Antenna pointing in a 2edge

[Dah-Henny]

My 91XG is pointed east for most of the vhf I like, and I'd like to try to pick up a vhf-low station only 16 miles away, but is blocked by a mountain directly behind my home.

TVfool shows a nm of 31.0, pwr of -59.9, 2Edge

I can get a single channel antenna for under $40, and am curious about pointing it.

My question is, and I'm a little confused about how signals bend across mountain tops: would I aim the antenna toward the top of the mountain (roughly 45 degrees), or keep it in a horizontal orientation? Or...any other advice would be welcome.
Thanks
Don

 

[Dah-Henny]

edit: the OP meant to say that the 91XG is for my uhf channels.

 

[Mr Tony]

VHF low (2-6) or VHF Hi (7-13)? Very few stations are still broadcasting on VHF low

can you post your TVfool report?

 

[Auric]

I really don't understand how it works at all, but I have picked up 2 edge stations two different ways.

One was to mount a cheap Walmart antenna MANT940 in front of an old DTV satellite dish. The dish was slightly pointing up. That was my first experience. I got a 1-3 signal quality on my TV. The pointing of the dish is hit & miss

The second was when I bought my CM3020. I mounted it the regular way above my rooftop. I did not pick up the 2edge station until I hooked up a preamp & sig quality is 5-6 on my TV.

When I hooked up the preamp to the DTV "dish antenna" it lost signal, & Q went to 0

There is a station I would like to get better. It's 22 miles away, & only comes in very poor sometimes. It's bizarre to me that I can pick up the same Tropo channels more regularly the the 1 Edge.

I chalk it up to a fun hobby, I'm sure there is a good science behind it all & maybe someone will chime in so we can both understand it better

 

[Dah-Henny]

I want to receive wcyb channel 5 from Bristol TN/VA

 

[Mr Tony]

Damn they are on VHF Low
The only thing I can think of is getting a VHF Low only antenna...or a VHF only

 

[Dah-Henny]

I thought about getting an antenna cut just for ch5, but am really wondering should I point the antenna level or angled toward the top of the mtn between me and wcyb.

My question is, and I'm a little confused about how signals bend across mountain tops: would I aim the antenna toward the top of the mountain (roughly 45 degrees), or keep it in a horizontal orientation?

 

[TheKrell]

...would I aim the antenna toward the top of the mountain (roughly 45 degrees), or keep it in a horizontal orientation?

45 degrees? Good grief! The short answer is, "At the mountaintop," though such a nearby mountaintop is going to be extremely problematic. Here are some great pictures showing how the radio wave diffracts over obstacles. The TVfool numbers refer to distant mountains, not nearby mountains.

If you have control of that mountaintop, you could install 3 antennas. (1) would be on the mountaintop pointed at the station you want, another connected up to the first would be over the mountaintop pointed at your house, and (3) the one at your house pointed at antenna #2. Kluge but it has been known to work.

 

[Auric]

45 degrees? Good grief! The short answer is, "At the mountaintop," though such a nearby mountaintop is going to be extremely problematic. Here are some great pictures showing how the radio wave diffracts over obstacles. The TVfool numbers refer to distant mountains, not nearby mountains.

If you have control of that mountaintop, you could install 3 antennas. (1) would be on the mountaintop pointed at the station you want, another connected up to the first would be over the mountaintop pointed at your house, and (3) the one at your house pointed at antenna #2. Kluge but it has been known to work.

Whoa that's some great info. Site bookmarked! Thanks :up

 

[Dah-Henny]

I know that it's a crap shoot, but I just might throw $40 at an AntennaCraft Y5-5 to see if I can get a lock somewhere.

It would take me an hour to climb to the top of said mtn, so, that ain't gonna happen. The TN stations are great for news and weather (significantly viewed), and my DMA is Charlotte at 100 miles away, which comes from Dish Network. I'd gladly pay E* for the significantly viewed channels, but as we all know, the FCC will only allow cablecos to provide locals from 2 or more DMA's to their subs.

 

[Dah-Henny]

...The TVfool numbers refer to distant mountains, not nearby mountains...

I don't know how all of this stuff works, but the only mtn between me and the WCYB tower is the one right behind my home. It's at 4000 ft ASL. The top of the tower for WCYB is at 4533 ft ASL. My home is at 3500 ft. I may be wasting my hard earned cash, but at least it's not on wine and women.

 

[Don_M]

At a noise margin of 31 dB as per the TVFool report, Don, WCYB may not be knock-your-socks-off strong, but it's nowhere near "too weak to bother trying" territory, either.

One thing working in your favor is that a channel-5 signal will propagate more effectively over a mountaintop than those on UHF channels, making antenna tilt less crucial. The VHF-low models you and others mentioned earlier should work reasonably well if you're willing to experiment a bit with mounting location and height as well as tilt.

Another couple of considerations:

• Try to keep the boom of the VHF-low antenna a minimum of 6.25 feet (vertically, on the same mast) or 12.5 feet (horizontally, if you use two different masts) away from the boom of the 91XG to prevent interactions which could hinder reception.

• If you don't use a pre-amp, or if the one you're using lacks two inputs for separate VHF and UHF antennas, combine the two antennas using a low-loss UVSJ combiner/separator. That will limit signal loss to about 0.7 dB, versus the 3.5 dB-plus hit from a conventional combiner or splitter.

What's the bad news? Channel 5 signals are vulnerable to electrical interference generated by thunderstorms, "noisy" vehicle ignitions and some household appliances. That's why so few stations opted for VHF-low channel DTV assignments.

 

[Dah-Henny]

Thanks a lot, Don, for the info. I'll report back when I'm complete.

 

[Dah-Henny]

BTW, I'm using a channel master 3043 amp. 1 lead in with 2 outputs.

 

[TheKrell]

It would take me an hour to climb to the top of said mtn, so, that ain't gonna happen.

You only have to do it once.

 

[Peter Parker]

VHF low (2-6) or VHF Hi (7-13)? Very few stations are still broadcasting on VHF low

can you post your TVfool report?

there are still some areas with flat terrain that have VHF Lo stations. Around here the audio frequency for channel 6 is being used for commercial FM audio broadcasting-but not everywhere.