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Old 3-Jan-2012, 2:52 AM   #1
Jeebster
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Join Date: Jan 2012
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Indoor antenna in very urban location close to towers

Hello,

I live on the 5th floor of 10-floor condo building in a rather dense downtown location and plan to use an indoor antenna to pickup a handful of local OTA (and perhaps some US) stations. My TV Fool info can be found here:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...7fb989d70e4ab6

As you can see, most of the local station signals are located less than 2 miles to the north-west of my location (the tower is atop a hill, and is the highest point in the city).

However, my one concern is that my unit is located on the far south-east side of the condo building (there are about 5 neighbouring units directly between me and the towers). I have a balcony which faces south and wall-to-wall full-height windows all along the south-west and south-east walls of the unit. The windows to the southeast are directly across from another 9 storey condo building (about 30ft away). The windows to the southwest have a better line of sight but there are some slightly higher buildings a few blocks away.

For the most part, the condo building is standard brick and mortar construction, though there are a few aluminum panels integrated into the external facade (maybe 10-15%). As mentioned, pretty much all of the external walls in my unit are windows (but they do face away from the signal).

Bylaws inhibit me from installing anything on the roof of the building, the external walls, and even my balcony, so an indoor antenna is the only way to go.

I'm looking at purchasing the Terk FDTV2 indoor omni-directioal antenna. So the big question is, will I have any luck picking up the local stations given my environment? My SW windows have a decent line of sight to some US towers about 75miles away. Is there a chance I can also pick these up?

Thanks in advance!
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Old 3-Jan-2012, 5:20 AM   #2
GroundUrMast
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Given the overwhelming signal power available, you can certainly expect to receive many of the local signals.

Be sure to avoid any type of amplified antenna as well as any accessory amplifiers. There is simply far too much signal power available. Any consumer grade amplifier will overload, resulting in less, not more usable signals.

Rather than an omnidirectional antenna, I'd suggest a somewhat directional antenna such as the Terk HDTVi. http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=2828
http://www.amazon.com/Terk-Technolog...5567549&sr=1-1

Reflected signals in an indoor environment will be a bit easier to overcome using a directional antenna. You may even find a useful signals bouncing off a building that you have a view of.
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