Help!! Antenna

[aubowen]

Love Dish Network. Can't get locals through them and the basic package I pay through Charter- the reception is just plain horrible. Does anyone have advice on a good antenna or who to call. I don't care how big and ugly, I just want local channels in HD. I am not sure with where I live if that is possible or not.

My address is 150 Lee Road 42
Opelika, AL. 36804

 

[Voyager6]

Go to this site TV Fool - Home and enter your info. This will give all the locals that you possibly can receive and their relative directions. It looks like there are quite a few stations less than 70 miles of your location. Looks like you would need something like the XG91 with a pre-amp and rotator to get most of these stations. Another possibility is the CM4228.

 

[milslim]

you can also check antennaweb.org to give you position,channel,etc.

 

[KAB]

you can also check antennaweb.org to give you position,channel,etc.

Do antennaweb.org. TV Fool is inaccurate for my city.

 

[aubowen]

The tvfool one shows a lot of digital channels, but antennaweb only show 2. Really confused. But, I guess even non-digital would be better than what I am getting. Is radio shack the best place to go, or try to find a local vendor??

 

[GregE]

I bought my OTA antenna from Solid Signal. I went with a 4221 and a j-mount and put it in my attic and I get great reception here in Prospect, KY. Here is a link to the 4228 which is more like what you would need and Voyager mentioned previously.

Channel Master CM 4228 8-Bay Bowtie UHF Antenna (CM4228) | CM4228 [Channel Master] | CM-4228 4228 CM 4228 bow tie bow-tie channel master 4228 channel master CM4228 channel master CM-4228

 

[aubowen]

Thank you!

 

[steve4810]

I recommend the AntennaCraft CY1470 also sold by Radio Shack as the U-75R for UHF. It goes for about 30 bucks. With it I pulled in an station that is over 130 miles away (but not reliably). My own locals are only 10 - 20 miles away so a lot of my faith in this model is from second hand testimonials but from the way it behaves on my roof I really like it.


Edit. The AntennaCraft CY1470 is a little longer and stronger(on paper) than the RS U-75R. I'm using the U-75R
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[EricBskiVT]

The tvfool one shows a lot of digital channels, but antennaweb only show 2. Really confused. But, I guess even non-digital would be better than what I am getting. Is radio shack the best place to go, or try to find a local vendor??

Antennaweb is more conservative. If you click on the color bar on the left side of the channels, it will tell you the type of antenna (medium range, long range, etc) you need. If it says "multidirectional", ignore and think "directional."

 

[EricBskiVT]

I don't know whether you have trees, buildings, or if your house is single story, but a Channel Master 4221 (med. directional) or 4228 should do the job. Your two digital stations are 14 degrees apart. You may be able to get them both by splitting the difference.

 

[steve4810]

Eric brings up some important questions. buildings and mountains will make the job nearly impossible.

I recommend the Shack because their antenna isn't too expensive and they should be pretty good about returning it if it doesn't do the job for you. If there is a Channel Master dealer you can get to, they make good stuff too but I prefer the corner reflector design of the RS model. In my experience they are more directional and thus better at preventing ghosting.

BTW, AntennaCraft makes several models just like Channel Master but if this is your first try at an outdoor antenna and you don't have neighbors who will let you look at their reception to judge their antennas I like being able to carry an unsat antenna back. Shipping on these beasts isn't peanuts (compared to their price). You wouldn't want to spend 15 bucks each way on a 50 antenna.

One last thing, if a rotor doesn't work for your household, you can connect multiple antennas together to cover more than one transmitter site.

 

[Voyager6]

If you want to experiment first (or if cost is an issue), you try and build your own for very little cost. This thread explains how to build some of the common HDTV antennas on your own DIY HDTV antenna - Lumenlab
There are designs for the DB2 and the CM4228. I have a CM4228 and think that I might try and build another to stack above it.