A few OTA antenna ?'s

[bratboy]

Hi all, Im a noob adopter of Voom HD and HDTV as well as new forum member (nice to find this place) Please forgive if the following seem stupid questions

Well, I got Voom last saturday here in Denver and so far I like it. A few questions tho. He ended up using a Winegard PR 8800 antenna and we get a few locals but he suggested maybe looking into Winegards Ghostbuster antenna. Anyway we already had a huge OTA Ant for locals from the days when DTV didnt offer locals & my roomy got curious and hooked THAT antenna to the Voom unit and actually picked up a few MORE channels in HD. I figured he was smoking something as I thought OTA & OTA HD ants were different critters....(phone rang, was Winegard)...Well got answer to this while typing I guess. Winegards Tech Han's just called me and according to him there isnt a diffrence other than marketing. Now since what he told me elliminates me from being a customer I tend to want to believe him on the matter but could someone else also confirm this?

Also, 2nd question I had thats still up in air,
I seem to recall reading that using a combiner/spliter degrades signal strength. By that I mean the way they combines both the Voom signal & OTA signal so can run just 1 cable down roof and thru wall then a splitter then breaks it back out to 2 cables destroys a ton of signal strength (Keep thinking it was like 20%+ lost from when their combined and as much as another 20%40% gain lost on breaking back out). Is this true and would I be better off using a direct cable from Ant to the box instead of the way its set now. Since we already had the Ant's wire running into the house from before I wont actually need to make another hole in the wall but wondered if was best idea or not.

I appologize if these have been asked/answered already, but I did try to scan the forum first but as rather sick right now I may have missed the thread

 

[piperut]

There is a link on the FCC site www.fcc.gov that you put in your address and it will tell you what sort of antenna you need to receive a digital signal. It tells you where to point your antenna.

Most metro areas are using UHF freq. to broadcast the digital signals. There are a couple that are using a few VHF freq. Most newer antennas will receive the digital signals. If you have a good TV antenna it will receive a digital signal. You may have to tune the antenna. (Point it at the digital transmission tower better). The digital signal is more picky then the analog signal.

You may also benefit by using a signal amplifier. I have one channel that will not come in without a signal amplifier. It comes in fine if I add a signal amplifier. You can purchase one at Lowes, Home Depot, Radio Shack.. and a number of other places for between $20 and $40 depending on which one you get. I have had the best luck with the Philips 75-900 ohm amplifier. I had an old Radio Shack 75-900 ohm that worked ok, but it was wearing out so I replaced it.

 

[kspeters]

There is a link on the FCC site www.fcc.gov that you put in your address and it will tell you what sort of antenna you need to receive a digital signal. It tells you where to point your antenna.

Most metro areas are using UHF freq. to broadcast the digital signals. There are a couple that are using a few VHF freq. Most newer antennas will receive the digital signals. If you have a good TV antenna it will receive a digital signal. You may have to tune the antenna. (Point it at the digital transmission tower better). The digital signal is more picky then the analog signal.

You may also benefit by using a signal amplifier. I have one channel that will not come in without a signal amplifier. It comes in fine if I add a signal amplifier. You can purchase one at Lowes, Home Depot, Radio Shack.. and a number of other places for between $20 and $40 depending on which one you get. I have had the best luck with the Philips 75-900 ohm amplifier. I had an old Radio Shack 75-900 ohm that worked ok, but it was wearing out so I replaced it.

Could you point me to where you found the antenna information on the Fcc website, can't seem to locate it. Maybe I am blind

 

[TYORK]

go to www.antennaweb.org it will tell you all ota info

 

[Lobstah]

antennaweb.org is a great resource...but take their recommendations with a grain of salt. Excellent for giving you distance/bearing and what's available to you. When you get the channel list, click on the "digital only" button at the top, as those are the stations you're interested in. Also keep in mind that UHF is a "line of sight" or "unidirectional" technology, unlike VHF. So if you have some towers at 90deg, and other towers at 160, or 210, you'll have to decide which stations you want, since you'll have to point the antenna at one group of towers.

Lob

 

[zombie]

So if you have some towers at 90deg, and other towers at 160, or 210, you'll have to decide which stations you want, since you'll have to point the antenna at one group of towers.

Lob

Voom approved a rotor for my follow up. The are approving large antenna upgrades and rotors in the pittsburgh area like crazy (according to my installer)..

 

[jbphoenix]

Here is a link to a good site for checking the location of your local stations and the programing available in your area. http://www.checkhd.com/zipentry.aspx?ReturnUrl=/Default.aspx

Has a nice advertisement link for VOOM on the site as well...