Good Off Air Antennas/Amplifiers

Lobstah said:
Oddly enough, it would seem that my replies in this, as well as other threads, are being deleted?
Lob

Lob,

moderators are told not to delete threads. In extreme cases we can alter the language. There has not been any posts or threads deleted. I have merged a lot of threads that were on page 4 or 5 of the forum because they all talked about the same topic. Only users can delete their own posts or threads and we don't have control over that.
 
Sean,
No problem...seems like something wierd was happening...could be on my end. I've posted a few replies to threads, and when I go back and look later, their not there. I usually have some large work-related downloads going on at the same time, so could be a local resource issue.

Lob
 
FunkyBoss said:
Wow, $165 on that site! And Voom supplied this antenna for you? Did you get charged anything for it?


Curious about this as well, Ilive on very fringe need a violet ant. but still have basic cable so i have locals, but like to see if I could get the ones broadcasting in HD
 
I was told by customer service that there was a $60 allowance for an upgraded antenna if the Stealth didn't work. You silver tongued devil you! How did you negotiate that? :smug
 
yea what did u say to get that antenna? I dunno if that would even help i'm 50 miles from the ant. and have a mountain about 3 miles away a good 500 -800 feet above the roofline.
 
I live in the Berwyn which is just south of Chicago. I use the Channel Master Stealth and get all the channels even CBS. I live under 15 miles form the transmitters.
 
Received my Winegard HD7082P from Voom Today

Well, this was the second attempt at getting the upgrade antenna installed. The installer missed the Monday appointment and I found out that she was going to miss today and install tomorrow. I asked if I could pickup and install the antenna myself. She stated as long as I signed the paperwork that was just fine.

This antenna was a great inprovement over the Stealth. Now I can get CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox. UPN is 180 degrees from my other towers and we do not have a WB in my area.

It's not just the ability to get these stations that is important, the quality has really improved. CBS was my most difficult station to receive, now my OA Quality is 70 and my OA power is 58. The HD on CBS looks great. As for NBC, ABC and Fox, their numbers are even higher.

If I decide that UPN is worth it, I will get a rotator.

Voom did not mention any cost with the upgrade and I still have the Stealth. Some one suggested that I link the tow antennas and point the Stealth towards UPN. I might try it later.
 
Lobstah is GOD! My OTA problems are history!

WHOO-HOO!

Lobstah, you are DA MAN!

After talking to my local installer, he confessed to struggling with OTAs in many of his St. Louis installs. We had an appointment this morning to experiment with other antenna possibilities.

So, on your recommendation, I stopped by Radio Shack last night and picked up the 15-2160 UHF. I had it assembled in 5 minutes, and it took me all of 10 minutes to swap out the Stealth for the new 15-2160.

Bingo! It made all the difference in the world. My missing channels showed up strong, and my “iffy” channels stayed solid.

I took notes on before (Stealth) and after (RS 15-2160) OTA Signal Quality and Power.

KTVI-FOX
Before: 19 Q, 61 P
After: 82 Q, 78 P

KMOV-CBS
Before: 48 Q, 42 P
After: 58 Q, 56 P

KSDK-NBC
Before: 48 Q, 69 P
After: 67 Q, 80 P

KDNL-ABC
Before: 80 Q, 74 P
After: 90 Q, 80 P

KPLR-WB
Before: 63 Q, 66 P
After: 58 Q, 71 P

So, the RS 15-2160 difference is not huge, but it boosted me out of the annoying drop-outs, and restored my full spectrum of locals. I’m a happy boy.

And the PRICE! $23! It’s actually cheaper than the Stealth. The only downside is that it’s a rather unsightly contraption.

My installer showed up this morning, looked at the antenna, looked at my numbers, wrote down the model number of the RS 15-2160, and cut me a reimbursement check on the spot. He was impressed.

Thanks, Lobstah. That was a great tip!
 
I'm curious about the using 2 antennas together idea...

I'm out in the woods of orange county, NC. I'm about 37 miles from most of the OTA digital stations and they are at 120 degrees. With the stealth antenna as included with my voom installation, I only get the pbs station which is only 2 miles away at 247 degrees (so almost opposite of the others). Can I hook up a better antenna in line with the stealth some how and pull in these other stations? The installer put the antenna at the bottom of my roof, so I have a hunch that closer to the apex an antenna would do much better. I do have a lot of trees around the house, but they are all about 25 feet away from the house itself.

Any suggestions as to what antenna I should get (if the dual thing is possible that is - speaking of which, how do you hook them up?)

Here's what antennaweb has to say:

red - uhf WUNC-DT 4.1 PBS 247° 1.7 miles away
red - uhf WRAL-DT 5.1 CBS 120° 37.2 miles away
red - uhf WRAZ-DT 50.1 FOX 120° 37.2 miles away
red - uhf WUVC-DT 38 UNI FCC Ext 168° 26.9 miles away
red - uhf WNCN-DT 17.1 NBC 120° 37.2 miles away
blue - uhf WLFL-DT 22.1 WB 120° 37.2 miles away
blue - uhf WRDC-DT 28.1 UPN 120° 37.2 miles away

Thanks for any help!!

PS - I should also say that I had not found this forum before my install, so I'm hooked up using a diplexor.
 
mikedaul said:
I'm curious about the using 2 antennas together idea...

I'm out in the woods of orange county, NC. I'm about 37 miles from most of the OTA digital stations and they are at 120 degrees. With the stealth antenna as included with my voom installation, I only get the pbs station which is only 2 miles away at 247 degrees (so almost opposite of the others). Can I hook up a better antenna in line with the stealth some how and pull in these other stations? The installer put the antenna at the bottom of my roof, so I have a hunch that closer to the apex an antenna would do much better. I do have a lot of trees around the house, but they are all about 25 feet away from the house itself.

Any suggestions as to what antenna I should get (if the dual thing is possible that is - speaking of which, how do you hook them up?)

Here's what antennaweb has to say:

red - uhf WUNC-DT 4.1 PBS 247° 1.7 miles away
red - uhf WRAL-DT 5.1 CBS 120° 37.2 miles away
red - uhf WRAZ-DT 50.1 FOX 120° 37.2 miles away
red - uhf WUVC-DT 38 UNI FCC Ext 168° 26.9 miles away
red - uhf WNCN-DT 17.1 NBC 120° 37.2 miles away
blue - uhf WLFL-DT 22.1 WB 120° 37.2 miles away
blue - uhf WRDC-DT 28.1 UPN 120° 37.2 miles away

Thanks for any help!!

PS - I should also say that I had not found this forum before my install, so I'm hooked up using a diplexor.

Getting the diplexor out of the system is not too terribly complicated if you don't mind running an additional cable for the antenna.

The stealth is probably insufficient for pulling stations that far through trees. Especially if antennaweb indicates red and blue for your stations. You'll need a higher gain directional antenna.

You can run into problems with connecting multiple antennas together. That's not saying that it can't be done, just that you might have problems... decreased signal strength, multipath problems, etc. It sounds almost like your PBS station is strong enough that you might be able to pull it in on a side lobe if you get the right antenna.
 
OTA Antenna Dont Care About Trees. I Have 2 Antenna's in my Attic & Get All The Stations (SD & Digital) Within 50 Miles & They Never Breakup or Loose Signal.
 
wbuffetta said:
OTA Antenna Dont Care About Trees. I Have 2 Antenna's in my Attic & Get All The Stations (SD & Digital) Within 50 Miles & They Never Breakup or Loose Signal.


What antennas are you using, if you don't mind me asking?

Thanks
Kirk
 
linking 2 ant together

Sorry for the probably simple question, but how do you link two together? Can I take just a regular 2 way splitter and reverse the input/output and make the two ant leads the out and the single in the out and run that to my VOOM box? If not, what's the cheapest way to do it? I had my install done and it seems the line the guy put up for the stealth has a nail hole or something in it as he got no continuity on it, so he simply hooked the box to my existing OTA ant I had in the attic pointing to my local tower. It was raining and I wasn't about to make him re-run the entire run. I was htinkign I canm take the Stealth of the side of the house and put it in the attic next to my existing ant and link them together, but point the Stealth towards a different tower. Thanks! -Dan
 
well I'd like to report some good results I have gotten from the square shooter.
I' live in NH, the abc affiliate is 47 miles away, I have a preamp attached to the antenna, the antenna is mounted to a pole but I have yet to install it on the the house.
yesterday I got my samsung set top box, so I was eager to try it out, I leaned the antenna, pole and all against my deck and fired up the pre-amp and the receiver. now this is the impressive part, about 20 feet away from the antenna are tall pine trees (the house is surrounded by them,20-30ft. tall) I got channel 9 abc which is 47 miles away in crystal clear digital (i'd say 80-85% strength).:eek:

I can't wait to mount this baby on the roof ! :D