70 miles away is too much out of range. I would think max will be 45 miles. Anything beyond that is a miss or hit.
Fargus said:Hey Sean,
I was wondering if you could help me out.
What is the furthest mileage you think you could get OTA HD Signals? None of the local channels broadcast and the closest signal is out of Tyler which is about 70 miles away. Is that stupid of me to think I could Possibly get those signals with a kick ass OTA antenna?
thanks for your time
soledade said:I know you asked for Sean's input but I have a lot of experience with RF and can suggest something that may work.
If the channel you plan to get is UHF you are at the fringes of line of sight. This means that depending on terrain it may not be possible.
Here is what I suggest:
1) Get a channel master 8 bay bowtie antenna. I think the model number is 4228. Mount it as high as possible. Use antennaweb.org to figure out where to point it. http://www.starkelectronic.com/allant.htm
2) Be prepared to add a pre-amp. With the type of receiver involved in OTA HD noise figure is much more important than gain. This means that you need a low noise amp. Check out the Channel Master 7775 at: http://www.starkelectronic.com/allamps.htm
3) Use RG6 quad shield and do not split to multiple sets or receivers.
Good Luck!
P.S. I have no association with Channel Master or Stark Electronics.
I had Voom installed yesterday and pick up the 2 VHF channels fine with the stealth antenna and preamp. I was going to take that down and put up a combo VHF/UHF antenna which cost around 160.00. Could I put up the channelmaster antenna you talk about and combine the signal with the stealth antenna somehow? They say that when they turn off analog signal channels will go back to there original spot so I will always have VHF and UHF channels. Wish Connecticut could of been like almost everyone else and put all digital channels on UHF. That would of been to easy. Any chance of Picking up the 2 VHF channels with the 4228. They must be strong because I can turn the stealth antenna anywhere and they still come in. The 2 VHF towers are about 21 miles from me. The UHF towers are about 25 miles in a different direction. Sorry post is so long. Just got up and am thinking as I type.soledade said:I forgot to mention that I (and many others in San Diego) get LA stations over 90 miles away with this setup. Part of the reason this works for us is that the path to the transmitter is partially over the ocean.
pmalve said:I had Voom installed yesterday and pick up the 2 VHF channels fine with the stealth antenna and preamp. I was going to take that down and put up a combo VHF/UHF antenna which cost around 160.00. Could I put up the channelmaster antenna you talk about and combine the signal with the stealth antenna somehow? They say that when they turn off analog signal channels will go back to there original spot so I will always have VHF and UHF channels. Wish Connecticut could of been like almost everyone else and put all digital channels on UHF. That would of been to easy. Any chance of Picking up the 2 VHF channels with the 4228. They must be strong because I can turn the stealth antenna anywhere and they still come in. The 2 VHF towers are about 21 miles from me. The UHF towers are about 25 miles in a different direction. Sorry post is so long. Just got up and am thinking as I type.
omard. said:I love this forum! If it was not for you guys I would never have known about Voom. I ordered it on Monday Night and I have an install date of March 10th. I have already contacted my installer and confirmed the installation info. What is the next step?
I don't quite understand why I need two separate lines coming in (one for the OTA and other for the Dish)? There has been mention of not having a diplexer (hope I got that right) installed why is that? Are there any other things I should keep in mind.
omard. said:Thanks for the responce Sean. Ok I should NOT use a diplexer and have two lines run one for OTA and other for Dish. I will give the installer a call on Monday before the install. Any other things I should do?
Omar, good to have you vooming. The initial method of installation included a diplexer, a two part gizmo which effectively combines both the signal from the dish and the signal from the OTA antenna so that the combined signal can share a single coaxial cable as it travels from your roof to your HDTV. At the VOOM box another diplexer component would separate out the two signals again routing one to the OTA portion (8VSB module) of the VOOM receiver and the other would go to the satellite input. It turns out that combining and then separating the signals in this manner typically degrades the overal signal to the point of significant reception problems.omard. said:I don't quite understand why I need two separate lines coming in (one for the OTA and other for the Dish)? There has been mention of not having a diplexer (hope I got that right) installed why is that? Are there any other things I should keep in mind.