Antenna and set up advice- Wilmington, DE

[DEBrian]

I am looking for equipment recommendations for OTA reception. My TV signal analysis is :http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...f1f096029df924

I would like to have the ability to get signal to 5 televisions if possible. Three get used pretty regularly. The house is a raised ranch and the antenna can be mounted outside. There is a directv satellite dish mount on the side of the house that I was going to use to mount the antenna mast to. Any suggestions on antenna make and model, amplifiers and rotator (if needed) is appreciated.

[ADTech]

Your best bet is a large, all channel antenna aimed at Philly. The antenna will be huge. A rotor that is capable of handling it without breaking will be expensive. The satellite dish mount may or may not be suitable and may or may not be in the right location on your roof. Depending on how long a cable is needed from your antenna mounting location to your distribution point, you might be able to use a distribution amp with no preamp or you might need a preamp plus a passive splitter. It depends on the relative cable lengths and whatever signal you can get off the antenna.

[DEBrian]

Thank you for responding. Is there a particular make and model antenna you would recommend?

[stvcmty]

Do you need ABC or MeTV (Channels 2 and 6). Channels 2-6 require wide antennas. Not needing them would let you use a much lighter antenna.

The satellite mount is probably on the south side of the house. To get the Philly stations an antenna needs to point north west, so the satellite mount is probably not placed optimally.

You probably do not need a rotor, most of the Baltimore stations have co channel interference flags.

There is not much VHF-low in the Baltimore/DC direction, so if you wanted a rotor to swing the antenna around, I would recommend a fixed VHF low antenna pointed at Philly, optimized for KJWP and WPVI, then a channel 7-51/69 antenna on a rotor combined with a HLSJ.

Your Philly stations all say 1 edge. How high do you need to go for them to get to LOS? Your reception report makes me think a little more height would let a much smaller antenna work.

[DEBrian]

I definitely would like to get channel 6. What does LOS and HLSJ stand for? The satellite mount is on the north west corner of the house. I was also considering using a mount on the gable end of the garage which would be facing north and would have the antenna mast starting near the peak of the roof

[Tim]

Originally Posted by stvcmty

The satellite mount is probably on the south side of the house. To get the Philly stations an antenna needs to point north west, so the satellite mount is probably not placed optimally.

Isn't Philly to the northeast???

[stvcmty]

LOS stands for Line of Sight. It means the antenna at your house can see the antenna the TV station uses. If you could get an antenna up high enough for LOS, the received signal strength could double, cutting the size of antenna you need in half, or giving you twice as much signal margin to prevent the picture breaking up.

HLSJ is a (VHF) high-low splitter joiner. It lets a channel 2-6 antenna be added to another antenna.

VHF low antennas (CH 2-6) are wide, and to get modest gain they need to be long; which leads to a heavy antenna. A heavy antenna mounted up high puts tremendous force on a mast/mount, especially if the wind is blowing.
VHF high antennas (CH 7-13) are not as wide and to get moderate gain they need to be long, so they can be unsightly but are not terribly heavy.
UHF antennas (CH 14+ (14-51 or 14-69)) can have high gain in a small package (wide and thin, long and narrow), or they can be big in fringe situations.
A VHF high/UHF antenna (CH 7-51(69)) will be long, but only about 2’ wide, so it is less wind load than an all band antenna. As a side benefit, UHF signals will gain the most from being up high. So if I lived where you live, you would see a high gain VHF-H/UHF antenna on a rotor, about 6’ of space then a VHF-L antenna right above a tripod. The two antennas would be combined with a HLSJ, and feed a RCA preamp.

[stvcmty]

Originally Posted by Tim

Isn't Philly to the northeast???

sorry, I was typing too fast. Northeast.

[Tower Guy]

Originally Posted by DEBrian

Thank you for responding. Is there a particular make and model antenna you would recommend?

One option is the HD7084P.