Radar Plot --
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...2c15456ac569a7
Like many I plan on getting rid of my satellite service in May when my contract expires. I've had an antenna system for about 35 years which actually still works pretty well. It's in good shape and not missing any elements. Antenna is a Channel Master and is their 'Deepest Fringe' style, it looks like a CM3671 and weighs about 15lbs. It was the best antenna I could buy back in the day. A few years after that I stacked a UHF yagi antenna below to increase the UHF reception which the big Channel Master had a problem with. Antenna package is mounted on a 30' tower using a 10' mast about 4' down leaving 6' above the top of the tower. I have been using a Channel Master rotor to move it around. About 5 years ago I had a problem with the original rotor and replaced it. My replacement rotor only rotates about 45 degrees now so I need to bring the whole thing down to fix the problem.
My stations of interest are 40 to 60 miles away and we sit in a valley. If the rotor was operating I wouldn't have much of a problem receiving pretty much all of them. I have had problems with one or two stations when the sunspots are active.
While I have the tower down I was thinking of removing the UHF yagi and replace it with a Winegard 9095P to help with the UHF band. The Channel Master is still in pretty good shape and I was thinking of leaving it in place. Feed wire is RG-59 and I have an amplifier inside which splits the signal to two televisions.
I've read some places where antenna stacking doesn't add much over 3db. I can say that when I stacked the UHF yagi years ago it made a noticeable difference with the UHF reception. That was back in the days of analog television. Anyone have an opinion?
I'm also thinking of replacing the Channel Master rotor with either a CDE or Hy-Gain. These are typically used for ham antennas and I believe them to be much more of a heavy duty rotor system than the ones available for television today. After the recent failure I'm just not that confident in the newer chinese rotors swinging around a large antenna.
I've read about an antenna called the HD Stacker and it seems to have good reviews. Is it better than the Winegard?
I don't mind spending some money for this setup, I'm just trying not to break the bank.
Only thing I'm going to miss is ESPN during college football season.
FYI -- Nice site. Thanks for your time.
Dave