Any chance an antenna will work in North. NJ?

[Mr. D]

I live in Andover, NJ and I looked up TVFool and found that most of the channels fall in the grey zone. Should I give up on finding an antenna or does anyone think there's hope?

PS - I was looking into the DB8 with a pre-amp.

Doug

 

[Mr Tony]

welcome

I moved your thread to the over the air section (you had posted in the free to air which is a different area)

Hopefully one of our OTA gurus can help out

 

[Mr. D]

Thanks,

 

[dodge]

This is what I got for andover nj 10048

DTV Antenna
Type Call Sign Channel Network City, State Live
Date Compass
Heading Miles
From RF
Channel
* yellow
uhf WNBC-DT 4.1 NBC NEW YORK, NY 338° 0.1 28
* yellow
vhf WPIX-DT 11.1 CW NEW YORK, NY 335° 0.1 11
* yellow
uhf WCBS-DT 2.1 CBS NEW YORK, NY 335° 0.1 33
* yellow
vhf WABC-DT 7.1 ABC NEW YORK, NY 236° 0.1 7
* green
vhf WNET-DT 13.1 PBS NEWARK, NJ 41° 2.9 13
* green
vhf WNJB-DT 8.1 PBS NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ 36° 3.4 8
* red
uhf WFME-DT 66.1 REL WEST MILFORD, NJ 306° 13.8 29
red
uhf WPXO-LP 34 ION EAST ORANGE, NJ 310° 13.8 34
* red
uhf WNJU-DT 47.1 TEL LINDEN, NJ 41° 2.9 36
* red
uhf WFUT-DT 68.1 TFA NEWARK, NJ 41° 2.9 30
* red
uhf WWOR-DT 9.1 MNT SECAUCUS, NJ 41° 2.9 38
* red
uhf WXTV-DT 41.1 UNI PATERSON, NJ 41° 2.9 40
* red
uhf WPXN-DT 31.1 ION NEW YORK, NY 41° 2.9 31
* red
uhf WNYW-DT 5.1 FOX NEW YORK, NY 41° 2.9 44
* blue
uhf WNYE-DT 25.1 IND NEW YORK, NY 143° 2.4 24
* blue
uhf WNJN-DT 51.1 PBS MONTCLAIR, NJ 330° 14.5 51
* blue
uhf WMBC-DT 63.1 IND NEWTON, NJ 330° 14.5 18
* violet
vhf WNYZ-LD 33.1 REL DARIEN, CT 68° 4.3 6
* violet
uhf WSAH-DT 43.1 SAH BRIDGEPORT, CT 41° 2.9 42
Note:
Looks like a large directional antenna such as a winegard HD8200U with rotor and Ap 8275 preamp should do the trick on a tripod on your roof!!!
The other thing to do is to check with any neighbors or look around the neighboorhood to see who has an antenna and what they have for an antenna.

 

[JB Antennaman]

How to explain this without stepping on anyone's toe's.

A street level address is necessary to look at your TV fool report. Even with a TV fool radar plot, there is no real way to look at your situation without the address due to the fact that simple little things like a group of trees or a building 3 or more stories high in your first or second fresnel zone could be enough to block your signals.

If you care for my opinion, you may personal message me with your address and I will take a look at your situation. Anything beyond that - would be nothing more then a guess.

I do not like colors to describe stations, I like physical locations and distances and being able to look at what is between the two.

The Winegard 8200U is a excellent antenna - which I do own one and use one every day, along with a Channel Master CM 7777 pre amp for my day to day television viewing. But I will add that unless you have a real channel 2 - 6 VHF, the 8200U is over kill and the 7698P Winegard antenna works just as well.
The only difference in my opinion is the length of a couple of the elements for the VHF side of the antenna.

Real channel 2 or 4 is not UHF - which leads me to suspect that your lowest VHF channel is probably channel 8.

I have a hard time keeping the antenna on the roof, with it weighing 18 lbs, and unless you have a robust rotor or a thrust bearing or guy wires, a cheap rotor will probably fall apart in a year or two.

For best reception of UHF - a rotor is probably necessary.

 

[Jim5506]

If you could post your TVFool report it would help us because the glacial hills and valleys in your area are so variable, one side has signal the other is without.

Are you shooting for NYC channels or local to the area channels (Allentown, etc)?

You have maybe 3 moderate strength channels and the rest are pretty weak again dependent mostly on which side of the valley you are on.

The 7698 is probably your best bet.

 

[JB Antennaman]

I just wrote a report for his situation and for the most part it is hopeless.

Because he lives down in a valley where the signals don't shine, the chances of getting most anything more then one PBS and the Independent channel and One ABC is about all that is in his report.

To improve his situation in the suburbs of Andover Nj., he would have to move up the road, maybe a mile to a point above Old Creamery Road where there is a tall hill that would allow him good reception to about 16 stations. Even at that, the New York stations that are gettable are mostly in the range of channel 4 - 13 which would require him to use a Winegard 8200U antenna and not the 7698P due to the fact that the 7698P is designed to receive down to about channel 6-8 and not down to about channel 4.

I have a 8200U antenna and I know what it is capable of doing and all I can say is that the 7698P weighs about the same amount, just that the elements for the VHF must be longer or spaced differently.

Maybe if he lived closer to the lake or the pond he would have some reflection off the water which would improve his reception in the summertime.

 

[Jim5506]

It would be nice of the location data could be shared so more than one opinion might be brought to bear.

 

[JB Antennaman]

He sent the address in PM and I deleted it before I thought about saving it.

He lives between a lake and a pond, directly below Old Creamery Road.

Just for the sake of trying, I came up with a close address 45 Lenape road


http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id=c72387df50cdba

 

[Splicer]

I live in Andover, NJ and I looked up TVFool and found that most of the channels fall in the grey zone. Should I give up on finding an antenna or does anyone think there's hope?

PS - I was looking into the DB8 with a pre-amp.

Doug

You do not need to have a street level view to be able to tell if you will be able to receive reception of OTA television stations.

Based solely on your location provided in your information, I personally would not invest any money attempting to get unreliable signals that are iffy at best in your location. Best to stick with cable/satellite in your situation.:up

 

[WallFishTV]

Don't be so quick to give up.

You do not need to have a street level view to be able to tell if you will be able to receive reception of OTA television stations.

Based solely on your location provided in your information, I personally would not invest any money attempting to get unreliable signals that are iffy at best in your location. Best to stick with cable/satellite in your situation.:up

I would have to disagree about the above statement to give up. At the raising costs of subscription service I think it's worth taking the chance.
As an antenna installer I have had many cases where sites like fool or tennaweb said the customer would not pick up many channels. Most of the time this is not the case. In these cases I will set up a temp. antenna on tripod and coax drop to the tuner. This gives you a general idea what to expect. If you get good performance close to the ground >>It's gonna be better up on the house. If there are problems they can be adressed before actual install starts. That way customer knows what to expect before actual work starts. I have had a couple customers that went with a sub after finding out they couldn't get certain channels dependably. But most times if aimed properly customers can get all the major networks,PBS,WB etc.. no matter what these sites say. I also think you are on the right track. DB8 with a preamp get it's done in most of these "grey" areas.
This is just my opinion based on my experiences and I understand that results vary by location.
Have you hooked up any kind of antenna to see what you get?

 

[JB Antennaman]

Actually Wallfish - the signal depends on how the signal refracts over the horizon to your location. I had a customer ask me about reception for a area of the country up around Wisconsin where the transmitters were somewhere near the lake at a elevation of about 1100 feet above sea level and the customer lived at 1800 feet above sea level and the actual signal was not refracting very well - the higher up you go.

Reception is not just hooking up a antenna and pointing it in the right direction. It sometimes involves walking the antenna to find the spot where the signal refracts and comes in best. The difference between no reception and good reception might be as little as 6 feet.

That is what gets many people in trouble when doing a home install. They know which end of the house they want the antenna, or they want to mount it to a existing chimney with no consideration to reception. Then when it does not work, they want advice as to which amplifier will resolve their issues. The answer to that one is always the same. A amplifier cannot produce a signal which is not there. All it can do is amplify a signal to compensate for long runs of wire - loss.

There are places in this world such as Philadelphia and New York City where the transmitters are high up and the receive antenna is low to the ground and the signals pass over the people closest to the transmitter and the signal goes where they did not intend it to go when they try to add more power. At the same time, you can get 20 miles away from the transmitter and the terrain changes, since the earth is not flat. When a homeowner buys a house with no consideration to reception, until after he finds out that the house is located down in a valley, behind a wall or mountain, which does not allow the signal to go where they live and then they have no reception and they wonder why.

Many stations that stayed in the VHF with hopes that their signal would still travel into those places, found out that it would not and petitioned the FCC to allow them to move up into the UHF. Only the UHF in some of those markets are already full. Then you are forced to buy someone else's license and move your signal to their frequency and move their signal to your old frequency.

 

[Splicer]

More JB Antennaman gibberish.

All it can do is amplify a signal to compensate for long runs of wire - loss.

No, that is not "All it can do". You continue with your gibberish of

the UHF in some of those markets are already full

UHF is not "full" in any one area. There are some channels that can't be used due to other stations using that frequency, but guess what...there are other frequencies that can be used.

you can get 20 miles away from the transmitter and the terrain changes, since the earth is not flat.

This statement however is just pure genius. I mean, nobody would have ever guessed that the terrain changes 20 miles from any one location. Pure genius. You really need to and read and learn before you spout nonsense like this in the future.

 

[roashru]

When deep in the earth try a vertical array antenna.