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Old 25-Jan-2015, 6:41 PM   #21
Pete Higgins
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Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: California, 58 miles @112 degrees from Mt. Wilson
Posts: 83
Is that a picture of your array?

HDTV-OTA,

Quote:
Is that a picture of your array, Xtreme Signal (HDB8X) stacked with a VHF antenna above and below?
Yes, that is a picture of the array that I currently have up. It’s only one of many that I’ve tried. The top antenna is an AntennaCraft Y10 7-13 for high VHF, the middle two are Solid Signal HDB8-X’s and the bottom antenna is a Winegard HD-6065 10 Element FM Band (88 – 108 MHz) Antenna. The Y10 7-13 is mounted at the top of the tower to minimize interaction between it and the HD-6065.

I’ve actually tried the Y10 7-13 with a single Antennas Direct 91XG, dual 91XG’s, a single HDB8-X and dual HDB8-X’s. The dual UHF antennas yield 1 – 2 dB additional signal strength (as measured with a Software Defined Radio (SDR) Spectrum Analyzer) with very little measurable change in SNR. The single & dual HDB8-X’s slightly outperformed the single & dual 91XG’s on the channels of interest @ my location.

When propagation is favorable, there isn’t any real advantage to running dual antennas. As near as I can tell, when propagation isn’t favorable having dual antennas only prolongs reception by a few minutes before signal is lost.

Here is a link to my TV Fool report for you to compare with yours:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...2c150a61252e0c

Most of the shows my wife & I like are on CBS, UHF channel 43 (2.1) @ -112.9 dBm from LA or VHF channel 8 (8.1) @ -96.0 dBm from San Diego. Unfortunately, I don’t get either reliably. Occasionally, I get both, sometimes I get one (usually LA) but not the other and frequently neither come in. Even with dual UHF antennas we can start watching a 1 hour show and part way through it will fade away. Fortunately, we have Time Warner cable ($270.00/mo.) so this only became an issue when they were at odds with each other. I actually have two TV arrays, one I leave pointed at San Diego & one I leave pointed towards LA. During the CBS blackout period, I recorded our shows from both locations and we only ended up missing one 1 hour show.
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