new member needs antenna help

[rcostello]

We are leaving Dish Tv (tired of terrible programs and $80.00 a month fee) and buying a very good HDTV and now need a good antenna to get a signal. We will use local stations and NetFlix for our entertainment. I am primarily interested in PBS,CBS,ABC,FOX,NBC. Anything else would be a bonus...

We live 23 miles from the nearest 'anything' as this is rural Arkansas in the Ozarks but a great place to live. Fayetteville 23 miles W away Springdale W about the same and Fort Smith SW about 55 miles. We face strait south and are near the top of a hill elevation about 1300 foot and wide open to the south and have some trees to west and southwest which are growing out of a hollow and a ridge about 200/400 feet to our west. We can see the light or Loom of those city lights at night and radio tower lights. I don't know if any of this information helps but thought it might help your analysis.

I have attic space with a three foot hatch between the ceiling joists to get into it, so think outdoor is better way to go. The house is 1 1/2 story with the south side being a porch with roof and I suppose I could attach a antenna mast to the west end or hang it from the beam, and hopefully make use of the cat 5 cables that now connect to the Dish Antenna just in front of (and below) the porch. My land slopes up to the north side for some way about 900 feet and a gradual rise of 25 feet in that distance. It looks like NBC may be a problem for me unless I have a rotor and mount the antenna on the west side of the house which can get 30 feet above the ground as it falls away on that side and the basement is above ground for about half that side.

Here is my TV FOOL analysis http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...9fbe6bbf02094a

You folks have a very helpful site - great job!

Thank you

Dick Costello

[Raglep]

Hi Dick,
My situation is similar to yours but I'm picking up Little Rock stations. I can't tell you which commercial antenna would be best for you. I built my own modified bow tie antenna with a 3' by 3' reflector. I'm picking up PBS (Real Ch 7) about 41 miles south, CBS (Real Ch 12), ABC (Real ch 22), FOX (Real ch 30) and NBC (Real ch 32). All except PBS are about 25 miles southwest of my place. With my antenna aimed south southwest or roughly half way between the two tower areas I'm getting a good signal lock on all the stations listed above. My SNR is running from about 22 to 28.

If you are interested in building your own antenna, let me know and I'll be glad to tell you what I did.

My Signal Analysis: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...9fbe0afb58a4f3

Dale

[mtownsend]

It looks like the two main groups of channels that you can get are to the south-west and the north-west. They are spread too far apart to be picked up with a single stationary antenna, so that means that you will need an antenna rotator if you want to get stations from both groups. The Channel Master 9521A is a decent rotator for the job.

If you can live without the stations from the north-west (like KPBI and KNWA), then you can go with a simpler stationary antenna setup.



For the best channel stability (especially on the weaker stations), I'd recommend going with a relatively large outdoor antenna like the Winegard HD7698P and also using a mast-mounted pre-amp (Winegard AP-8700, Channel Master 7777, or Antennacraft 10G202). That will give you the best chance of grabbing channels down into the "gray" range where the Noise Margin (NM) numbers are close to zero or even a little below that.