Southcentral Illinois antenna help

[jhamps10]

We live in deep fringe area, here's our closest markets.
zip 62839
We are getting ready to buy our first HDTV soon, and I want to put an antenna up, now i've seen a phillips MANT901 at Menards (Lowes,Home Depot wannabe) for 70. It claims to have vhf of 150-200 miles (I'd expect closer to 100) and UHF of 90 miles. I'm wanting to just put this on a tri-pod if I can, more for looks than anything and I'm wondering if this would be possible to get stations HD without paying extra for HD locals from st. louis on dish.

Terre Haute, roughly 75-80 miles
Evansville, IN 70 miles
St. Louis 100 Miles
Champaign/Springfield/Decatur 100 miles
Paducah/Carbondale 80 miles

 

[snaggerbob]

Anything over 60 miles is a stretch. You will need to be pretty high up in the air for digital reception.

 

[rad]

Have you thought about DirecTV? I checked their web site and threw in an address of 101 N Main st, Flora IL 62839, and it says that you'd qualify for the New York City HD feeds of ABC and FOX. It says you can get a grade B signal from WTHI and WTWO, you might want to see if you can ask those local stations if they will grant waivers for your location so D* could also get you those. Just a thought.

 

[jhamps10]

are you kidding, I hate directv, if they used correct data, then I wouldn't have to worry about waiver crap! I want FREE HDTV, not some expensive HD lite that directv forces down your throat.

 

[jhamps10]

Anything over 60 miles is a stretch. You will need to be pretty high up in the air for digital reception.

I thought that DT signals went out further than the analog signal?

 

[rad]

are you kidding, I hate directv, if they used correct data, then I wouldn't have to worry about waiver crap! I want FREE HDTV, not some expensive HD lite that directv forces down your throat.

Sorry I mentioned it. Bye Bye

 

[dodge]

Ota HD in Flora IL

Jhamps10
The Phillips mant901 is kinda a flimsy cheaply made antenna. I would reccomend the Winegard Hd8200p. That antenna is very sturdy and made well. It is also the highest gain vhf/uhf antenna that winegard has. I have one myself. That would probably be your best bet for ota hd. Also you will probably need the ap8275 preamp which has 28 db of gain on uhf and 29 db of gain on vhf. I had one of those phillips from menards but after about 3 years of high winds it fell apart, so off to the scrap yard it went. But it did perform ok, better than alot of antenna's i've seen.

http://www.winegard.com/offair/vhfuhf.htm

http://www.winegard.com/offair/preamps.htm

 

[snaggerbob]

The curveture of the earth blocks your signal after 60 miles unless you get high enough. I'm in Taylorville with a Channelmaster 4228 antenna with a Channelmaster 7777 pre-amp about 20 ft in the air and can't get CBS out of Champaign which is about 60 miles. The digital signal must be at least 80-85 % to get a picture.

 

[techpuppy]

We live in deep fringe area, here's our closest markets.
zip 62839
We are getting ready to buy our first HDTV soon, and I want to put an antenna up, now i've seen a phillips MANT901 at Menards (Lowes,Home Depot wannabe) for 70. It claims to have vhf of 150-200 miles (I'd expect closer to 100) and UHF of 90 miles. I'm wanting to just put this on a tri-pod if I can, more for looks than anything and I'm wondering if this would be possible to get stations HD without paying extra for HD locals from st. louis on dish.

Terre Haute, roughly 75-80 miles
Evansville, IN 70 miles
St. Louis 100 Miles
Champaign/Springfield/Decatur 100 miles
Paducah/Carbondale 80 miles

One of the best indicators for how well you'll pick up HDTV channels is how well you can receive UHF stations from a market. If you can get a good signal from any of the markets you listed on channel numbers 14 and above you have a good chance with the HDTV channels, most of which will be UHF. Not all stations have gone to full power DTV yet...the last I heard WCIA was not full power, but that may have changed by now.

Antenna height is very important and you might want to consider a rotator so you can point your antenna in different directions. A good quality antenna such as the Channel Master 4228 or the Antennas Direct 91XG would be a good choice because of their ability to capture weaker signals. A preamp would be good for your location as well since just about everything is some distance away.

The mileage ratings of antennas is somewhat inconsistent. In my opinion some bump it up to sell antennas and others are conservative. I am 45 miles from the closest transmitters, yet I can receive a good signal on rabbit ears. I use an outdoor antenna for best quality and more stations. Power levels vary with some stations. Some cover more area with their digital signal, others don't. The advantage of digital is that you either get a quality picture/sound or you don't get anything.

Although Terre Haute is closer, two of the stations are owned by a company which (in our market) is dragging its feet on going full power digital. One other station chose a power level that may not reach to your location. Evansville, IN stations don't have an impressive coverage area.

 

[jhamps10]

yeah no kidding, WTWO isn't even in stereo yet believe it or not. I may have to settle though for dishnetwork hd, even though I want real HD, not hdlite. know what I mean guys.

 

[jhamps10]

well I just heard about an antenna from rat shack, which around here always has good stuff, the vu-190 selling for 100 bucks. there's been a lot of talk that it is the best antenna you can buy without buying online (sorry, I'm not that trustworthy of online stores at all, and neither is mom and pop). I've seen on avs forum a lot of folks have it, what's anyones thoughts on it?

 

[Jim5506]

The Radio Shack is in the same league with the Philips, go with the Winegard HD8200p with pre-amp like Dodge recommends. It will serve you faithfully for many years, you can buy cheaper, but you can't buy better. You may have to replace the RS 2-3 times during the lifetime of the Winegard.

 

[gcs_78]

Hey jhamps10 I was born in Xenia many years ago and I know what you mean about reception. I remember my grandpa had a huge tower to get St. Louis channels.
Back in the 50's we went to my uncle's house one day and he must have tried everything to get good reception. He had a set of bedsprings wired up to his chimney as an antenna. Don't think they worked too good.

 

[dodge]

vu190 from rat shack

The vu 190 is a great performer but its construction is les than desired. It will stand up a little better to wind and elements if you wrap the elements to the plastic insulators with a lot of 3m electrical tape. Then you might get 6-8 years out of it. I did that with one and it seemed to help a lot. Those the plastic degades from the uv and the elements tend to snap right off the insulators.