small VHF-high-band + UHF antenna such as a Winegard HD-7694, or an Antennacraft HBU-33, and aim it in the spread between the two tower locations. That would be about 30 degrees by your compass. If you plan to run multiple TV sets, or have to use a coaxial RG-6 cable in excess of 100 feet, you may find a good low-noise preamplifier, like the AntennasDirect PA-18, will be very helpful. These suggestions will allow you to forego the use of an antenna rotator, and should pull everything that you are looking for. I suggest that you don't hurt yourself by trying to get the Watertown stations: They are likely to be unreliable from your location.

Wise advice from Tigerbangs; don't hurt yourself for unreliable reception. But I don't see any reason for not aiming your 7694 south when you put it up just to see what you might be able to receive to satisfy your curiosity.

Thanks for all the help.

I think I will start with a Winegard HD7694P and feed that signal to my 3 TV's, if the wife agrees that the cable can go. I'll aim it between the 2 sets of North-Eastern signals. At the same time setting up the antenna I'll check if the USA channels get any reception, and may decide to try to receive one of them if possible.

If the signal is not as expected I'll try a preamp like the AntennasDirect PA-18, although I think the total cable run will be under a 100FT.


I hope you all have had a Good Canadian Thanksgiving this past weekend (spent the Monday with family could respond until today). .

My educated guess is that you will need the preamplifier if you plan to split the signals to 3 tv sets