What TV Antenna?

[Bill Cravener]

I live between two big cities Pittsburgh PA and Cleveland Ohio that use to broadcast on VHF and a third city Youngstown Ohio 20 miles away that use to broadcast on UHF. I live on top of a hill. What type of outdoor antenna would I buy? My Sony 36" CRT TV is ATSC ready. I would probably mount this antenna on the third floor attic.

Any suggestions or links to what I would need? I don't watch all that much TV and I'm sick of paying directv 70 bucks a month to watch 4 or 5 channels.

[GregL]

This site, AntennaWeb, will give you a good idea of what type of antenna you need based on your location.

I wish I could get a decent signal here, but I am in a not so good location and I have tall trees all around me. I would need a 100 ft. tower and a huge directional antenna to get anything.

[dedndave]

i am sure you can only buy new TV antennas that are "digital ready" - whatever the hell that means
maybe they are selling you an antenna with a band-switchable pre-amp or something
i don't know, and i don't really want to know - as far as i'm concerned, it's all sales hipe

here in Phoenix, nearly all the TV and radio broadcast transmitter antennas are on top of South Mountain
you don't need much of an antenna - you point it at the mountain and get all the TV and FM signals loud and clear

when i was a kid (raised in Michigan), my dad ran a TV repair shop out of the basement - i was his "cheap labor", as in free (the asshole)
we also installed TV towers and antennas - a few hundred of them, i would estimate
Michigan was a similar situation to yours
every channel was transmitted from a different city
we had stations in Lansing, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Bay City, Saginaw, Detroit, Flint - and so on
the only thing that worked well was a half-way decent antenna, at least 40 feet in the air, with a rotor
most of the ones we installed were "fringe area" logarithmic-periodic dipole array type antennas at 60 feet
being as we were in the business, we had 2 of these fringe antennas (ChannelMaster) phased, which really kicked ass - lol
back then, pre-amps were noisy, which converted to snow in the picture
with digital TV, you shouldn't see that kind of noise
and, pre-amps have come a long way - lower noise - cheaper, too

LPDA TV antenna


phasing 2 LPDA's


whatever you do, you are going to want the antenna to be outside - not in an attic
a roof-mounted tripod may work well enough - and is a hell of a lot cheaper than a tower
and, you are going to want to be able to rotate it

[dedndave]

here is a tripod like i am talking about
this one is 5' - i seem to recall 8 or 10 footers
put a mast pole in it, and you should be able to get at least 12' off the roof (with the 5 footer)
put the rotor near the top of the tripod - or you can mount the rotor to the neck of some tripods
this one does not have a neck - they probably don't make em like that anymore
to mount it, stradle the peak with it - find at least one rafter (one on each side of the peak would be nice)
if you are in a windy area, you may want to put a joyce in the attic between 2 rafters
fasten it with lag bolts and use roofing tar to seal it

[Bill Cravener]

Dave,

From Greg's link above it tells me I can get six stations within 30 miles of home and that is a conservative prediction. Odds are I'll get more then that.

CBS YOUNGSTOWN, OH
IND PITTSBURGH, PA
NBC YOUNGSTOWN, OH
ABC YOUNGSTOWN, OH
FOX YOUNGSTOWN, OH violet
TBN MEADVILLE, PA

I wonder how good those new digital antennas are. Regardless of the antenna I buy I can mount it on the chimney which is about 30 feet high and as I stated before I live high up. When I was a kid we received channels from Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Meadville and Youngstown with a rotatable roof top antenna.

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=03&p=ANT800&d=RCA-ANT800-Outdoor-Digital-Antenna-(ANT800)&c=TV%20Antennas&sku=044476064531

[dedndave]

ok - you can use chimney straps
don't try to get too high from the top of the chimney, is all   :P

[dedndave]

i was going to say - it might be easier to have one antenna pointed at Pittsburg and one at Cleveland - and switch between them
but, you'll want a rotor to get Meadville
also - if you have a rotor, odds are, you'll be able to get other stations that you did not list

[Bill Cravener]

Well I'm going to investigate further before I make a decision. I want to check out those new flat digital antennas that are supposedly multi-direction first. If I can receive 4 to 5 channels I'd be content. Most the crap on TV these days makes me sick.

[clive]

i am sure you can only buy new TV antennas that are "digital ready" - whatever the hell that means
maybe they are selling you an antenna with a band-switchable pre-amp or something
i don't know, and i don't really want to know

Probably tuned/confined to the UHF 470-699 MHz band (Channels 14-51), as the move to digital was designed to free 700-805 MHz (52-69) from Analog TV, as well as the VHF bands used by the channels 1-13.

Cheaper to make, sell it for more, cause it's Digital

[dedndave]

i wasn't aware of them freeing up the VHF channels
i still have stations from 3 to 12

as for channel 1 - lol - they had to give that one up to ham radio long ago - we call it the "6 meter band"

[GregL]

Yeah, we have a VHF channel 9 here in Seattle, they were talking about eliminating the VHF channels with digital but then they never did it.


Dave,

6 meters is a fun band when it's open, trouble is most of the time it's not. But I do love 6 meters. I have VUCC on 6.


Bill,

I'm not sure the gain would be very good with that RCA ANT800, but you could try it. I think you'd be best off with a directional antenna with a rotor.

[dedndave]

very cool Greg - didn't know you were a ham - lol - or i forgot - gettin old
rags is also a ham
the guys in the pacific really love 6
i have heard they can "tunnel" all the way from Hawaii to Australia, even when the band is dead
we started playing with 2 meter FM when i was very young
we had an old Motorla 80D at home that kicked butt
in the van, dad had converted an old GE prog line by replacing the 2E26 final with a 6146   :P
i can still here that dynamo fire up when you hit the mic button - lol

as for the omnidirectional antenna - it might be worth while for Bill to try it
mount it on the chimney, as planned
the antenna probably isn't too expensive to try it out
you could even add a pre-amp at the antenna to see if you get a few stations

my thinking is...
if it doesn't pan out - he hasn't wasted too much money
the chimney straps and mast are still usable with a rotatable antenna, as well as a pre-amp
the cable - everything but the antenna itself would be in place if he decided to upgrade to a gain antenna with a rotor
there is a hint here, Bill   :bg
at the antenna end, leave a coil of coax (6 feet or so) in case you want to change antennas
you want a few feet to make a loop around the rotor and a few more feet to reach the feedpoint - better make it 7 feet - lol
of course, if you have a pre-amp, it could be mounted just above the rotor - then the extra length isn't as critical

[clive]

i wasn't aware of them freeing up the VHF channels i still have stations from 3 to 12

Pretty sure that's the plan, the phase over to digital took way to long, with far too much dithering around and delay. There are no legacy reasons for keeping the lower channels for TV, all the digitial receivers can use the upper ones.

[GregL]

Dave,

Yeah, I'm a General and my call is N7YAP. I got rid of my tower and big HF antennas when we moved 5 years ago, so I'm not very active now. I do have a 6/2/70cm vertical up but that's it. I kept a good 6 meter yagi but it's in storage. I kept a Yaesu FT-100D radio too.

The omni probably is worth a try.


Clive,

I'm pretty sure the plan to eliminate the VHF band from TV was scrapped. It wouldn't have bothered me if they did, it makes sense.

[dedndave]

it may well be that they have that transition planned in the future
the stations may not have wanted to spend all the money to switch over at the same time as changing format
the big communication companies have a lot of pull in congress

Greg - i haven't been too active lately, myself
i prefer 40 meter CW - chase a little DX 80-10 - used to chase the paper - now i just like to make a few contacts
i still enjoy a good pile-up, but don't care if i get the card - lol
my call is K7NL - ex-WB8AMH, WA7RZZ, KC7X - been a ham since 1968 (age 12  :P )
http://www.qrz.com/db/k7nl