Your guess will be better than mine

[quiet1one]

If you would share your ideas on what the best antenna system would be for my area it would be much appreciated.

Of course a guy could go whole hog but I am going to have to stay within a budget of less than $500.

Thank you in advance for your help.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...3cf408950fd236

[John Candle]

How many Tv's will be connected??

[quiet1one]

I intend to hook up 2 tv's.

[John Candle]

Mount a Winegard HD7694P and Winegard AP8700 preamp above roof top. Point the antenna at starting direction of 365 degrees--North and see what is received. The channels to receive are , WADY 21 ABC , KFME 13 PBS , KXJB-DT 38 CBS , KVRR-DT 19 FOX. . . K49FA 49 is second PBS - You will not be trying to receive K49FA . The reason is it is to far off axis from the front of the HD7694P antenna. You are aiming to receive the listed channels from WADY 21 to KVRR 19. The spread is wide between 21 and 19 -- maybe too wide. You will be turning the antenna to the left and right to find a place to get them all if you can. If the one antenna does not receive all of them then you will have to install 2 antennas. The stations starting with KDLO Channel 3 and on down are not receivable at your location. . Read and understand this about Real Digital Tv Channels and Virtual Digital Tv Channels , http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=695

[quiet1one]

thank you for your help!

I've been reading and reading and just became more and more confused. I will give this a try.

Thanks again

[Tower Guy]

Originally Posted by quiet1one

thank you for your help!

I've been reading and reading and just became more and more confused. I will give this a try.

Thanks again

It's easy to be confused at your location. You have UHF stations arriving from 34° and 331-336°, a difference of between 58-63°. Ease of use suggests that you avoid the use of a rotator.

Take a look at the ganging example shown here for Frederick, MD.
http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/ganging.html
In your case the distance between a pair of 4 bay UHF antennas would be about 21". The Antennacraft U-4000 is small enough to stack two side by side with that spacing.

Next get a Y5-7-13 VHF antenna for PBS. Use a UVSJ to add the antennas together. Add a HDP-269 preamp to overcome coax and distribution losses.

[John Candle]

If the one antenna will not receive channels 21 thru 19 because the distance between 21 and 19 is too wide. Then install 2 separate antennas , the HD7694P pointed at channel 21 and a Antennas Direct - Clear Stream 2 pointed at channels 19 and 49. A preamp will not be needed with Clear Stream 2 , the signals are strong enough for 2 Tv's. The installation will be 2 separate Antenna systems , Do Not combine the the 2 antennas on to one coax. You will have a Remote Control A/B antenna switch at each Tv location. http://www.antennasdirect.com , has remote control A/B switches and so does Radio Shack and http://www.solidsignal.com , and http://www.amazon.com , http://www.3starinc.com

[quiet1one]

Having one antenna for channel 19 and another for the rest of the uhf sounds like a good plan with a third for the vhf.

With a distance of up to 80 miles for some of the uhf channels, which antenna can I really expect grab and hold a good signal from that distance?

Seems like I read somewhere that uhf signals become scattered after about 60 miles and the best hope of grabbing them is to have a very large surface. If thats the case then why not the 4228HD or the antennasdirect clearstream4? They both have considerable surface?

If I put these antennas 100 feet from my house to get better clearance (LOS) will I need to reamplify the signal to overcome the distance?

[quiet1one]

Does the HD 7694P give me the best shot at the long distance? or is it a way to avoid a 3rd vhf antenna (which is good). Or both?

[John Candle]

The HD7694P and a preamp will receive 13 and the UHF channels of the group. If you will like to with a big antenna and really get the reception rock solid then install HD7698P and the preamp. If you will like to install a bigger UHF antenna for 19 and 49 thats Ok. Many people think they are penny squeezers so sometimes I recommend systems that balance money and hardware. In your case if you will like to lock those signals in rock solid the go with the bigger hardware.

[John Candle]

If you will like to bump the received signal strength up more then it's time to raise the antenna height. Go to the >>StartMAPS<< part of tvfool put in your address , select the current plus pending stations , start with the antenna at 40 feet high and raise the antenna 10 feet at a time , you will see that the NM(dB) figures really start to improve at 60 feet and as the antenna goes higher up to 100 feet more tv stations become LOS Line Of Sight.

[quiet1one]

I'll have to think it over. That 7698P is huge and I will have to figure out how I would deal with that if I go that way.

Higher is better but that's where it cost big money. Those towers are quite expensive and I haven't been able to find any cheaper alternatives yet.

Thank you for all your help.