Ditching Comcast, need antenna advice

[captain_tinker]

I read about TV Fool on a review of a Winegard antenna on Amazon. So I figured I'd come check it out. It looks like I am about 37 miles from most of the signal towers in my area, and they are all around, but most of them are in one specific direction. Antennaweb suggested I go with a Medium Omni-Directional. So I've been looking at the Winegard MS-2002, or maybe the HD-1080, even though it doesn't look omnidirectional. I am thinking the best place to put it is in the very front of my garage, up in the attic, about 13 ft above the garage floor. I live in a stucco/tile roof home, but the front of the garage is right next to the wall, and no roof directly in the way, so it would only have to go through the stucco wall. I want to tie the signal from the antenna into the cables that are already run into the house. We have three TV's and an HD-Homerun network tuner for my HTPC. So I figure I would likely have to use a pre-amplifier too with all those inputs and long cable runs. I am just wondering, will either of those antennas work ok in the house behind just a stucco wall? It's not like the roof will be in the way too. There is not a really good place for me to put the antenna outside, and the extreme heat in this area of California in the summer, and incessant rain in the winter, I wouldn't expect any antenna to do well for very long.

[mtownsend]

Could you please post a link to your TV Fool report (it will look something like http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)? The helpful folks here can do a better job of addressing your issues if they can see the technical details of your OTA environment.

Some general comments:

>> Stucco walls have a wire mesh internal to them that blocks signals, so you definitely want your antenna outdoors. You will lose a lot of signal if you try to go through any of the stucco surfaces. Above the garage or on the roof are good locations for an antenna.

>> Choosing an amp will depend on how strong your signals are. If your signals are very strong to begin with, an amp might be a bad idea because they are not good at handing very strong input signals. If you do have very strong signals to start with, you probably don't even need an amp. Conversely, if your signals are not that strong, an amp would be good for distributing the signal to many TVs. It would really help to see your TV Fool signal report to figure this out.

>> If you have multiple branches feeding TVs throughout your house, remember to "cap off" any unused ports with a 75 ohm terminator (like this). Any open ports on a cable network can potentially reflect signals back into the cable, creating some self-interference that can easily be avoided.

[captain_tinker]

Ah yes, was going to include this and forgot.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...03f3c58779a008

Just not sure if I would be able to put it anywhere outside easily. I think I will at least try it in the garage and see how it works, but I guess if it doesn't perform exactly how I want it, I'll open the garage and put it outside for a bit and see if it works better. If so, I'll just have to find a way to make it work. I'm really leaning towards the Winegard MS-2002, it sounds like it should work, and there are a lot of positive reviews on it. I guess check out the report, and see what it says to you. There are really only about 9 or 10 channels that I am looking to get anyway, 3.1, 6.1, 6.2, 10.1, 13.1, 29.1, 40.1, 40.2, 58.1. Any more than that would just be gravy, or icing on the cake, whichever idiom you prefer.

As for that terminator, I did not realize that signals could bounce/reflect like that. I thought that was mainly a SCSI issue. (Yeah, I'm an old computer geek) It is not likely that I will have any open ports, but if I do end up with any, that is certainly not a bad price for the terminator.

I was also thinking, that since I would need to distribute the signal to several tuners through the house, sometimes through some long cables (up to 50 ft tops) that a signal booster such as this would likely be needed?

http://www.frys.com/product/4478276?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

They have 1, 2, and 4 output models I've seen. I was thinking a 2 output would be what I needed.

[John Candle]

The television transmissions are Very Strong at your location. If your house is not wrapped with any metal like metal siding or stucko wire , does not have a metal roof. Does not have concrete walls or brick from ground to roof. Then I recommend a NON Amplified indoor Tv antenna. http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=233

[captain_tinker]

John,
Thanks! That's just the thing though, I DO have stucco siding. No metal roof, just terra cotta tile. I did try some rabbit ears last night on one of the inputs of my HDHomerun tuner, and depending on which direction I turned it, and this is at my desk, in the center of my house, I did manage to get a few of the spanish stations and a religious station or two. Those are mostly the stations I block though. So I know I can get some reception inside, just not very good. I think I did get NBC once, but all of them were VERY blocky and kept turning green on me. I would get between 0 and 3 bars out of 6 in Media center with it. I would also prefer not to have to move it at all, and still be able to feed 5 tuners.

[John Candle]

Thats right , I was thinking about something else. Well Ok then , give a MS2002 a try , best to get it above any stucko wire or any thing that can block or reflect the Tv transmissions. If can mount it higher then the garage roof that would be good. Here is a type of mount you might be able to use , http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Products/Perfect/PVEM1.gif. Please note that omnidirectional antennas are not 100% omnidirectional , will likely need to turn the antenna to find a spot that receives the channels you will like to receive.

[captain_tinker]

Well, I hope this works... I just went and got the following:

Winegard MS-2002 Antenna

Winegard HDA-200 Distribution Amplifier

Winegard DS-2000 Universal Antenna Mount

If it doesn't work in the garage, then I can try it out elsewhere. I've read several reviews where people say it works fine in their attics, or other places that seem to be somewhat blocked by trees, etc, so hopefully this will be ok. My main hope is that it doesn't get overloaded, seeing it has its own amp (I think so anyway, it says so on the Winegard website). Wish me luck... Unless you can find something that doesn't sound right to you....?

[John Candle]

How many tv's and etc. are being connected???? try the antenna with out the distribution amp first. Adding a second amp is Not something that automaticly takes place. If there are wiring problems like bad coax or too many splitters it is better to correct the problems. Not try a blast the singnal through.

[captain_tinker]

John,
That was answered in my first post:

Originally Posted by captain_tinker

We have three TV's and an HD-Homerun network tuner for my HTPC.

The HD-Homerun has two tuners, so two cables. All in all, 5 tuners.

I tried an experiment over the weekend. I took an old pair of junky non-amplified rabbit ears and put them up in the garage where the new antenna will hopefully be, put a long enough cable on it, and wired it into the splitter where the cable comes in, instead of the cable from the street, then went and tried to scan for some channels on the TV. I found 5 digital channels on my third try, but they didn't come in very well. They would keep cutting out. So my thought is, since it is behind stucco, first of all, the amp on the antenna will likely help out with that. If that alone does not give it enough signal, then the power distributer might be helpful. I do want to try it without that first, I just got it as a "just in case" measure. I can always return it if I don't end up needing it. I just don't want to be stuck without it if I do end up needing it.

[ADTech]

So my thought is, since it is behind stucco, first of all, the amp on the antenna will likely help out with that.

Amplifying a signal that is received from behind a stucco wall is the wrong way to go about it. Move the antenna. Amplifying a crappy signal will give you an amplified crappy signal.

[GroundUrMast]

Originally Posted by ADTech

Amplifying a signal that is received from behind a stucco wall is the wrong way to go about it. Move the antenna. Amplifying a crappy signal will give you an amplified crappy signal.

Agreed! (Will a big pump get water out of a dry hole?)

If you have already paid for the MS2002 and can't return it, you'll obviously want to try to make it work... Your best chance will be outside, clear of objects that reflect or block the desired signals. I am always afraid that an omni style design will suffer due to multi-path, resulting in unstable reception. If the rabbit ears have trouble, expect an omni to have trouble.

[John Candle]

Here are some more recorders , http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=380

[captain_tinker]

Originally Posted by ADTech

Amplifying a signal that is received from behind a stucco wall is the wrong way to go about it. Move the antenna. Amplifying a crappy signal will give you an amplified crappy signal.

Well, you will likely be as surprised as I am to know that you are not quite correct. I finally got the antenna, put it up in my garage as planned and things worked fairly well for about a week and a half. Some stations would have some blockiness periodically and I figured it was simply because of what you said, that the stucco was blocking it. Turning it slightly often fixed that. So I decided to try moving it outside. I borrowed a ladder and got up on the top of my chimney outside, and held it up as high as I could, probably close to 30 ft. Oddly enough, no matter what way I turned it, or how I held it, it consistently got worse reception in the wide open air with nothing to block the signal as it did when I had it in the garage. I tried a few other places and it was the same everywhere, except for one spot. About 8 ft away from where I had it, just outside the garage door, it worked great there! But it's also in a spot where a thief could easily come and take it down and walk off with it. So I'm not putting it there. It would also be very visible being right in the very front of the house. Not a good spot for it. So, for right now, until I can think of anything better, I'm leaving it right where it is at. I get all the stations I want, fairly strongly too, with the exception of the two local PBS stations. Those are intermittent, no matter what direction I turn it. I do wonder if a different type of antenna in that same spot would work any better? In any case, it's really doing very well - surprisingly...