Newbie Chicago Suburb Antenna Question

[thylacine222]

Ok, so I live in a chicago suburb about 31 miles NNW of the antenna towers. My first attempt at HD OTA was a crappy Terk (If I had found this site earlier, I would have known better) indoor antenna. It only picked up FOX and WGN, and sometimes it would pick up the other stations. Then, I tried to connect to the antenna in the attic with a diplexer to connect with our Dish Satellite cable, which ended up not working, because the cable that comes down from the LNB to the recievers is too high a gauge or something, so the satellite signals were messed up.

I'm not exactly sure what the antenna is, it's in our attic and it's basically a 6-foot long bar mounted between two beams of wood. It's pointed in the general south direction, and I don't think there's any way to tune it.

Would it be worth it to run cables down for the antenna? Is there another way that I could try to bring down the signal without having to run new cables? It would be a bit painstaking to do so, but if we need to we can. We were also considering a good indoor antenna, and according to HDantennareviews, the Samsung TV 5.4 SAX is the best. Obviously no indoor antenna will be as good as an outdoor one, but I could still get some channels with this, right?

 

[concord]

Sounds like the "bar" is a terk, not impressed with terk stuff. The Samsung looks like the silver sensor (Zenith ZHDTV1 Silver Sensor HDTV Indoor UHF Antenna (ZHDTV1) | ZHDTV1 [Zenith] | rabbit ears phdtv1 hdtv1). As long as your towers are in the same direction, it might work. Check AntennaWeb for towers and use the color codes to find a good antenna.

My towers are in three different directions, so I need a rotator and directional antenna (CM 4228) in my attic.

 

[thylacine222]

I'm not sure if it's Terk, it's about 15 years old, it came with the house. It was meant for regular OTA. Also just some info, it's pointed SW, and it should be pointed SE, that will probably bring up some reception problems, so I'm thinking of either buying an antenna or building some of the ones posted on the site. How much would the reception go down if I put it in the attic compared to if it was mounted on the roof?

 

[msadvertising]

You should have RG-6 cable running in from your satellite, if it's a standard installation and RG-6 will carry your OTA signal, so that's not the problem. If diplexing your OTA signal is messing up your satellite signal, you probably have a bad diplexor or you forgot to split the signals again before hooking them up to your TV. Fix this problem first, then deal with your OTA antenna direction or another OTA antenna until you get a perfect dugital picture from your locals. You'll either get a perfect picture or a blue screen, if your antenna is pointed wrong or is the wrong antenna for your location.

 

[thylacine222]

No, I think what happened was that the installer didn't want to run a new cable, so they used an old cable that we had running from the antenna to the downstairs TV. It's a different cable from the other ones that they installed.

 

[goaliebob99]

I live down in manteno (near Kankakee) I use a CM 4228. It picks up everything real well.. To future proof yourself I would recommend that you get something that picks up channels 7-69. WBBM is moving to channel 12 this time next year, and WLS is moving back to 7 while NBC is staying where ever its at.

 

[concord]

I'm not sure if it's Terk, it's about 15 years old, it came with the house. It was meant for regular OTA. Also just some info, it's pointed SW, and it should be pointed SE, that will probably bring up some reception problems, so I'm thinking of either buying an antenna or building some of the ones posted on the site. How much would the reception go down if I put it in the attic compared to if it was mounted on the roof?

You lose around 15-20% putting an antenna in the attic, but location is important also. I placed the antenna toward the end of the attic but didn't do well, moved it around and found a place toward the middle of the attic. Tried the same with a sharpshooter outside with same results....placement matters, decided to stick with the CM4228 in the attic instead.

 

[Jim5506]

You loose up to 50% in the attic.

 

[vikingrob]

I live down in manteno (near Kankakee) I use a CM 4228. It picks up everything real well.. To future proof yourself I would recommend that you get something that picks up channels 7-69. WBBM is moving to channel 12 this time next year, and WLS is moving back to 7 while NBC is staying where ever its at.

In the interim, WBBM's digital signal is on channel 3.

 

[Peter Parker]

Boy this is the night for OTA antenna threads. they are even talking about them in the forums for the satellite services.

 

[tvropro]

A good outdoor antenna is needed to assure good reception in digital. The word digital is not magic and will produce a picture under bad conditions. Even though the picture may look perfect when near threshold your riding a fine line with changing weather conditions, etc. Digital is all or nothing so when that cutoff point is reached it's bye bye picture. I never cared for attic mounted antenna's even with analog. You do loose 50% when placed under the roof.

It's best to follow the same rules when installing an antenna for digital as analog. You want the highest dbmv & s/n you can achieve, with the least multipath.

 

[rad]

If you're looking for OTA help in the Chicago area check out Chicago, IL - OTA - Page 50 - AVS Forum, there's some gear heads over there that will be helpful, maybe even a neighbor that knows what to get.