OTA Antenna to place on Dish antenna

[Ed Bortoni]

Hello everyone. I need your help! About 8 years ago I had Dish put in my house. Since then I've long cancelled it and now use Netflix etc. However, the wife and mother in law want to watch live TV sometimes.

I've tried a few indoor antennas but it's been very hit or miss. I would like to mount an antenna to my existing Dish connection and just reuse the existing coax connections. I only need TV in 1 room that was already wired for dish.

I have attached my tvfool report. Further, assuming you all recommend an antenna, how do I best find someone who can help me install it. My dish antenna is sort of very high up and I have no means to reach it.

Thanks!
-Ed

 

[Mr Tony]

While its not the best tvfool (1edge) its not that bad. I would recommend something like this since you have both VHF & UHF stations.
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.as...UHF-HDTV-Antenna-(HD7694P)&c=TV Antennas&sku=

Otherwise you could always check craigslist. Sometimes folks have antennas in good shape that they are selling cheap

 

[harshness]

The cable, if in good shape, will work fine. The mast part comes down to how much antenna you can fit between it and the nearest obstruction (wall, chimney, roof).

The VHF-hi performance is going to be key to catching your PBS station.

At the same time, if the mast and cabling are on the north side of the house, that's not going to help as much.

There's also the issue of having stations coming at you from all directions and having to pick a general direction to the possible exclusion of the others.

An onmi-directional antenna mounted up high may be a better solution depending on which stations are important.

The Yagi type antennas tend to be very directional and the one that Iceberg referenced has a 38 degree pattern at the top and bottom of the frequency band. If everybody's good with the Atlanta channels, a Yagi will do but if the mast doesn't have a southwest view....

 

[Mr Tony]

The VHF-hi performance is going to be key to catching your PBS station.

NBC is also on VHF (10)

There's also the issue of having stations coming at you from all directions and having to pick a general direction to the possible exclusion of the others.

looking at the tvfool he can pretty much aim it at Atlanta
WUVG (17) is UNivision and is also on RF48 (lower down the list but in yellow)
WSB has 3 transmitters in various spots around the ATL. He can use RF39 which is again aimed SW
WGGD is Daystar

so those "closer" stations are just duplicates of existing Atlanta stations that are all in the same direction.

 

[harshness]

so those "closer" stations are just duplicates of existing Atlanta stations that are all in the same direction.

Which works fine as long as the mast isn't on the North or East side of the house. Pointing an antenna into the roof or living spaces typically doesn't return anywhere near the promised gains and raises the multi-path/co-channel issue to a higher level.

 

[Ed Bortoni]

Thanks for all your replies so far! When I get home from work I will take inventory of where things face and will report back!

 

[mrc54]

While its not the best tvfool (1edge) its not that bad. I would recommend something like this since you have both VHF & UHF stations.
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=03&p=HD7694P&d=Winegard-HD7694P-VHFUHF-HDTV-Antenna-(HD7694P)&c=TV Antennas&sku=

Otherwise you could always check craigslist. Sometimes folks have antennas in good shape that they are selling cheap

Excellent choice, I just put the same one up for a friend on the dish pole and using existing coax. She gets 47 channels .