Greetings all ! Glad to be a member of TVFool !
I have a couple questions to pose to those far more knowledgeable than I concerning antenna recommendations (of course) and antenna grounding issues.
First off, Antenna recommendations …cannot achieve that without the requisite radar plot :
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...8e03ae5ccb4818
This will be a roof-top installation, about 32 feet in the air....fairly well surrounded by pine trees located about 100' away.
As can be seen, the majority of the usable stations are located in a southerly direction (SSW & SSE) separated by only 25 or 30 degrees or so. Stations in all other directions can be disregarded as reception looks to be impossible without extreme and COSTLY measures. Given the close proximity of the usable stations on that southerly directional line, would there be an antenna available ‘unidirectional’ enough to do without the added expense ($150++) of an Antenna rotator, yet ‘directional’ enough to pull in the marginal stations along those SSW or SSE directional lines ?
Second – I am well aware that in the antenna business…. Bigger actually IS better, all other things being the same. Although I am not totally adverse in spending a few extra bucks on a larger, more capable antenna…I don’t want to put a giant 16-foot monstrosity on my roof if I don’t have to and if good reception of the signals I CAN reach doesn’t call for it.
Thirdly, would the addition of a pre-amp be necessary to pull in those marginal stations along those SSW & SSE directional lines…or would the addition of such overload the signals more closer, more powerful stations ? That said, I only ever intend to have at most 2 tv’s hooked up to this antenna using at most 50 feet of coax to reach them.
Oh yes, I almost forgot …. It seems the channel distribution is relatively even across the board – about the same number of VHF vs UHF channels….It appears that I will need a dual VHF/UHF optimized antenna, am I correct ?
I was looking at the "HD Stacker" antenna from Denny's as an option for my site, but given the low-VHF channels in my area, I'm not sure this would be a good choice for my location -- any ideas ? Also, given that low-VHF channel, would it be a good idea to install an FM filter trap ?
Now on to the grounding questions…
Throughout my long contact with Time Warner, they have always grounded their cable entrance @ the closest available copper water pipe…even when I purchased my new home about 5 years back, and cable was introduced to the house for the very first time, Time Warner used the closest available copper water line. Since that time, I went over to DirecTv for a year or two (and the installer just used Time Warner’s grounding for their dish entrance). Now fast-forward to about a year ago. The deals that I had gotten from DirecTV had expired, and it made better economic sense to return to Time Warner…So, the installer comes to reinstall their cable, only THIS time they ignored the old grounding connection and ran a line to the electrical entrance to ground it there. I asked the installer about this, and his answer was a gruff “That’s how we do it now”. My question is this…would this be a regulatory change, or just a policy change ?
I ask this question because it seems the antenna technicians here on this site (and others) seem to be pretty adamant about placing the ground as close to the antenna as possible. Now, from where I will be installing the antenna, I would have to run a ground wire allll the way the length of the house (60+ feet) to the electrical entrance , whereas I can ground the antenna to the water main just inside the house from the installation (less than 10 feet)……. What path should I pursue ?
Thank you all in advance for whatever advice you might be able to provide…once again, I am glad to be here !
Karl