Going OTA

[Thunder7]

So last week I finally made the decision to go OTA and ditch Satellite after 12 years. To test it out I bought a basic indoor rabbit ears antenna and was surprised at how well they worked. But is very sensitive to weather. So I want to get a more robust antenna (and anything else recommended) to improve the performance. I will use the existing cabling in the house from the satellite and likely will mount it outdoors near the existing splitter. This may have to be replaced. I want to feed signal to 4 TVs. Below is my TVFool data.

I was thinking about the Wingard Freeview. I am 30-35 miles from most of my local stations that I care about. How well would this work? Would it be good to get a signal amplifier? What am I not thinking about?

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id=1dda4a08f54979

Thanks for the info.

 

[mike123abc]

Try it out in the attic to see if it works well.

 

[boba]

So last week I finally made the decision to go OTA and ditch Satellite after 12 years. To test it out I bought a basic indoor rabbit ears antenna and was surprised at how well they worked. But is very sensitive to weather. So I want to get a more robust antenna (and anything else recommended) to improve the performance. I will use the existing cabling in the house from the satellite and likely will mount it outdoors near the existing splitter. This may have to be replaced. I want to feed signal to 4 TVs. Below is my TVFool data.

I was thinking about the Wingard Freeview. I am 30-35 miles from most of my local stations that I care about. How well would this work? Would it be good to get a signal amplifier? What am I not thinking about?

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id=1dda4a08f54979

Thanks for the info.

try the Winegard HD 1080 a little more robust and possibly cheaper

 

[Bob2011]

Since you are going to split out to four TVs you should go with something a little better like this http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.as...ion-VHFUHF-HDHD769-Series-TV-Antenna-(HD7694P)

or http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.as...UHF--HighBand-VHF-Outdoor-HDTV-Antenna-(HBU33)

The higher gain should protect you during bad weather on those weaker stations in the yellow on TV Fool.

 

[Thunder7]

Thanks for the input...based on what I have seen/read/been recommended, I will be going with the HBU33.

 

[Mr Tony]

I have a HBU33 here in Minneapolis and it works great. I am about 30 miles away from the towers and it works fine even going to 4 "items" (2 TV's, converter box and a Directv AM21)

 

[No Static At All]

Thanks for the input...based on what I have seen/read/been recommended, I will be going with the HBU33.

Excellent choice!!

 

[Thunder7]

Got the HBU33 setup today. Easy t put together and mount in the attic. Went from 19 channels with so-so reception to 60 channels with great reception on most of them. Glad I made the choice I did. Very happy.

 

[Mr Tony]

glad to hear it!

 

[Thunder7]

Some questions and looking for input/advice.

Today I got the new distribution amp (Channel Master 3418) to hook up the remaining TVs. I have a total of 3 working at the moment and soon will be 4. The antenna (HBU33) is mounted in the attic and pointed at 41 degrees (mag). The direction it is pointing does have trees (mainly pines).

Tonight the weather is poor....very wind when I took the below readings. The pic quality in these conditions is ok but some channels have drops and pixilation. Hopefully tomorrow will be a clearer day so I can take more readings and see how the quality is.

NBC 11.1 ­80 steady great picture
ABC 2.1 ­ 60­-80 constant fluctuation some drops to 40s pixilation
CBS 46.1 ­ 60­-80 constant fluctuation some drops to 0 pixilation
Fox 5.1 ­ 68­-80 constant fluctuation some drops to 0 pixilation
PBS 8.1 ­ 40­-50 constant fluctuation

Is it possible to smooth this out or is the weather/trees just part of the deal?

 

[Mr Tony]

weather will hinder reception especially rain.

Also on the meters each one is different. My Panny plasma will show 100 for alot of my stations yet the other TV I have will show a 87

 

[Bob2011]

How is the quality without the amp? Also remember that mounting in the attic is not the ideal situation. A thick roof or any foil backed insulation will really hurt reception.

 

[boba]

What are you using for signal distribution, a 4 way splitter?

 

[No Static At All]

Is it possible to smooth this out or is the weather/trees just part of the deal?

Is the antenna mounted as high as possible in the attic? You may be able to improve performance by trying different locations in the attic as well.

 

[Thunder7]

What are you using for signal distribution, a 4 way splitter?

Channel Master 3418 - 8 port (for future expansion -- I could go to 6 total TVs now if I really wanted to).

 

[Thunder7]

How is the quality without the amp? Also remember that mounting in the attic is not the ideal situation. A thick roof or any foil backed insulation will really hurt reception.

Without the amp the numbers are much lower. Yep -- know that being outside would be the best of all worlds....

 

[Thunder7]

Is the antenna mounted as high as possible in the attic? You may be able to improve performance by trying different locations in the attic as well.

I can adjust it up/down more if needed. May give that a try.

 

[boba]

If your not using the 8 ports on the splitter you are introducing additional signal loss. A 4 way splitter would send twice as much signal to each output as the 8 way. The amplifier may also be adding cochannel interference that without amplification would be too weak to bother. The fluctuating signal strength is frequently an indication of the interference.

 

[truckracer]

Outdoors is ideal but definitely only use a splitter with the current amount of tuners you are feeding. Extra ports means weaker signal to each port.