Antenna Recommendation

[JeremyL]

Hi guys!
I have Dish Network and I'm looking to add an antenna to pick up my local digital/HD stations. I have no idea what I need, so I thought I'd ask you all for some help. Here are the digital stations in my area:

yellow - uhf WSEC-DT 14.1 PBS JACKSONVILLE IL 235° 26.2 15
green - uhf WCFN-DT 49.1 UPN SPRINGFIELD IL 106° 7.1 53
green - uhf WAND-DT 17.1 NBC DECATUR IL 78° 44.0 18
green - uhf WBUI-DT 23.1 WB DECATUR IL 77° 42.1 22
red - uhf WRSP-DT 55.1 FOX SPRINGFIELD IL 98° 10.6 44
violet - vhf WILL-DT 12.1 PBS URBANA IL 73° 53.7 9
violet - uhf WICS-DT 20.1 ABC SPRINGFIELD IL 96° 9.8 42

I was looking at www.antennasdirect.com at either a DB4 or a DB8 with a pre-amp. Any advice/help you can give would be appreciated.

 

[JeremyL]

How about if I'm not concerned about the VHF channel 9? Would a multi-directional UHF antenna work then?

 

[Tower Guy]

the db4 and db8 is not a consideration...they will will not receive ch9.

There are two PBS stations. Channel 9 is the harder one to pick up. I'd consider ignoring it as the programming is probably identical. The DB4 has a broader beamwidth and might split the difference between 77 and 98 degrees without a rotator.

There's two stations outside the range 77-98. To get both of them he'll need either a rotator or a second antenna with a Jointenna. Yet the selection of channel 9 as the primary PBS allows the use of a cheaper UHF/VHF joiner instead of a Jointenna.

 

[TommyTDFVC]

Go to Antennaweb. If the towers are less than about 45 miles you can get a cheap omnidirectional antenna. If the antennas are in the same general direction.

 

[Tower Guy]

Go to Antennaweb. If the towers are less than about 45 miles you can get a cheap omnidirectional antenna. If the antennas are in the same general direction.

Omnidirectional antennas will have multipath unless there's nothing for the signal to reflect off of. Directional antenna also provide more signal, which yields higher reliability.