Preamps & reception

[rivernut]

You guys advised me back in October about the correct antenna setup, for which I am eternally grateful considering I don't know squat about this stuff. Just finished building the house I'm putting this rig on, so am about to begin acquisitions of equipment. My signal analysis: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...b671eac3f755c7. OK, you said get a Winegard HD-7696p ant., a Winegard HDP-269 preamp, and a Channel Master 9521a rotor. Cool! I look at my list of stations I should be getting at that location and there are several that are yellow, then somewhere I read that one should amplify the yellow atations. True or false? Also, I am in a location where hopefully I can pull in some of the boatload of stations in grey(farther away). That preamp has 12 db gain, is that sufficient or too much for the closer stuff? Thank you again for your help and recommendations!

Just trying to understand alot of this stuff before making a large purchase soon.

[mtownsend]

The HDP-269 is a pre-amp, so it will be amplifying everything that passes through it. All of your channels will get a boost no matter where they show up on your channel list.

The general rule of thumb is that green channels are very strong and can probably be picked up with an indoor antenna, yellow is getting weaker and will require a bigger antenna in the attic as a minimum, red signals are weak and will need a rooftop antenna with good sensitivity, grey channels are extremely weak and may require extreme measures to try to pull them in.

With an HD7696P on the roof with a pre-amp, you'll probably get most of the channels down into the red zone, but you probably won't get very much into the grey zone. You might get some channels in the grey, but they might come and go depending on the weather.

A bigger antenna like the HD7697P or HD7698P might help improve your chances with the grey channels, but you're mostly talking about channels that are over 80 miles away, and it's extremely rare to get reliable reception from so far away because the curvature of the Earth is getting in the way (you really need to be very high on a mountain to cover that much distance).

[rivernut]

Thank you very much for the feedback. Unfortunately, we do not have any mountains here in west central Florida to stick an antenna on.

My only concern mainly was that the HDP-269 would not somehow overdo it for those close in channels. I shall be using the rig that Tigerbangs recommended last October when I asked about my situation(as mentioned in the above post). The whole rig should run just under $200, which is a lot cheaper than going to a Dish or something at about $600+ per year. Plus this is our getaway place, not used constantly, but rather once or twice per month. Makes a lot more sense to use Over the air TV!!!

Thanks, again.

[rivernut]

PLEASE help me out here. I'm still trying to get this straight. I realize that the HDP-269 will boost anything pulled in from the HD-7696p antenna. BUT will that make the close in stations unviewable? My prime interest is to receive the green, yellow, and maybe some reds. The antenna will be up on the roof about 23'. I just don't want to buy stuff I really don't need for what I'm trying to accomplish. If the 269 over-does it on the close in channels, then maybe I should not use one????? Otherwise, I'll go buy the antenna, amp, and rotor and start rigging this weekend.