ota reception advice needed.

[jamescbarrow]

hey all i have a friend that has a tv antenna atop a 30 ft push up pole, i was wondering what he could do it get more channels. best i know all the channels he gets comes in pretty decent. he has a lot of tall pines to the back of him, my question is would geting a preamp help, or possibly going 10 20 ft higher. listed below are the channels he gets. and here is the tvfool link i done for him.

TV Fool



3.1
3.2
9.1
9.2
9.3
11.1
11.2
11.3
16.1
16.2
16.3
22
28
35.1
35.2
35.3

 

[jamescbarrow]

i forgot to mention he has a antennacraft hub55 thats sitting atop a radio shack rotor.

 

[sergei]

The antenna has a rating of 60 miles for UHF so a larger antenna would be to me the first choice, but otherwise adding more height and even a peramp would be the next best thing. It's really going to be trail and error to see if it will even will improve his reception.

 

[jamescbarrow]

well he has the all pines in the back, one option i thought of to test on the hight was to put it in one of those trees, what brand preamp would you recommend. do you think he could get the other channels possiby.

 

[boba]

Be happy with what he has beyond what he is already getting it is mostly 1edge or 2 edge reception. It is a matter of cost dosen't justify the additional channels that might be received on a limited basis. The NBC/CBS/PBS & FOX he could receive from 70+ miles will probably just duplicate programming he already receives.

I can get CBS on Ch 11 out of Dallas or Ch12 out of Sherman CSI on both is the same time and the same program just different commercials. I can get duplicate broadcasts of FOX/NBC/ABC/CBS/CW and a few others but I don't have any more programming available. There are a few Independent services out of Dallas that makes it worthwhile to get them but I don't see that for your friend.

 

[jamescbarrow]

thanks for the info. im looking into the fta for him but he doesnt have much line of sight except to west and south and south east.

 

[Mr Tony]

Be happy with what he has beyond what he is already getting it is mostly 1edge or 2 edge reception. It is a matter of cost dosen't justify the additional channels that might be received on a limited basis. The NBC/CBS/PBS & FOX he could receive from 70+ miles will probably just duplicate programming he already receives.

While primetime may be the case there can be programming on a distant station that isnt on the local

I put up an antenna just for a CBS/Fox network 72 miles away (the only station in that market). While most of it is the same (national programming) there is syndicated stuff that is on those and not on the locals. As example the distant CBS has 3 programs locally produced that are only on that station. The Fox has some older reruns on it (like Andy Griffith)

And the main reason.....that CBS is outside of the blackout window so if the Vikes are at home I can see the CBS game on that one that the Mpls one blacks out (due to the primary market rule)

If it doesnt cost much whats the worst thing that can happen? It doesnt work and he is out a little money? I guess when I added that antenna I figured if it didnt work I'm out $40. Heck I can blow that at the casino easily

 

[Jim5506]

There is a slight sweet spot at about 65-70 ft. where some distant channels go from 2 edge to 1 edge and the available signal doubles or more then resumes a gradual climb up to 100 ft which is the highest calculation I observed.

I did this by triangulating the distances to channels 42 and 45 (actual RF frequency) and observing those two plus RF channels 6 and 12 on TVFools mapping facility.

 

[jamescbarrow]

thanks we are in the process of doing some cleaning, having to take down a few trees and some under growth to get in there to get to the one i wanna put it in.

 

[Cham]

I have to say you always want the best reception possible for local broadcasts. Weather can really play havoc on radio signals at times so best to have overkill so you can pick up the local broadcasts when you need them the most. Picking up distant stations is secondary but functional as Ice suggests some locals carry different programs. I live close to the US border in Canada so I really want to be able to pick up locals from south of me. Programming can be quite different then "our" locals and it's really nice to get the news from local communities across the border.

I have a large Winegard VHF-hi/UHF antenna on a 48' tower with an old ham2 rotor, and a home made antenna (stationary) for locals. I have other antennae on the tower so I can't really cost out the tower to TV only, but would be a significant expense if purchased new. Used, a good TV tower might not be overly expensive, but there are installation costs (cement, guy wires, etc). I needed the height to get over the trees... that are still growing... and now almost as high as the tower!
-C.

 

[jamescbarrow]

well thats me i have trees upwards of a 100 ft, but some are coming down, ive got it up to 40 ft on a push up pole, and ive got one more station thats analog coming in, im gonna try and get a preamp first of the month, all the locals are coming in good and strong.

 

[freezy]

Do a single TV before any splitters, barrel connectors etc...

See what you get that way. Then try the pre-amp.

 

[jamescbarrow]

it is on a single tv by itself no splitters or barrels.