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Old 9-Sep-2014, 2:22 PM   #12
ADTech
Antennas Direct Tech Supp
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 2,942
I got your precise coordinates from your PM and spent a few minutes looking at overhead photos of your property.

I like to recommend that antennas be situated so that they are not behind trees since I've found that trees tend to throw every estimate out the window due to the effect of the moisture on signals, especially on UHF stations. Ken Nist does an excellent job of describing this effect on his website at http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/glossaryR.html#trees and http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/siting.html (about 1/3 way down the page). Trees cannot be avoided at your location in any of the three desired directions. The path towards Rochester is least obstructed, primarily by that big tree just off your deck, at the point of that section of woods. The Buffalo Grand Island and Toronto signals are behind those two big trees in your front yard and the southerly Buffalo signals are behind the trees in front of the garage. Unless you're prepared to make some firewood, be prepared for the effects that trees usually cause, namely dropouts in wet and/or windy weather, especially when the trees are in leaf.

With all that said, your best bet is to try for the Rochester stations using a larger high VHF/UHF combination. I'd put up a C5 on a fixed aim to Rochester (I doubt you'd get any VHF from Buffalo or Toronto) and put a DB8e on top. If you want to experiment with reception from other directions, put the DB8e on a rotor. Add a pre-amp like the RCA.

Should you find that the DB8e can do moderately well through the trees towards (either or both) Buffalo locations plus Toronto, a straightforward modification to try would be to remove the four reflector screens (drill out the rivets). That would cost a couple of db in forward gain, but would make the antenna bi-directional with lobes off the back that closely approximate your angles for the secondary markets. If the experiment doesn't work out, the reflectors can be reinstalled with standard #10 screws and nuts.

Best of luck!
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Last edited by ADTech; 9-Sep-2014 at 2:26 PM.
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