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Old 12-Mar-2015, 2:59 PM   #1
Jodal
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Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 3
Newbie seeks antenna advice

Hello All,
New to this FTA stuff but complete done with cable.
What would you experts recommend for an antenna for this location?

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...f1f043acd8778a

I might actually put one in the attic an supply the entire house...7 TV's.

Thanks in advance...great site !!!!!

A
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Old 12-Mar-2015, 3:31 PM   #2
timgr
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Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Medford MA USA
Posts: 371
Put your antenna on the roof, in clear air, with a direct line-of-sight to the horizon in the direction of the transmitters you are interested in. Aiming through your roof, adjacent buildings, or trees will greatly reduce your chances of success.

Real VHF-high channels 9, 14 and 7 should all be received by a suitable antenna mounted as above, pointed in the 160-180 compass direction. All the rest at that heading are UHF. You can either pick an antenna that has both UHF and VHF-high coverage, or pick a UHF antenna and a cut-to-band antenna like the Antennacraft Y5713, and combine the wires with a UVSJ combiner or a medium-gain preamplifier at the mast with a UHF and VHF input. You can put splitters anywhere in the wire path to feed your 7 TVs.

There are lots of antennas to consider, from Antennas Direct, Antennacraft, Channelmaster or WInegard. Conceptually, the easiest would probably be something like the Antennacraft HBU55, which will give you lots of antenna gain, cover the stations you want, and not require amplification when you split for all those TVs.

Another approach would be to use a stand-alone tuner like the HD Homerun, and connect it to a HTPC. Then reach all your TVs by wireless.

Last edited by timgr; 12-Mar-2015 at 3:36 PM.
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Old 12-Mar-2015, 5:19 PM   #3
Tower Guy
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Location: Delmar, NY
Posts: 1,236
I'd start with a DB-4e aimed at 158 degrees. If that picks up real channel 9 you're all set. If not add a Y5-7-13 aimed at 170 coupled together with a UVSJ. Use a distribution amplifier for multiple sets.
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Old 28-Apr-2015, 6:17 PM   #4
Jodal
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Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 3
Cant get some channels

Thanks to those of you who replied.
I have tried a couple of antennas based on store sales reps.
One was a BEST-8HD-180D which is ok (14 ch) but I get more channels with an Eaglestar 53-6165-1V (17 ch) inc ch 11 from Hamilton.

I am unable to get Buffalo channels 7, 17 nor 29.
I have even put the antenna on my old satellite j pipe with a 10 foot extension.
Well above the roof.

Any other antenna recommendations?
Thanks for your help.
J

Below are my findings

8 bay eagle
14 17 30 poss
y 2-1 WGRZ NBC Ch.2 Buffalo HD 1080i
y 2-2 WGRZ Weather Channel
y 2-3 WGRZ Buffalo Old TV Shows
y y 4-1 WIVB CBS Ch.4 Buffalo HD 1080i
y y 5-1 CBC Toronto HD 720p
7-1 WKBW ABC Ch.7 Buffalo HD 720p
y y 9-1 CFTO Toronto HD 1080i
y 11-1 CHCH Hamilton HD 1080i
y 17-1 WNED PBS Buffalo HD 1080i
y 17-2 THINK TV Buffalo
y y 19-1 TVO Toronto HD 1080i
y y 23-1WNLO CW23 Buffalo HD 1080i
y y 23-2 BounceTV
y y 25-1 CBLFT Toronto (French) HD 720p
29.1 WUTV Fox29 Buffalo HD 720p
29.2 WNYB TCN Buffalo
29-3 GRIT-TV Buffalo
35-1 CTV Two Barrie (repeatered from Hamilton)
y 36-1 YES-TV Hamilton HD 1080i
y y 40-1 OMNI 2 Toronto HD 1080i
y y 41-1 Global TV Toronto HD 1080i
y y 47-1 OMNI 1 Toronto HD 1080i
y y 49-1 WNYO MyTV Buffalo HD 720p
51-1 ION Buffalo HD 720p
51-2 WPXJ qubo Buffalo
51-3 ION Life Buffalo
51-4 ShopTV Buffalo
51-5 ION
51-6 HSN
y y 57-1 City-TV Toronto HD 1080i
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Old 28-Apr-2015, 7:17 PM   #5
Jake V
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Virginia!
Posts: 329
7 WKBW / ABC (real channel 38 at 19.7 dB LOS, 162 degrees)
17 WNED / PBS (real channel 43 at 31.6 dB LOS, 163 degrees)
29 WUTV / Fox (real channel 14 at 27.8 dB LOS, 164 degrees)

What direction is your antenna pointed? Does it have LOS towards Buffalo? Not looking through the roof or trees, etc.? As Tower noted above, did you start at 156 degrees on a compass and tweak bit by bit from there? Sometimes you only need to adjust it a few degrees in one direction or the other and then maybe up or down the pole an inch or two.
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Old 29-Apr-2015, 1:24 PM   #6
Jodal
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Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 3
Thanks for the feedback.

As I am cutting the Cable with "Robbers"...I used their distrib amp to feed all the TV's...seems to work well however I think some of the TV's are too old to get all the channels....some get 24, 28, 14, 12 ...or might be the cables.
I think there is some RG59 in place.

I've tweaked the antenna direction many times and it seems 7 & 29 come and go...very weak.

I can't physically get as high as I have the antenna to get LOS, but it clears the neighbours roof and may have some large maple trees approx. 500 ft from it.

Is it possible to add a second fringe / directional antenna in the attic to get these?
Any recommendations?
Signal amps?

Again...thanks for everyones help.
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