Live in Hemet, ca want antena for LA and San Diego

[bwexler]

Looking for an inexpensive Antenna system for easterN Hemet so I can receive both LA and San Diego OTA stations,especially CBS.
Currently have a 2 Hopper with Sling setup and three HD TVs and 1 SD.

It's been 50 years since I put up an external antenna and I don't even remember what I didn't know back then.

 

[FTA4PA]

Looking for an inexpensive Antenna system for easterN Hemet so I can receive both LA and San Diego OTA stations,especially CBS.
Currently have a 2 Hopper with Sling setup and three HD TVs and 1 SD.
It's been 50 years since I put up an external antenna and I don't even remember what I didn't know back then.

From Google Maps it looks like Hemet, CA is about 70 miles from either location. Can't say for sure what you might be able to get without a TV Fool report for your address and height of antenna you are willing to install. If you could go to www.tvfool.com and enter that info then post the link to the report back here it will be easier for someone to help. Even without the report, at about 70 miles away, your most likely gonna need a large directional antenna for fringe reception, a preamp and a rotor since the stations are in two different directions. I love the clarity of digital tv but miss the old days of analog when you could still get a distant station, albeit snowy. That "digital cliff" makes it a lot harder to get distant stations these days.

 

[boba]

Looking for an inexpensive Antenna system for easterN Hemet so I can receive both LA and San Diego OTA stations,especially CBS.
Currently have a 2 Hopper with Sling setup and three HD TVs and 1 SD.

It's been 50 years since I put up an external antenna and I don't even remember what I didn't know back then.

What are you looking to do? Do you want to replace DISH or just add another DMA to your DISH provided locals?

From Wikipedia you are in a valley, using 92543 zip code most broadcasters are 2 edge and 70 plus miles away. You will need both UHF & VHF and probably a tower, what do you define as inexpensive?

 

[bwexler]

I would like to have the choice to replace Dish with OTA and Amazon or ?? I would also like to get CBS in case Dish can't resolve the contract in a timely fashion.
I originally wanted to keep it to $100 but might go to $200. I have a couple hundred feet of Quad shield RG6 left on a spool and some connectors and a piece of 1 1/4" aluminum conduit I was going to use as a mast.
My zip is 92544 and I know I am in a valley. If I thought this would be easy I wouldn't be here asking for advice. I don't know or understand the difference between an amp and a preamp. I do want to split to 4 TVs and maybe my computer to act as a DVR

 

[boba]

I would like to have the choice to replace Dish with OTA and Amazon or ?? I would also like to get CBS in case Dish can't resolve the contract in a timely fashion.
I originally wanted to keep it to $100 but might go to $200. I have a couple hundred feet of Quad shield RG6 left on a spool and some connectors and a piece of 1 1/4" aluminum conduit I was going to use as a mast.
My zip is 92544 and I know I am in a valley. If I thought this would be easy I wouldn't be here asking for advice. I don't know or understand the difference between an amp and a preamp. I do want to split to 4 TVs and maybe my computer to act as a DVR

View attachment 102797

You will probably spend more than a $100 on a UHF/VHF deep fringe antenna and may need more than 25 feet of antenna height. Hopefully someone from your area will join in with suggestions.

You might want to consider DISH's Welcome Pack for basic television $19.99/mo. and trade your Hopper for a 211 with the add on DVR to cut your monthly bill.

 

[FTA4PA]

I would like to have the choice to replace Dish with OTA and Amazon or ?? I would also like to get CBS in case Dish can't resolve the contract in a timely fashion.
I originally wanted to keep it to $100 but might go to $200. I have a couple hundred feet of Quad shield RG6 left on a spool and some connectors and a piece of 1 1/4" aluminum conduit I was going to use as a mast.
My zip is 92544 and I know I am in a valley. If I thought this would be easy I wouldn't be here asking for advice. I don't know or understand the difference between an amp and a preamp. I do want to split to 4 TVs and maybe my computer to act as a DVR

How you go about this depends on how many stations you are looking to receive. With the transmitters being in different directions you could try a combination of a several fringe VHF and UHF antennas pointed in different directions attached to combiners but in order to keep your costs down you might want to just go with a single deep fringe antenna that covers all bands (VHF-LO, VHF-HI and UHF) and point it in the direction you find you receive the most channels from. This antenna might be a good choice if you want to try that option: http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=03&p=HD8200U&d=Winegard-Heavy-Duty-Platinum-VHFUHFFM-HDTV-Antenna(HD8200U)&c=TV Antennas&sku=615798398491 If you are willing to add the cost of a rotor you may have a better choice of channels but at the added cost and need to move the rotor each time you want to get channels from a different direction. Since you are looking to replace Dish with OTA/Amazon the additional cost and trouble may be justified. You would also need a preamp. There were several very good Winegard pre-amps but they have since been discontinued. There is this one: http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=03&p=LNA-200&d=Winegard-Boost-XT-20dB-Outdoor-HDTV-Antenna-PreAmp-(LNA200)&c=Pre-Amplifiers&sku= It has a good noise figure (3db vhf, 1db uhf) but you may need more gain at those distances. The Channel Master CM7777 has higher gain but is (I believe) now made in China and I have heard both good and bad about it. There is also this one from Antenna Craft: http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=03&p=10G202&d=AntennaCraft-High-Gain--VHFUHF-TV-Antenna-PreAmp(10G202)&c=Pre-Amplifiers&sku= I don't have any experience with that one but it appears to have good reviews on Solid Signal. Another point to consider before starting is whether you can receive a strong enough signal at that distance from the transmitters to be able to split it to four tv's plus a dvr. I have a similar problem myself at 41 and 57 miles from the transmitters and a hill between. I wish you luck.