OTA Antenna - What do you use?

[mcneguy]

I'm thinnking about ditching cable and buying a STB and installing an antenna.  I'm Oak Creek so I might be able to pull in Chicago DTV stations as well.  Does anyone out there do this, where are you?  What kind of signal do you get and how is the reception?

Thanks

[wrupp]

Yes,  I'm in Muskego and I'm able to get all of the Chicago stations that are on UHF.  I get 5-1, 7-1, 9-1,44-1.  You will never get 2-1 up here..  It's VHF and at low power yet.  Other than that the only stations I get on the STB is 10-1,2,3,4 and 4-1 (Weak but there)..  Get a rotor and antenna from Marmax on 68th and Rawson.  They have the best prices and equipment.



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Bill in Muskego
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Mits 46809
RCA DTC-100
108 Hour DirecTiVo

[wrupp]

I guess I should add what equipment I'm using..  I have a channelmaster 4 bay UHF antenna, Channelmaster 777 Preamp, and a Rotor.  The VHF antenna is a cheap radio shack model.  I get the Chicago channels 50% and above.  Very watchable.  Worth the money for a good antenna system.

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Bill in Muskego
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Mits 46809
RCA DTC-100
108 Hour DirecTiVo

[tenth_t2]

If you have the inclination, I'd go the antenna route.  I'm presently using a CM 4228 UHF and a 7778 pre-amp on a rotor.  I get reasonable Madison, and solid Milwaukee although I do have to rotate the 4228.  I recently pulled down a RS VU-190, hoping the CM would do a little better job as it does seem to list a higher average gain across the UHF band.  Upside was the VU190 picked channel 4 (28) off the back side while I also pulled in ch 3 (50?) and 26 from Madison.

All of this is feeding the HD tuner on my 55859, no splits.  About 100' of cable, however the 7778 is about 10' downstream of the antenna.

I'm out on the SE side of the city of Waukesha, about 55-60 miles from Madison.  I would consider the stations there watchable, although I do not have any kind of signal strength to pass along-- sorry.

If you're willing to experiment, it's kind of fun.

Greg O.

[SteveClemetson]

Greg,
I'm in Waukesha as well (Pebble Valley), and have decided to abandon my pursuit of Chicago channels.  Are you doing a rooftop or an attic mount?  I plan to do an attic mount and plan to go only after the Milwaukee tower farm.  Do you any recommendations?  Do you think the pre-amp is necessary for the Milwaukee channels?

Thanks,
Steve

[JoeK]

I recently visited Skywalker Communications with the thought of finding an antenna that might work for HD reception. (Skywalker is a local wholesaler for ChannelMaster and Weingart located in New Berlin.) The person at the desk hesitantly recommended I contact one of the dealers they supply to. He happens to live near me and suggested we are in a very diffucult area for Milwaukee reception. I tend to want to try to do things myself, but the idea of paying somebody with proper signal strength testing equipment did sound like it made alot of sense. A person's individual location appears to be so critical and we all want to be able to pull in Milwaukee, Madison or Chicago stations if practical. I think this is one I'm going to turn over to a professional to help me with.

I currently have a TWC HD cable box.      

[drgingras]

Just to emphasize the "location, location, location" factors, I'm using the same rooftop equipment as wrupp. Here in Greendale, I can get Milwaukee all the time, Chicago 75% of the time and no Madison.

YMMV, but it sure is fun trying !

Dave

Oh yeah, add 2 Dish 500's and a 6000 STB to round out my reception stuff. After last antenna was added, one of my neighbors asked me if I worked for NASA  
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I kinda thought that might happen ...

[This message has been edited by drgingras (edited 02-27-2002).]

[jgehrke]

So I'm almost ready to put up my roof antenna, but I have two questions. What's the best type of cable to (i.e. outside RG6/RG59) and
what about lightning protectors ?

Comments

[This message has been edited by jgehrke (edited 02-28-2002).]

[This message has been edited by jgehrke (edited 02-28-2002).]

[tenth_t2]

Steve,

I have a RS VU-75 in the attic, although I wanted to use that for standard analog signals as well.  As such, I did need a simple 10db gain amp to compensate for all of the splits I have.  Adding the HD tuner did OK for channel 4 and 10, although I would see a fair amount of pixelization in the Tonight Show for example.  Every few minutes I'd get a few percent (like a chin) breaking up.  Since going to the roof (with the VU-190 first), that does not happen at all.  I use the attic mount for all conventional sets (and the analog input on the HD set), but use the rooftop only for the HD tuner, with a CM 7778 amp about 10' downstream of the antenna, then it's about another 80' to my set.

Regarding the amp, it really only helps you if you have large line losses or many splits.  Problem is they amplify signal and noise.  In my situation, I began experimenting with the 10db gain amp (RS U/V/FM) however it was about 60' downstream of the antenna.  Do, if you have a short run of cable (25' maybe) and few splits, you may not need an amp at all.  All depends on your setup.  

With the RS 10db, Madison stations were ok, but I wanted to see how much better I could make them, so after pouring over Winegard and CM, and asking a bunch of EE's here, I attempted to get a parabolic UHF from CM, but it was discontinued, so I settled for the 8 bow, UHF only, 4228.

Shortly I expect to raise the antenna another 5' or so, really to only benefit Madison reception.

Regarding recommendations, I do think the CM 4228 is a reasonable antenna (or the Winegard PR-8800 I think is similar).  Both antenna's run about $40, and are UHF only which is fine for now.  Funny note, I also receive ch 10 digital which is on ch 8-- VHF!!  Don't know why....  If you don't have many obstructions to the E, it may be all you need.  I do think if I put my VU-75 on the roof that it would be very adequate for Milwaukee stations.

Regarding Skywalker, they really do specialize in wholesale transactions, however will sell to you at what I consider VERY reasonable prices.  If you walk in knowing what you want and they have it, they'll sell it to you.  I think they caution on making blanket recommendations because there are so many factors.  So they suggest that you talk to one of their customers that may do installs, and have a site visit.  Then they can make a good recommendation and Skwalker delivers the right stuff for the right job.  Everyone is happy.

If you have any other questions, stuff that you'd feel more comfortable offline (very specific to your situation) feel free to send a message directly.

NASA--  I got the same thing after the CM4228 went up.  Told them it was a science experiment (ala Doc from Back to the Future!)

Greg O.

[tenth_t2]

jgehrke,

RG6 would be the better bet due to it's larger center conductor which equates to less line loss, and better shielding that would prevent/interfere with weaker signals.  As the cost per foot difference is miniscule (500' of RG6 at Home Depot for example is about $45), any new work should be done in RG6.  Don't worry about Quad shield unless you own an arc welder or some other very noise device.  Also, you don't need to worry about "Digital" RG6 either, the additional cost is more hype than anything.  You can get a better deal in larger quantities (1000') from a Skywalker or Marmax possibly.

Lightening Protection-- Typically you will run the cable to a grounding block that simply connects two ends of cable and has the provision for a ground wire.  This grounding block should be mounted outside the home. The ground wire should be 8ga solid aluminum or copper is fine too.  Again, Home Depot sells it by the spool, or foot.  Aluminum is fine and often packaged specifically for this purpose.  Just make sure whatever you use fits through the grounding block hole.

Simply string the gound wire in the shortest route to the ground, and either connect to the house electical ground rod, or buy another rod and pound it into the earth.  Typically these are 4' long of so.

Hope this helps!

Greg O.



[This message has been edited by tenth_t2 (edited 03-05-2002).]

[David Hendrickson]

Okay, I've been hemming and hawing ( where did that phrase come from anyway?) about an antenna. And my smarter half says "NO WAY". But cbs 58 has the tourney in hd, and I have to see how it looks. I'm in the Town of Waukesha so I figure - roof mount, at least an 80 incher. But, what the heck- I'll try the RS double bow tie I've heard about on The Spot. The ugly little thing really works. Don't get me wrong here, the vhf stations come in like crap, and the non hd uhf is alright. But flip the switch and put out an hd program like todays UConn NCAA game and it pulls the signal right in. I'm very impressed.
The extra bonus is that it's so ugly on top of the set my wife said alright to a rooftop, as long as the doble bow tie goes back to RS.

[tenth_t2]

David,

Glad that worked.  Just realized that it's been almost 2 weeks.  If you haven't bought an outdoor antenna yet, you may want to consider one of alternatives to the RS bowtie that would be useable for VHF as well.  Specifically, there are a few local outlets for Winegard and Channelmaster products at very attractive/competitive prices.  I've found in looking at some of the units that they have better overall gain figures, and that may offer you the ability to select a less noticeable unit.

Greg O.