OT .. TV antenna ??

I want to replace my TV antenna . move it to a tower , that it off the roof .. tower is 48 feet tall .. going from back side of house { walkout } it should be around 20 feet above the peek ...

QUESTION : is there a antenna better than another ?? also I want to run the better tv wire in the house ... any suggestion on wire type ??
Antenna will run 2-3 TV's

I don't have any idea ... so your HELP is GREATLY APPREATE ...

THANKS ... Mark

My son found his antenna does not work well after the change over in frequencies.We are on the back side of Mount Harris.Some stations moved to UHF that tends to be line of sight and short range.His tv tuner is digital so he can adjust to new frequency.Dont spend a lot of money on this idea.

go to an electronics dealer in your area and see what they suggest...the new digital stuff is sposed to be great IF you get the correct equiptment...i'd put a antenna booster inline too if they still make them for digital.

I've got one of the long,directional types that isn't hooked up,but I have one of the round ones mounted just above it that is hooked up. There's a booster on that one. I'm pulling in 48 channels.

Require a powered splitter if sharing signal. And that is in addition to the antenna mounted amplifier that is required to overcome coax cable losses from the tower down.
Use RG-6 cable.
The antenna should be a deep fridge unit designed for channels 7 through 49. The older channels 2-69 antennas catch extra wind and snow. With the 2-69's longer boom and elements that are not used any more from 50-69.
The super wide elements for channels 2-6 bring in more interface from the FM radio bands.Than they do TV signals from 2-6.

First thing you need to go to a dealer in your area and he can tell you what you need. If you can only get a couple of stations it will make a difference. Now the big question how much money do you want to spend tv reception can vary easy that why you need avice from someone in your area who does the service. We dont know anything about your area.

Are all the towers you want to aim at in the same direction?

http://www.tvfool.com/

Check around at your local radio shack and other stores like that. They will have antennas made for your area or should I say made to bring in signals that will fit your needs. I put one up for my mom and it works real well and it is a magnovox brand but not sure of the model any more but it looks like a flying saucier and works real well. Cost around $100 and has a built in rotor and booster

A good grounding system on the tower will drain a lightning strike easier.

In addition to other comments here...If You can get an antenna WITH a biult-in Signal BOOSTER... as this will assure a matched system wgich will be less a Headeache in setting it all up!AND WORK BETER, I DID THIS KIND OF WORK FOR 20YRS i KNOW FROM EXP.. Larry KF4LKU

What ytmag.com is to old tractors, avsforum.com is to TV antennas. There's a lot of knowledge there and helpful people.

Personally, I'm very fond of the brand Winegard for antenna equipment. There are plenty of other good brands too, but no matter what you get you'll probably have to order it online these days. No stores in my area carries any of the good stuff.

Put a amp on the antenna and use a distribution amp in the house.
Distributoin Amp

I should add that the forum name on avsforum.com for antennas is called "HDTV Technical".

www.antennaweb.org is an online antenna selector. It uses your address into to find;
which stations are available to you; the direction and distance to each station's broadcast tower; and gives some antenna recommends based on distances.

Channel Master makes good antennas and amplifiers www.channelmaster.com . Their 8 bay bow antenna looks like a 3 foot square section of hog fence panel. Winegard also makes very good amplifiers.

An 8 bay Channel Master antenna 25 feet off the ground with a 28dB Winegard antenna mounted amplifier work well for me at 75 miles from a 1300 foot and two 1200 foot towers. They have been trouble free since they went up in 2003.

(quoted from post at 06:23:09 02/28/11) www.antennaweb.org is an online antenna selector. It uses your address into to find;
which stations are available to you; the direction and distance to each station's broadcast tower; and gives some antenna recommends based on distances.

Click to expand...

Antennaweb tends to be ultra-conservative with their estimates. It's not a bad site, but IMHO, there are better ones. TV FOOL http://tvfool.com/ and RabbitEars http://www.rabbitears.info/search.php are better sites for estimating available signals. TV FOOL ocassionally gets an older FCC permit thrown in or something, and a station shows up with the wrong RF channel or different broadcasting location.

An 8 bay Channel Master antenna 25 feet off the ground with a 28dB Winegard antenna mounted amplifier work well for me at 75 miles from a 1300 foot and two 1200 foot towers. They have been trouble free since they went up in 2003.

Click to expand...

I bet you have the "old" model 4228. It was the Cadillac of 8-bays. The new, "HD" model has some issues (see link below). The phasing issues can be corrected, but why should a person have to fix a new antenna?

Proof that an "older" antenna can be better than a "new" one in this case, and some other neat antenna comparisons: http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/TemporaryPage.html

I want to replace my TV antenna . move it to a tower , that it off the roof .. tower is 48 feet tall .. going from back side of house { walkout } it should be around 20 feet above the peek ...

QUESTION : is there a antenna better than another ?? also I want to run the better tv wire in the house ... any suggestion on wire type ??
Antenna will run 2-3 TV's

I don't have any idea ... so your HELP is GREATLY APPREATE ...

THANKS ... Mark

Click to expand...

48 feet + a coulple of feet above the top of the tower is a great start. A distribution amplifier is usually the way to go when splitting the signal, provided that you don't over amplify a strong local signal. Distribution amps are available with various gain levels, as are pre-amplifiers. Be careful using both a pre-amp and a distribution amp. Occasionally you can introduce more "noise" and cause more problems in some situations. Use terminators on any unused terminals on all splitters and amps. Use RG-6 or RG-6 quad shield cable.

There are still Lo-VHF, Hi-VHF, and UHF channels broadcasting. Use TV FOOL or RabbitEars (links above) to find your stations. You need to know the RF channels not the virtual channels to find out what type of antenna you need.



The FCC is currently (and quietly) trying to eliminate another 120+ mHz from UHF television for the prez's National Broadband plan. They got a good start with their $200+ million dollar broadband map that, based on some other internet forums, isn't even accurate.
Article: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2380525,00.asp
Map: http://www.broadbandmap.gov/technology

They are trying to make this look voluntary, but it seems to be a surrender now or be shot later situation. LPTV could possibly be forced from the air in many areas. Even if you don't have VHF channels today, the odds are quite good that within 5 years you will have some if Congress approves voluntary spectrum auctions. None of this is set in stone, but the rock is there and there are men with chisels at the ready.

The above, sadly, is also something to consider when pruchasing an antenna if you plan on it lasting longer than 5 years.


AG

Reception here improved whenh I clipped the CH 2 through 6 elements back to match the ch 7 through 13 elements.
2 through 6 now come in clearer even if the TV signal was a little weaker. The drop in the FM noise made the difference.
7 through 13 are of course stronger now too.

(quoted from post at 21:40:27 02/28/11) Reception here improved whenh I clipped the CH 2 through 6 elements back to match the ch 7 through 13 elements.
2 through 6 now come in clearer even if the TV signal was a little weaker. The drop in the FM noise made the difference.
7 through 13 are of course stronger now too.

Click to expand...

I've heard people having luck doing that. I never could make it work for me. There is a PBS station that is on RF 5 about 65 mi. NE of me. I tried a UHF/Vhf-Hi antenna, nothing, ever, even though that antenna got a nearly clear picture on an analog channel 5 from 60 miles west of me. A neighbor gave me his old ch. 2-13 antenna that was in pretty good shape when he bought a new antenna for the transition, and I got some signal, but not consistent. I put a FM trap on it and it worked like a charm on RF 5, 7, 8, and 10 until mother nature took down my 35 foot tower last summer.

I guess if anyone's near any FM radio tower trying to get any VHF tv signals can be a serious challange.

The FCC's gotta allow higher power on VHF if they want people to watch it and broadcasters to use it to get over the noise floor. It may be cheaper to power a VHF station, but people still have to be able to watch it.

AG

Hey Gene,

not to change the subject but do you have any Wood"s pulley brackets for a Farmall C?
I have an L-59 but no brackets to hook it up to my C Farmall. I heard you was "the guy"!

Thanks, CT