A bit of help with antenna choice?

josephdaniel · 27-Sep-2014, 4:09 AM

Well, it has happened... My ancient Channel Master antenna has gotten to a point where it is in my mind no longer acceptable... Currently it is missing one of the rear elements. The other element that is adjacent to the missing one is lose and swings around, and quite vehemently in our wind. also lost of stuff is just covered in corrosion and its very tired looking... It looks very similar to the Colorstar c290, maybe a bit smaller...

I was wondering how well the Antenna craft C490 or the HD1800 would do according to my report? I will connect this to a RCA TVPRAMP1R pre-amp and a antennacraft u4000.
If anyone has any recommendations as to what would be a good all in one antenna something that is better than what I have right now? Even before my current antenna started going downhill I was never very happy with it...

StephanieS · 28-Sep-2014, 1:17 AM

Greetings JosephDaniel,

A little more information is required. You have access to signals from two markets (Waco, Austin). Do you want options for both or are you satisfied with Austin?

Cheers.

josephdaniel · 28-Sep-2014, 4:16 AM

I would like to recieve both the Waco signals and the Austin signsls. When I was using my previous antenna I was able to aim it tward the waco signals and I still got most if the Austin signals as well somehow.

StephanieS · 28-Sep-2014, 6:06 AM

Thanks.

The main scenario that jumps out at me is a 2 antenna application.

Antenna 1: Antennas Direct DB8e. This is a UHF only design. One panel orientated to magnetic 170. This will cover Austin's ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and CW. Orientated other panel to magnetic heading 33. This will handle Waco's ABC affiliate and provide a shot at that Market's FOX affilaite.

Antenna 2: Antennacraft Y10713. This is a high-VHF only antenna.Orientate to magnetic heading 37. Off the front Waco's NBC and CBS should be reliable. Off the back, I would expect Austin's real channel 7 to be reliable as well as it has a pretty decent signal.

CW KCWX on real channel 5 I ignored unless you require it. CW programming is accessible via Austin.

How many TVs do you intend to serve? There are a few different ways to approach this. It all depends on length of coax, splits etc.

Cheers.

josephdaniel · 28-Sep-2014, 3:23 PM

I will have it serving three TV sets, tge cable run from the mast to the splitter is about 75 feet and the TV sets have varying runs of 40-75 feet... I already have a splitter with a distribution amplifier, but I would like to install a preamp on the mast because of the extremely long cable runs...

Would the RCA TVPRAMP1R pre amp that I mentioned earlier work okay? Currently I don't have any sort of pre amp..

About how far apart will the two antennas need to be aswell?

josephdaniel · 28-Sep-2014, 3:46 PM

wondering if I could possibly use my antenna craft u-4000 aimed at magnetic 170 just for the Austin stations? We don't really watch Wacos ABC or FOX channels...

josephdaniel · 1-Oct-2014, 3:11 AM

I am curious if anyone knows of any information that I could use to compare to the antennas direct DB8e with the Solid Signal HDB8X? I was wondering what the performance comparison would be and if it would work in my application if I decided that I didn't want to use my antennacraft u-4000 .