Another newb with typical questions...

[DaveNagy]

Hi all,

I'm moving into a new house, and the street it's on has yet to be wired for cable. Perhaps this is God's way of telling me to cut the cord!

Here's my map.

I can make it look a good 10dB better just moving the map point across the street, or raising it a few feet. But, I figure I better assume things are no better than what I linked to.

It looks like all the stations I'd need are clustered south of me, bearing about 170 degrees. I need a PBS station, so channel 21 may be my most challenging "get".

This is a 2-story, wood framed house, with a brick front. And you guessed it, the front of the house points right toward that bearing. I would like to place the antenna in the attic, if that's possible. I may be able to place the antenna high enough so that it is "looking" out through a wooden vent, rather than through the brick. Or perhaps I can place it so it looks out through an asphalt-shingled section of the roof. Here's the Google map of my lot, still empty when the pic was taken.

I'll be feeding the signal into both inputs of a 2-tuner HDHomerun. That tuner can also be placed in the attic, if that would help. Otherwise, it will be located about 20 feet from the antenna.

Can this be done with an attic-mounted antenna? If so, how big/fancy of one will I need? Will I need an amp?

[Electron]

Many of the Tv stations are weak. Please make a tvfool radar report with the antenna height at 35 feet.

[Electron]

Well anyway with a Winegard HD7696P antenna and a Antennas Direct CPA-19 preamplifier mounted Above the roof and aimed at about 174 degree magnetic compass. Here is how to aim antennas , http://www.kyes.com/antenna/pointing/pointing.html. The Current Plus Pending Applications Included Digital main channel and sub channels down the list to and including WPBA-DT UHF channel 21 PBS will be received. Here are some Strong and Sturdy antenna mounts , http://www.ronard.com/909911.html , http://www.ronard.com/34424560.html , http://www.ronard.com/ychim.html , http://www.ronard.com. Buy the ronard mounts at solidsignal by typing the word ronard in the solidsignal search box or buy from ronard. Here are places to buy antennas and etc. , http://www.solidsignal.com , http://www.winegarddirect.com , http://www.antennasdirect.com , http://www.amazon.com , http://www.starkelectronic.com , http://www.3starinc.com

[Electron]

The Tv Must Scan for the Digital Broadcast Tv Channels sometimes named the 'Air Channels' or 'Antenna Channels' in the Tv set up menu because the Tv transmissions travel through the air from transmitting antenna to your receiving antenna. Do Not scan for cable Tv channels

[DaveNagy]

Thank you kindly for the advice.

I had continued my reading last night, and was coming to the conclusion that was going to need to go with an outside antenna. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

Here's a report at 35 feet. It looks better than the 20" report.

I was leaning towards a tripod mount, since I don't have a chimney, and the eave mounts looked a bit ugly. In that same interest in minimizing that ugliness (and minimizing the cabling run) I was hoping it would be okay to place the antenna on the back half of the roof, facing forward. I would get one of those "sloping tripods", and place it on the backwards-sloping part of the roof, up near the peak. This would place the top of the tripod roughly level with the peak of the roof, and the mast and antenna would be higher still.

Would this be okay? Is there a minimum height I need to achieve between the roof surface (peak) and the antenna? In other words, how much mast would I need?

Finally, what about lightning? My house is perched on top of a hill. Will I want to ground something?

[Electron]

It is like saying my lady is ugly. Using the word ugly or any other words or concepts like it is not the way to get on the good side of me or the advisors here at tvfool. Antennas and etc. are , Lovely , Loving , Handsome , Dashing , Debonare , Kind , Strong , Dependable , Responsible , and etc.. Roof top antennas receive the best with elbow room and a clear view of the transmitter antennas. Mount the antenna so the antenna has a Minimum of 4 feet clearance with the top of the roof. Home Depot and Lowes has Copper wire that is made for grounding and all manner of grounding hardware. The best place to ground is at electric service at the house where the ground rod is.

[DaveNagy]

Yes.... Perhaps "ugly" was the wrong word. Perhaps "striking" would be better.

Okay, it looks like I'll just want to get a regular (non-slanted) tripod with a 5-foot mast, and perch the antenna right up on the tippy-top of my roof.

What's the typical way to run the coax through the roof? There are tons of attic vents along my roof ridges. Can I just poke the cable through one of them?

Whew, running a separate ground wire from roof top to ground level will be challenging. I assume most people run them down the exterior of the house? That sounds... striking.

[Electron]

The correct place for the ground wire is on the outside of the house. Lightning follows gradual bends of the ground wire better then sharp bends of the ground wire. Installing the ground wire can be the last to do , get the system up and running first. At my house I have a coax ground block installed on the ground wire that is connected to the mount of the antenna and then coax enters the attic through a roof vent. Most houses are wired with coax that all of the separate coax wires go to location where the house electric service is because thats where the ground rod is at. Cable Tv and Satellite Tv also ground at that location. Some buildings are coax wired so the separate coaxes go to a location some where in the building and then separate coax/s will go to the outside of the building where electric service and ground is at. When building a house it is always a good idea to have a extra coax pulled to each location , comes in real handy later on.

[DaveNagy]

Okay, just to make sure I understand your set up:

The coax comes off your antenna, and immediately passes through a ground block. The coax then exits the ground block, and enters your house via a roof vent. Meanwhile, the ground wire that is hooked to the grounding block connects to another ground wire that is connected to the antenna mount. That second ground wire runs down the the exterior of the house and eventually connects to the home's main ground rod.

[Electron]

It is the same ground wire. There are Not two ground wires. The ground wire is connected to the antenna Mount and a length of the same ground wire extends out past were the ground wire is connected to the mount. The coax ground block has a hole with a screw , put the ground wire through the hole in the ground block and tighten the screw. The ground wire runs a short distance above the roof and then goes down the outside wall and the ground wire is connected to the main house ground wire/ electric service ground wire with a split bolt. Split bolts and other grounding clamps and etc. are available at Home Depot or Lowes.

[Electron]

Here is no fan vent that is like the ones on my roof , b144mf , the coax goes under the cap and up over the vent pipe that cap is over. This is a attic vent , the vent pipe does not extend past the under side of the roof.

[DaveNagy]

Thanks for the additional info. It really does help.

My vents look pretty similar to the ones on your house. Mine are square, but otherwise look pretty similar.

I'm trying to decide where best to locate the tripod mount. Do I understand correctly that tripod mounts are designed to straddle a peak? Or perhaps the proper term would be "ridge"? The line where two slopes meet?

I assume that two legs of the tripod will be on one side of the ridge, and one leg will be on the other.

My house faces south. My antenna will also be pointing south. I have a choice of mounting the antenna on a north/south ridge, or on an east-west ridge. I believe the prevailing winds come from the south-west. Is there any sort of preference between which way I orient my tripod?

I'll attach some pics. They're not very good, because I wasn't actually trying to get a shot of the roof when I took them. Note that both houses in the pictures are the same floor plan and have the same roof features. It seems like I can put the mount over that short ridge that runs sideways above the back face of the roof. Or I can put the mount over the ridge that runs to the front peak of the house.

[Electron]

You are correct on mounting the tripod. Try to get the screws that go through two of the feet of the tripod to go in to the rafters under the roof , makes for stronger mount of the tripod. Also can add a board on the under side of the roof and the screw will go through the roof and into the board , makes for stronger mounting. Most houses have prewire coaxes pulled to the location of electric service at the house , Reason: thats where power and ground is at. If your house is like that then run the coax from the antenna on the outside of the house along with the ground wire to the location of electric power and ground and have the grounding block there. Some houses have the prewire coaxes pulled to a location inside of the house and a coax/s go from that location to the location of electric power and ground.