some folks around here still have antennas and so far only one has asked me to help them re-align theirs……….it actually was pointing in the wrong direction. but now it is aimed at Chicago, and they get the regular channels fine but ONLY one digital
the little box scans and scans but only locks onto CBS
I’m pretty sure that the transmitting antennas are all in one or maybe two spotsover there but being the LOS is around 80 miles I didn’t think that changing the azimuth would make a big difference I mean from here the Sear Tower and the Hancock buildings are only about a 1/2″ apart
I don’t know maybe a different antenna… ??? a plain ole antenna
something without all the HDTV hype in the sales pitch
Replies
FWIW, I've been watching HDTV, broadcast band only, for over a year here in Los Angeles. I've got a cheap pair of rabbit ears, supposedly engineered for digital reception, which do quite well. I've been receiving HD from about thirty stations, VHF and UHF.
I haven't seen any roof top antennas here, other than satellite dishes, probably because broadcast TV reception is nearly ideal. The transmitters are all on a nearby mountain top, about 3000ft above sea level with direct line of sight to most of the L.A. basin.
The distance between my home and the transmitters is about twenty miles.
Edited 10/6/2008 6:11 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter
yeah we're just too far from ChiTown for rabbit ears and South Bend is a waste of time because of trees and elevaion.
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There is no special "HD" antenna. You just need a larger antenna, or an antenna amplifier.
I sort of figured the HD hype was just that, but they have a rather large antenna it's about 7' long, and an amplifier but for some reason it only picked up CBS..signal strength was 78% thoughI did check all the connections and the cable for any damage, and there are some taller pine trees about 60' from the mast they are also retired and have to watch their frivilous spending too.
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"You just need a larger antenna, or an antenna amplifier."Unless you're really close to the tower, in which case, you won't know what you need until you try it.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Go to http://www.antennaweb.org - put in your address, and follow the instructions, it will tell you what channels you can receive, and what direction they are. It will also give you a color that corresponds to each channel. That will show you how strong of antenna you need. Here is a better explanation of mine.
http://www.youdoitelectronics.com/id479.htm
Each antenna has been graded to show what it will receive. If its 80 miles, I think you'll need a violet rated large directional antenna, and an amplifier wouldn't hurt either. Something like these:
http://www.warrenelectronics.com/antennas/3671.htm
http://www.warrenelectronics.com/antennas/ccs1843.htm
http://www.warrenelectronics.com/antennas/HD8200U.htm
Clicked on you link and jaw about hit the floor with sticker shock. $161 for a simple LPV or yagi??
Should have saved some of those LPVs I scrapped last year for 70cents/# (after buying 10's of them in the 80's at goodwill , etc. for $1 apiece)
Still got a couple on the roof though, got more channels on the decode box than basic cable, but content mostly cr2p or marketing.
I've built my own before too, used to have a handy calculator that would tell you how many dipoles, length, spacing etc, but it has disappeared.However, take that $50 cable/satellite bill most people pay, and it doesn't take long to make that one time $160 payment.We had satellite for a while, and I soon realized I was paying that much for just one or two channels I actually watched. And when I watched those, I wasn't doing anything productive.We've been on plain old antenna for 10 years now.
Had a 20 ft by 30 ft rhombic ant. in the attic of grandmas house when I was a kid to be able to get StL stations in the 50's, (100 mi away)
3 rotors somewhere, may have to put them back up, still have the control wires to the roof in place.
Basic Cable here is only $9 mosince it is in addition to cable internet.
Edited 10/6/2008 4:38 pm ET by junkhound
I tried your link, unfortunately the listings are for South Bend and not Chicago.and the reception from SB is practically non existant for these folks because of the woods to their East I could hardly get anything better than snow for them..their antenna looks very similar to the first listing you gave me but theirs is about 10 Yrs old.
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Any chance of a forest fire?Just kidding.
I could use the fire wood ...:)how about a taller mast ? there is an old utility pole in their yard somebody shot the yard light on it to pieces years ago, but it is in a clearing.
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Pretty much ALL (except very low powered stations) are transmitted on UHF. A digital antenna is one that is optimized for UHF. So I put up 2 UHF antennas and coupled them together to get digital reception. I also put a line amplifier on the cable. I get excellent pictures on stations I could not even receive before. Two antennas basically point to two metropolitan areas. I could install a third to get additional stations.
This might work, with an amplifier.
http://www.hdtvantennalabs.com/antennas/ChannelMaster-CM4228.html
Edited 10/6/2008 10:57 am ET by MarkH
Sorry, but it's not true that all digital signals will be on UHF. They all are now, but when the switchover occurs many stations will switch their digital signals down to VHF.This pisses me off to no end since it means that one can't simply go with a big bedspring UHF antenna but still have to have a VHF beam.
Corporation: n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. --Ambrose Bierce
Thanks for clearing that up. I was under the impression that the VHF frequencies were to be sold for other uses. Now I may have to pick up a VHF antenna also. DRAT
So far, I've only seen the upper VHF channels being used this way. I think they're not allowing the move back to the lower channels, and those will probably be sold off. So in a few years you'll probably be able to buy an antenna that's minus the several low-channel elements, making it a little less unwieldy.
Corporation: n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. --Ambrose Bierce
If it's really 80 miles then antenna height may also come into play for your location. The higher frequency carrier signal for DTV is more "line of sight" then the old analog signals broadcast at a longer wave length. The curvature of the earth plays a roll, something I believe is on the order of 100feet per 15 miles distance. If I've got the number correct then your going to need a height of slightly over 500 feet to get line of site signal reception. That height can be filled by one or both transmitter height and your antenna height.
You're going to get either a clear signal or no signal, there won't be any "in between" for this new TV. The only thing to do is set it up and see if you get any signal...good luck.
500' ??
OK that's not going to happen after looking at google earth it may be quite less than 80 miles.
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Well maybe not, it depends, if they install the transmitter at the top of one of those downtown buildings that is 400 ft tall and your antenna is on a small hill, it's on a 50 foot mast, then you could be getting a signal. If not then your screwed. You'll see.
well the Sears Tower is pretty tall at over 1400' and the antennas are probably 200' taller does that help ? the land is pretty much ravines and ponds in fact our little town is called Rolling Prairie.
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You can use this horizon distance calculator to determine height of antenna. Just remember that you add the calculated distance for height of eye of the transmitting antenna and for the receiving one and factor in ground elevation too. Then you need to know if there are hills at the node where your horizon and the transmitter's horizon meet.
http://www.boatsafe.com/tools/horizon.htm
just how big a deal are trees? I thought they were relatively transparent to RF - "there's enough for everyone"
i thought so too but the trees are practically above the antenna between South Bend and there and reception is lousygotta run, time to make the donuts !!!.
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I made the switch to an OTA antenna yesterday. I bought the Channel master 4221 after seeing a lot of good reviews. I get all the local digital channels, about 16 and got a few channels that I dIdnt even know existed. I get great reception, as good as the cable TV I have been paying $60 a month for. The antenna is on the roof pointed directly at a group of large trees within 20' of the antenna and there is a heavily wooded area behind that. I am about 35 miles from the towers and in a low area. I think the CM 4221 is good up to about 50 miles and cost $50. They are more of a flat antenna about 2' wide x 3' high, rather than a long conventional TV antenna. There is also a larger one the CM 4228 that has a longer range, something like 75 miles or more. The TV I have has a digital tuner, so the HD digital channels obviously look the best, but the analog channels look pretty good too. One thing to keep in mind, if your TV has a digital tuner you will have to re-program the channels when you switch to a better antenna, or you wont get all the channels that are in range. After it all added up.. antenna, 50' of rg6 cable, ground stake and copper wire, under $100. Goodbye cable TV. :0)
Unfortunately, no one makes the true "deep fringe" antennas anymore, so far as I can tell. Used to be that these could pull in stations from about 125 miles away,
Corporation: n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. --Ambrose Bierce
if you wanted this kind of range/sensitivity, could you gang (series?parallel?) a couple of antennas together?"there's enough for everyone"
Not very effectively, as I understand it.
Corporation: n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. --Ambrose Bierce
I think you can still get the big antennas, I dont know if they will reach 125 miles though. They do make amplifiers than will increase the range quite a bit. I dont know all that much about it, heres where I found some good info.http://www.hdtvtwincities.com The rain slowed down so I took a picture of the antenna below. There are alot of trees as you can see, but they werent a problem at all. Some people are hanging them in their attics and getting good reception.
Edited 10/7/2008 3:17 pm ET by wood4rd
Of course that's a UHF-only antenna. Channel 9 and a couple of others will be using VHF.
Corporation: n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. --Ambrose Bierce
I think Channel 9 is UHF right now and so are the others. Channel 9 (9.1) is coming in crystal clear right now in 720p. digital. Any reason they would be changing them? If they do , I guess everyone will need 2 antennas or a UHF/VHF.
Like I said earlier, it pisses me off that they're doing this. If it was just 9 I'd let them rot in hell, but several others are planning the same thing. I assume they feel they can get better coverage with VHF (and save a little on their electric bills at the same time).
Corporation: n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. --Ambrose Bierce
I did that too a while back except I had to buy a really good rotator to pull in signals and then amplfy the signal.. but it saved me from the cable bill.
However I eventually signed up for satillite TV (Dish at first, then they sold to Direct and I had to wait untill my contract was up with them to switch back to Dish..)
They came out put this little antennia where you can't see it from anyplace except my roof. They did all the wiring installing showed me how to use the remote and program ones I wanted to TIVO . (with TIVO I watch shows without watching commercials) and provided everything Free..
I have expanded basic to watch Speed channel, TCM, and some other channels and pay $45.00 a month.
Basic is 19 dollars a month.. free equipment (up to 4 rooms) free install, and free 90 days unlimited access to everything..
Maybe 3 or 4 times a year when thunderstorms rumble through I might lose the signal for about 15 minutes or so but other than that it's flawless!
after thinkimg about this today I'm going to run some quad cable I have and see if that makes a difference. the stuff that is over there has a ChannelMaster number on it but no other way to ID it, I guessing it is some low grade stuff.hopefully that will work.
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Thanks, I'll try it out when I get home tonight ...
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