OTA antenna help

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swosucowboy

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Sep 20, 2006
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I am wanting to put an antenna in the attic for locals in Oklahoma City and Lawton. Zip code is 73541, Fletcher OK. We are about 75 miles form OKC and 30 miles from Lawton. Right now I have the biggest radio shack antenna (space should not be an issue) with a radio shack booster. We have it facing towards OKC and pick up a few stations. However we cannot pick up KSWO in Lawton or several OKC channels. I do not know a whole lot about OTA-so if you need any other info let me know
We are using a Dish 722 as the receiver
thanks
 
You have a real problem you need 2 antennas or a rotor the broadcast locations you want to pick up are almost opposite (180 degrees) apart. A correctly designed antenna has a front and a back the front receives the signal the back rejects any signals. So the signals from 180 degrees don't get processed by the ATSC tuner. Simple question which city do you want to receive?
 
I prefer OKC. If I were to have two antennas can you combine the signal into one RG6 running into the house. I have the big one, but also have a little one, but anytime I want to switch I have ot go into the attic to change it. The big one facing OKC, still does not get very good signal strength-running about 60%.
 
AntennaWeb says you don't have any broadcasters serving you. TV Fool - Home dosen't give any easy answers for you. I put in an antenna heigth of 10' about attic heigth for a single story house. At that heigth Lawton dissappeared from their mapping. If possible you need to mount the antenna above roof heigth. TVfool shows Lawton at 51.3 to 67.2 miles and both VHF and UHF channels. Try your Radio Shack antenna and amp aimed at that city 212degrees magnetic.

For OKC aiming would be 32degrees distance is 64.2 to 67.2 miles about the same as Lawton's futhest except all are that same distance. I would suggest a Winegard HD7080P with a DAP8700 pre amp (29dB VHF/19dB uhf gain). Either city can be asking a lot to get a reliable digital signal. I'm 60 miles from Dallas so it can be done but I don't know what your topography is I'm looking at pretty much looking at flat land OK isn't as flat as North TX.
 
OKC channels should be doable.

I'd recommend two antennas (one for VHF only, one UHF only) a Winegard YA-1713 for VHF and an antennas direct 91-XG for UHF combined with a Channel Master 7777 pre-amp.

Add a rotator if you want to swing around to Lawton.

And, put it outside as high up as you can, looks like you need all the height you can get.
 
how does the radio shack amp compare to the others recommended?
thanks

i tried to post a link but could not.
 
Channel Master and Winegard are companies that have been around since the 1950's they aren't the cheapest but they are expected to work. Radio Shack has built it's reputation on having a low price and a large variety of Electronics parts. RS in the last couple of years has been searching for an identity with somewhat questionable quality problems. They are well spread out and have a good return policy so they may be easier to find than other products so give them a shot and return if not satisfactory.
 
Well, the thing is I have the amp from RS and it used to seem to really help. Now it does not help near as much. I was curious if switching to one of the other better known brands would work better for me.
 
swosucowboy said:
Well, the thing is I have the amp from RS and it used to seem to really help. Now it does not help near as much. I was curious if switching to one of the other better known brands would work better for me.
Click to expand...

I'm not a big fan of amplifiers but have used several different types. I always found the name brands performed better than the RS models.

That said I'd echo No Static's recommendation. Get the antenna outside and as high as possible. You are a little far from the transmitters for a reliable attic installation.
 
Would a Winegard CC 7870 2-Way Antenna Joiner Coupler work if I had two antenna facing opposite directions?
Thanks
 
You may have trouble getting KOCO as they are still contouring their digital signal to protect KSWO's analog signal until the analog shutoff. It is hard to get KOCO South past Norman.
 
When I tried to use two antennas with each pointing in different directions connected to a combiner, the digital signals practically disappeared (for example one of the signals from WXIX in Cincinnati went from a 90 to below 20). Apparently when the signal from one antenna is not perfectly in phase with the other, the signal is unusable.
 
Have you checked out the Clear Steam line of antennas yet? I just replaced a really big CM 3671 with a Clear Stream C4 and am getting much better reception for all the HD channels. I am 60 miles from the LA transmitters with a large set of hills in the way but now my Dish 722 picks all the major networks up just fine while the old Channel Master got 4 out of 6. I also have a CM 7777 signal amplifier that I have been using for the last five years that I would highly recommend.

Back to the antenna - the C4 is MUCH smaller than the CM unit plus it is set up to pick up all the channels between 7 and 69 which will be the surviving channels after next February.

No - I'm not a sales person for Clearstream - just really happy with what I found and trying to spread the word.
 
Lets see - the CM 3671 prices out at close to $150 and I got the C4 for like $85 delivered through amazon. The clearstream is MUCH smaller than the CM monster so in my opinion, I got a much better deal with the C4. A word of caution if you want the old analog channels don't waste your time with the C4 - it's apparently not designed to pick them up.

The main selling point I used with my wife is that I can handle the C4 by myself and she won't need to handle the rope on the 2nd story roof when I need to take it down or put it back up.
 
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