METER FOR ALIGNING OTA ANTENNA

[cspiteri]

I am putting up an OTA antenna which will be installed in my attic.
Can someone recommend a simple and inexpensive meter I can use to optimize antenna alignment?
I have a simple analog meter for aligning my single LNB DN dish, but I doubt that will work.

 

[boba]

Most OTA meters will go in the area of $4-500 why not use the meter in your TV/Satellite receiver or a converter box. Don't make it more complex than necessary. TVfool or antennaweb will give you compass heading as a starting point.

 

[primestar31]

There are no cheap meters that are any good for this purpose, I've been looking for a year. I've been hoping one would come out, but no go. Now, there are some cheap ones around $35 or so, but they are junk, and not worth even trying.

Taking a small tv set up on the roof with you that has antenna signal levels is the best way. Tv antenna aiming is quite "voodoo magic" though. It's not like aiming a satellite dish to capture a tight microwave beam coming from near space... I actually use dishpointer.com (with the "line of sight" checker checked to draw a line) to aim my tv antenna. I put in my exact coordinates, and find the stations antenna (zoom out, as it's most likely miles away) and then find a satellite that's as close as it gets and hopefully intersects with the stations tower. I then point my antenna that way, and tweak it slightly as needed.

 

[cspiteri]

primestar31:
Thanks for your reply and sharing your experience on this subject.

 

[FaT Air]

Google earth. Draw lines from the towers to your location. can usually search for: station call sign, tower.

 

[Titanium]

Kill two birds with one stone...

Buy a Silicon Dust network LAN based tuner then use the free apps for iPhone/Android phone or tablet to display a signal meter tunable to any channel on your mobile device.

When you are done tuning, use the Silicon Dust to watch and DVR from any PC or Android in the home! I have used one for at least 5 years with WMC. Love it!


Brian Gohl
Titanium Satellite

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

On an iphone, open the compass app. Then open your browser and go to tvfool.com and run a report on your location. Zoom in on the part that shows the directions of the towers, then double-tap the round button on the phone to switch back and forth between the compass and tvfool. This helped me get a slightly stubborn station.

 

[Trip]

Going to agree with Brian on this one. I have a spectrum analyzer for OTA digital TV and the HDHR has three signal meters that correspond directly to the numerical readings I can get from that analyzer, at a much lower cost.

- Trip

 

[Mr Tony]

Taking a small tv set up on the roof with you that has antenna signal levels is the best way.

thats what I do. The old DTVPal converter box works great on aiming antennas

 

[Stargazer]

Are there any devices that detect the signals in which would give a signal reading indicating that you are close to getting the station even if it is not picked up yet that way you know that you are in the ballpark of getting that station in? That is how the satellite meters work. Handheld meters are more sensitive than the meters built into the receivers allowing you to tweak the signal good enough to finally receive a picture instead of only indicating a signal if a station is actually being tuned in.

 

[primestar31]

There are meters that tell you that you have "a" signal. Just not what station that signal is. It could be for a different station than the one you want. Those meters as discussed are hundreds of dollars.

Like I said earlier, it isn't like you are trying to 'lock in' a tight microwave beam of signal. It's entirely possible in some cases to get a tv station by aiming in the opposite direction of where their tower is!

 

[Hall]

Like I said earlier, it isn't like you are trying to 'lock in' a tight microwave beam of signal. It's entirely possible in some cases to get a tv station by aiming in the opposite direction of where their tower is!

I'm in the Dayton OH market and am 7.8-8.2 miles from the towers and about (35) miles from most of the towers for the Cincinnati market stations, so I aimed at them. They're roughly at heading 199º to 203º from my address while almost all of Dayton's towers are at 38º to 40º, which is almost 180º opposite. I pick up Dayton's channels at 85% with one and the rest at 100% (according to my Hopper's signal meter).

 

[Mr Tony]

It's entirely possible in some cases to get a tv station by aiming in the opposite direction of where their tower is!

yup when I lived in my house in Minneapolis I had a VHF only antenna aimed for KEYC in Mankato (72 miles away) for the different CBS & FOX stuff. It picked up KMSP FOX 9 and KARE NBC 11 in Minneapolis no issues 29 miles away to the NE. The antenna was aimed towards Mankato which was SW.

Only issue is when a storm would go through then it would cut out

 

[CanuckInNY]

Going to agree with Brian on this one. I have a spectrum analyzer for OTA digital TV and the HDHR has three signal meters that correspond directly to the numerical readings I can get from that analyzer, at a much lower cost.

- Trip

Thanks Trip!
I just picked up the HDHomeRun dual tuner for $99, installed the free app on my Android phone, and I'm tickled with the available info. Signal strength, SNR, and symbol quality, plus the virtual channel number(s) and station name. For channels that are too weak to receive, you can still see a non-zero signal strength when you select the appropriate "real" channel, which can help you aim the antenna for a not-yet-received channel.

Plus now I have a 2-tuner DVR

 

[TRG]

I feel spoiled. I can see the antenna farm on top of the mountain east of my house. I look down the length of the antenna and point at the transmitters. Done.