Antenna Selection

[D Maker]

Hello Everyone!

I am looking for some advice for my OTA situation.

In my community two of the four networks have translators just outside of town along with an around the clock weather station and an WB station. The other two major networks, FOX (KHMT) and ABC (KSVI) have a 1000KW towers approximately 45 to 50 miles away. I have spoken to the stations directly and was told I would be looking at putting a good sized antenna on my roof, not to hold my breath and save my receipt... Which pretty much summed up what I had been figuring in looking at my reports both on here and other places on the web over the last month.

Honestly, I would love to pick up as many signals as possible, but realistically I really only care about the four main networks.

I would be installing the antenna on a tripod mast, on the roof of my house, and would be running about 50 feet down to an distribution block and then into the house to two TV's with runs of less than 15 feet each. I might run more TV's in the future.

So, anyone have any thoughts?

Here is my report:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...b9c97cdc11af22

[Tower Guy]

Originally Posted by D Maker

So, anyone have any thoughts?

HD 7698P with AP 8700 preamp. It should get ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX but not PBS.

The other option is a Y10-7-13 with a 91XG and AP 2870 preamp. that's better if you want to try for the LPTV stations on UHF.

Figure out what's on the LPTV stations and if they offer any advantages over the main stations.

[D Maker]

Tower Guy,

Thanks for the response. Those low power stations are just rebroadcasting the CBS (KTVQ), NBC (KULR) and WB stations feed from the Billings Market plus the NBC station's 24 hour news and weather station. So no real advantage of programming is to be had there.

Of course it is nice that I have been picking up those stations with a cheap little rabbit ear setup. So I suppose that is an advantage.

I sure would like to pull in FOX and ABC as well... Hence my original post.

[John Candle]

KGBS 16 PBS is not receivable at minus -12.2 NM(dB) . You can go to the >>Start MAPS<< part of tvfool and enter in higher and lower antenna heights and see if number can be brought up to at least minus -3.5 NM(dB) like FOX. Having the NM number in the positive numbers would be even better. . You can also do this , http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=265

[D Maker]

Thanks for your response John,

I tried messing with the heights awhile back and noticed that if I was close to the ground that my signals got marginally better which seems a bit counter intuitive. Any thoughts as to the reason for this?

[John Candle]

Yes it's known as ground wave reception , recent question askers have had answers that explaine ground wave reception , it is Ok to read other questions and answers.

[D Maker]

Right. I must have missed that discussion over the last month or so.

Have you considered decaf? Might help.