Swapping antenna

[ESA1178]

I am considering swapping my DB4E Antenna for a Channel Master CM-3020. I have been losing local channels recently.
Bear in mind that I live in the Sacramento Valley, do you think this 100 mile range antenna will help my channel acquisition?
Right now my mast is 10 feet high on the roof of a single level home.
Should I go higher?

TVFOOL:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3dd243142b82b8bf

Many thanks!

 

[pamajestic]

This past summer you had a thread looking for a deep fringe amplifier but we never saw the tvfool report. You have way to much signal at your location to use any amplifier let alone a high power one. You are probably over driving your tuner.

What specific channels are you having trouble with? You current antenna is UHF only and you have both VHF lo and high available. If you are just after PBS and ABC get an AntennaCraft Y5-7-13. If you want to go after the VHF-lo channels get an AntennaCraft CS-600. Combine either antenna with your DB4E using a UVSJ and see what happens when you remove the amp.

Most of your local channels are to the south, but you do have other available channels in all directions that would require the use of a rotor.

 

[ESA1178]

Hi pamajestic.

I am using the antenna to get digital channels and feed through my Tivo so I can record.
Not sure which are UHF & which are VHF. I tried to see on TVFOOL, but hard to figure out.
Am I to understand that I would need a VHF antenna adding to the mast, along with the UVSJ and a rotor?

These channels come and go depending on weather and time of day, 80 miles west in San Francisco:

KTVU KRON KPIX KVIE KOFY KBCW

These channels are local to Sacramento:

KRCA METV KXTV KOVR KUVS KSPX KMAX KXTL KQCA KTFK

Mark

 

[. Raine]

Your TvFool link doesn't work for me, is it working for anyone else?

 

[ESA1178]

 

[. Raine]

That works!

 

[. Raine]

These channels come and go depending on weather and time of day, 80 miles west in San Francisco:

KTVU KRON KPIX KVIE KOFY KBCW

I'm a little confused, above you say 80 miles west in San Francisco, but your TvFool report shows KVIE PBS at only 9 miles away from your location and LOS, KVIE is 16m, LOS and you'd said you're in Sacramento. Are you in Sacramento or San Francisco?

 

[pamajestic]

Okay, I think I am starting to get it. You currently get all of the Sacramento channels with no problem, but you would like to try to also for San Francisco? Here is a clickable link to the report.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id=d243142b82b8bf

When you change the current data base to digital only the San Francisco channels will appear just under the 0NM at the bottom of the report to the south west. It may be possible to get a better lock on some of them, but it will be tough. There is a lot of co-channel and adjacent channel interference. The first thing you need to try is pointing your current antenna towards San Francisco and see if you can improve your signal. What are you going after San Francisco channels for, sports, news? Most of the network stuff will be duplicate to your Sacramento stations.

 

[ESA1178]

I'm a little confused, above you say 80 miles west in San Francisco, but your TvFool report shows KVIE PBS at only 9 miles away from your location and LOS, KVIE is 16m, LOS and you'd said you're in Sacramento. Are you in Sacramento or San Francisco?

I am 80 miles east of San Francisco, in Sacramento. KVIE is local and KQED is in SF. I realize that I am only guaranteed SF stations on a good weather day & and only during the day. But I seemed to have lost them altogether. The same with my local channels. The signals have weakened
over the past few weeks..

Mark

 

[ESA1178]

Okay, I think I am starting to get it. You currently get all of the Sacramento channels with no problem, but you would like to try to also for San Francisco? Here is a clickable link to the report.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id=d243142b82b8bf

When you change the current data base to digital only the San Francisco channels will appear just under the 0NM at the bottom of the report to the south west. It may be possible to get a better lock on some of them, but it will be tough. There is a lot of co-channel and adjacent channel interference. The first thing you need to try is pointing your current antenna towards San Francisco and see if you can improve your signal. What are you going after San Francisco channels for, sports, news? Most of the network stuff will be duplicate to your Sacramento stations.

KQED KPIX & KRON are the main channels I would like to get. Mainly because the news content is so much more broader in SF than here.
Also KQED PBS in SF has better content than KVIE Sac.

Mark

 

[. Raine]

I am 80 miles east of San Francisco, in Sacramento. KVIE is local and KQED is in SF. I realize that I am only guaranteed SF stations on a good weather day & and only during the day. But I seemed to have lost them altogether. The same with my local channels. The signals have weakened
over the past few weeks..

Mark

I understand, makes sense to me now. If it's only the past few weeks that this has happened, have you checked your cables and connections to make sure nothing in your setup has gone bad?

I have the same deal with PBS here, one that I receive doesn't have as good of programming as another that I get.

That's a real tough situation you have there because you have such strong locals, if you get an antenna strong enough for the SF channels then your locals may become overpowered, like Pamajestic said earlier.

I have two antennas setup for the same type of deal you have, to receive stations from more than one direction and two strong channels on the big antenna blank out on me because they're local and strong, but they come in on the small local antenna, so I don't care about it. I have them running into a dual HDHomerun tuner so I don't have to bother with them being matched.

Moving the antenna higher could make it better, it could also make it worse. It's kinda trial and error there. With my big long range antenna I'd first mounted it about 10' above the roof line of my house but later moved it down to only 2' above the roof line and it works much better there than it did higher up.

 

[ESA1178]

I just moved my current antenna to 218 degrees towards SF. Most of the stations are coming in around 60 out of 100 on the signal meter.
Still not getting SF stations. Are these stations VHF? Should a rotor be attached to the VHF antenna only? Should the UHF be stationary?
I had a rotor on SAT dish before that was wireless and used power from the TV cable. Are there TV antenna rotors that work without the 50' cable? Will the antenna rotate with guy wires attached to the mast?

Mark

 

[larrykenney]

I have the same situation as you do, Mark, except in reverse. I live in San Francisco and wanted to get the Sacramento/Stockton stations and also the stations up north in Marin and Sonoma counties.

I had to install a separate set of antennas for Sacramento, one for VHF for KVIE and KXTV, and one for UHF for the other channels, pointed toward the Walnut Grove transmitter site, and another UHF antenna pointed north-northwest for the three UHF channels up in Marin and Sonoma. I have separate coax feeds going to an A-B-C RF switch. One position gets the local stations, one gets the stations from Walnut Grove and the third gets the stations up north.

If you want both Sacramento and San Francisco stations, you will most likely need to do the same thing, but looking at your TVFool report, I don't see most of the San Francisco stations listed, while the Sacramento/Stockton/Sonoma stations do show up on my report. Two stations here are on VHF, KGO on 7 and KNTV on 12, the rest that you are looking for - KTVU, KRON, KPIX, KQED, etc. are all on UHF.

Oh... I'm just 62 miles from Walnut Grove and some of the distant stations don't always come in if conditions are bad. KMAX and KQCA are solid, but the others from Walnut Grove occasionally drop out, so don't expect totally reliable reception.

Check out this link for a look at pictures and more information on my antennas:
http://www.larrykenney.com/tvantennas.html

Larry
SF

 

[ESA1178]

Hi Larry.
I haven't been using any kind of amp this past year. I think it was saturating my locals.
update is that this morning when its in the low 40's calm and dark, I am able to get SF stations.
If I do get an amp, should I get an additional antenna/coaxial that only has that amp, along with a switch to allow
me to change from local to SF? So to repeat. No UVSJ and current antenna will be for local only and pointed to 175 degrees.
An additional antenna will have an amp and for SF pointed to 225 degrees. With switch at the TV...

Locals: 175 degrees

SF Bay area: 225 Degrees


Mark
SAC

 

[larrykenney]

Yes, you'll need separate antennas, one pointed at 175 and one pointed at 225, with separate coax feeds into a switch. You might or might not be able to use a preamp on the antenna pointed at the Bay Area. Even though it is pointed away from Walnut Grove, local signals still might be strong enough to overload your receiver. You'll have to try it with a preamp and see what you get compared to what you get without the preamp.

I can't use a preamp here as I'm only 3/4 of mile from Sutro Tower, but you might be far enough away from Walnut Grove so that a preamp will work okay. Only tests will determine what's best.

I'd get a combination VHF-UHF antenna with high gain for receiving the Bay Area stations from Sutro Tower and Mt. San Bruno.

Larry

 

[ESA1178]

I'd get a combination VHF-UHF antenna with high gain for receiving the Bay Area stations from Sutro Tower and Mt. San Bruno.

Recommendations for a VHF-UHF high gain antenna for San Francisco pointing?

Mark

 

[larrykenney]

The Winegard HD7698P has been receiving a lot of compliments from users for pulling in distant stations. It's designed for both VHF and UHF. It's quite large, though, and fairly expensive. You'll find details here:
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.as...FUHF-HDTV-Antenna(HD7698P)&c=TV Antennas&sku=

If you want separate antennas for VHF and UHF, I'd go with the Antennas Direct Y-10-7-13 for VHF and the Antennas Direct 91XG for UHF then combining them with a VHF/UHF combiner into one coax feed.
http://www.solidsignal.com/search.asp?q=Y10-7-13
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.as...Antenna-(91XG)&c=TV Antennas&sku=853748001910

Larry

 

[ESA1178]

The Winegard HD7698P has been receiving a lot of compliments from users for pulling in distant stations. It's designed for both VHF and UHF. It's quite large, though, and fairly expensive. You'll find details here:
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=03&p=HD7698P&d=Winegard-Platinum-Series-VHFUHF-HDTV-Antenna(HD7698P)&c=TV Antennas&sku=

If you want separate antennas for VHF and UHF, I'd go with the Antennas Direct Y-10-7-13 for VHF and the Antennas Direct 91XG for UHF then combining them with a VHF/UHF combiner into one coax feed.
http://www.solidsignal.com/search.asp?q=Y10-7-13
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=03&p=91XG&d=Antennas-Direct-91XG-UHF-TV-Antenna-(91XG)&c=TV Antennas&sku=853748001910

Larry

How about the HD7694P ?

Mark

 

[boba]

HD7694 is smaller with less range

 

[FaT Air]

But with

The signals have weakened
over the past few weeks..

I'd be checking the coax and connectors first. That is if it was all working before. Maybe just replace it all. Often, a problem with the coax cannot be seen with the eyes, applies to the transformers also.