Antenna height opinions?

boomer_106

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Mar 17, 2005
886
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I'm not on a mountain, not in a valley. I was wondering for the average terrain would an antenna react much differently at say 15 feet as compared to 30? Also would being located near the incoming electrical supply bother the reception? What is the optimum practical height? I understand that 150 feet in the air would be better than say 20
 
That depends. How close to the transmitters would you be? If close, probably not an issue. If far, could be.
 
What is the optimum practical height? I understand that 150 feet in the air would be better than say 20

Try entering various heights at your location into TV Fool - Home. If the transmitters are downhill from you, the antenna height will make little difference. If they are uphill, the difference will be much larger.

At my house there are some stations that are weaker on a 125' tower than mounted on the roof.
 
About 60 miles

That's pretty far. Higher is generally better, but in your case, a 150 FT tower may not be practical. I don't know if the electrical transmission lines near you are going to be an issue. My recommendation is to experiment and see what antenna height works best for your situation.
 
It's the Chicago locals so they come off the Sears Tower with the exception of CBS which I don't plan on receiving til it goes UHF next year anyway. Hopefully with that height I won't need my antenna extremely high
 
What is the area around the house like? Are there mature trees? Tall buildings? Generally, if you are above the surrounding obsticals, you should be fine. If there are buildings and trees that are much higher than your antenna, then you would need to raise it higher to get above them. You really need to try it at different hieights and locations, as some times, just moving it to another area, even 20 feet away from where it presently (and not necessarily higher) is can make drastic results.
 
As Larry just stated in so many words--signal is wherever you find it.
Test your weakest channels at various heights, starting at just above
rooftop level, until you find a location that is solid. Beware of reflections
from buildings and a lack of signals when on the wrong side of tall trees,
buildings, etc. There may be seasonal fluctuations from variations in density of blockage from leaves and other vegetation, as well as changes in reception
from accumulations of snow--especially in marginal locations that do not have a true line-of-sight. Experiment! Experiment! Experiment!
 
One other thing. When experimenting do you guys just cut off a long length of RG 6 so you can take it all over then, just use what you have left for other small projects? What's the best way to go about not wasting a mile of cable?
 
Well one thing is you don't want to go over 150ft as you will start to lose some signal in very long runs of cable so i would say just go buy 100 ft of RG6 as you will most likely use most of it anyways if not all of it.
 
It's the Chicago locals so they come off the Sears Tower with the exception of CBS which I don't plan on receiving til it goes UHF next year anyway. Hopefully with that height I won't need my antenna extremely high

I am 60 miles west of the city I have a rs vu90 clamped on the back of my 61.5 winged dish on a 1 story roof and get all chicago locals on it, cbs is marginal though, for cbs i use the big monster Hd8200P by Winegard.
 
What height are other towers in your area? In my neighbourhood (not anywhere near you though) there are a lot of towers with 4 sections. (Approx. 10 feet per section and a mast) That would put the antenna about 45 ft in the air. Generally, 2 pieces of tower to the peak of the roof and another 2 pieces above the peak. Most of my stations are about 65 miles away. There are some taller towers, but they get very expensive. Just look at the price of a free standing 75 ft tower. Best to learn from what your neighbours (or even a block or two away) use. Your location is different, so your situation will be different. Remember too that a lot of the towers were put up years ago and the neigbouring trees might of now matured. This will also be a factor of how high you should go. Most of the towers in my are put the antenna just above the trees when they were initially installed, and now, the trees are shooting above them, well most of them. See quite a few with missing elements due to trees. Remember, trees move and sway in the wind as well. you can learn a lot of what you probably need for height by just looking around your neighbourhood.
 
What height are other towers in your area? In my neighbourhood (not anywhere near you though) there are a lot of towers with 4 sections. (Approx. 10 feet per section and a mast) That would put the antenna about 45 ft in the air. Generally, 2 pieces of tower to the peak of the roof and another 2 pieces above the peak. Most of my stations are about 65 miles away. There are some taller towers, but they get very expensive. Just look at the price of a free standing 75 ft tower. Best to learn from what your neighbours (or even a block or two away) use. Your location is different, so your situation will be different. Remember too that a lot of the towers were put up years ago and the neigbouring trees might of now matured. This will also be a factor of how high you should go. Most of the towers in my are put the antenna just above the trees when they were initially installed, and now, the trees are shooting above them, well most of them. See quite a few with missing elements due to trees. Remember, trees move and sway in the wind as well. you can learn a lot of what you probably need for height by just looking around your neighbourhood.

Thanks guys. Those are good points Larry. I'll wait for a little warmer weather and see what I can do.
 
height to put a antenna

Try entering various heights at your location into TV Fool - Home. If the transmitters are downhill from you, the antenna height will make little difference. If they are uphill, the difference will be much larger.

At my house there are some stations that are weaker on a 125' tower than mounted on the roof.
Hello Tower Guy,
Found this thread here and found it very interesting. Also thanks for the link to TV Fool - Home. I'm not sure how to read that chart it gave me when I put in my home address. Trying to figure out what height to put a antenna for me. I live in North Central Florida, Lecanto Florida and want to be able to get stations in Tampa, south of me, and Orlando, east of me. I know it says to point my antenna. Would I need two?

Thanks,
Tom :D
 
Just try something and check your results. Per antennaweb.org, I need a high gain directional amplified UHF antenna to pull in my (currently low power) digitals.

In reality, I needed much much less.

As a test, I used the medium gain directional VHF/UHF I already had inside my attic (not amplified), which points directly through my neighbors house, and about 25 degrees west of the optimal direction for my UHF digitals (that's where my VHF analogs come from).

It works just fine for my low power digitals. I had all kinds of plans to buy a different antenna and mount a mast on my house based on what I had read and what was recommended. Didn't need any of that - glad I tried the simple stuff first (i.e. - what I already had!) I am 15-20 miles away from the transmitters (both the full power VHF analogs and low power UHF digitals).
 
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I'm not sure how to read that chart it gave me when I put in my home address. I live in North Central Florida, Lecanto Florida and want to be able to get stations in Tampa, south of me, and Orlando, east of me.

Using the default location for Lecanto, some stations in Tampa will be possible. Orlando doesn't look good. I even tried a 100' tower. Once you get above the local trees, you're better off going for as much antenna gain as possible.

WTSP will the easiest Tampa station for you to receive. They will revert to channel 10 in 2009. WFLA is on channel 7 right now.

You'll be best off with two antennas, one for UHF and one for VHF. A Channel Master 7777 preamp would add them together.
 
local stations from two cities

Using the default location for Lecanto, some stations in Tampa will be possible. Orlando doesn't look good. I even tried a 100' tower. Once you get above the local trees, you're better off going for as much antenna gain as possible.

WTSP will the easiest Tampa station for you to receive. They will revert to channel 10 in 2009. WFLA is on channel 7 right now.

You'll be best off with two antennas, one for UHF and one for VHF. A Channel Master 7777 preamp would add them together.

Hello Tower Guy,
These are a list of the television Stations I watch:
Full-power stations.

Area served / City of license / ch / DT / VC / 09 / Callsign / Network
Orlando / Daytona Beach /2 /11 /2 /11 /WESH /NBC

Orlando /Orlando /6 /58/ 6 /26 /WKMG-TV /CBS

Orlando / Orlando / 9/ 39/ 9/ 39/ WFTV / ABC

Tampa/St. Petersburg / Tampa / 8/ 7 / 8/ 7 / WFLA-TV / NBC

Tampa/St. Petersburg / St. Petersburg / 10 / 24 / 10 / 10 / WTSP / CBS

Tampa/St. Petersburg / Tampa / 13 / 12 / 13 / 12 / WTVT / Fox

Tampa/St. Petersburg / Tampa / 28 / 29 / 28 / 29 / WFTS-TV / ABC


Tower Guy if I was to put up a tower say 100’ would I get those stations, or would I need to go higher?

Thanks,
Tom
 
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TVfool.com will tell you how high your tower needs to be for LOS to antenna and potential reception.


Just input your exact street address or your latitude and longitude.
 

PreAmp Location Question

Winegard MS2002 Metrostar Omnidirectional TV Antenna

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