Need help with antennas & equipment

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cline320

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Original poster
Dec 17, 2006
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I just purchased an OTA receiver on ebay. It is an RCA DTC-100 that was used with DirecTV. I am going to use as an OTA tuner for HD. Which indoor antenna is best, I am about 10-20 miles from the tower. Are the cheap antennas on par with the more expensive ones? Also the unit that I purchased does not have a remote. Do all RCA universal remotes operate all RCA satellite boxes including HD boxes? Any help would be great.

Tim
 
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What is you zip code?

Not sure about that RCA, but some DBS HD units will not work correctly just as an OTA box. Some need cards inserted, some need a dish connected, I even think some actually need to be subscribed. Seeing this is the 1stgen HD box by RCA I am not sure. Any way we can cross that when we get to it unless someone else chimes in first.

We need to zip code to give accurate OTA info, but a Channel Master CM4228 is always a best bet.
 
41005 near Cincinnati. It was used as an OTA tuner previously. These RCA universal remotes act like they work all RCA receivers. Thank you for the help. Has anyone had any luck with indoor or attic antennas?
 
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As far as indoor models, they are almost as directional as you can get and unless all your towers happen to be closely grouped, you migh find it more of a headache. You can try the usually top rated Silver Sensor for this.

You surely want to get a quality antenna and mounted outside and up high like at least the roof line for the BEST results and likely least headaches. This is the CM4228.

From your zip your towers seem to be from 12.0m - 34.4m & 13° - 91°; so I would recommend the CM4228.

If you don't care about PBS you can say 12.0m - 16.7m & 46° - 66° and still I would likely say go with the CM. Hell, if you EVER move the CM will 99% likely work no matter what where a directional is always lower %.
 
41005 near Cincinnati. It was used as an OTA tuner previously. These RCA universal remotes act like they work all RCA receivers. Thank you for the help. Has anyone had any luck with indoor or attic antennas?

If the cheap remotes fron Walley-World do not woek , do a google search & try to find out what the origional part number on the origional remote , was .

Then try googling for that part number . Or try EBay .

Wyr
 
I have a 20-inch satellite dish on the southwest corner of the house, will a clip-on model antenna work?
 
As far as indoor models, they are almost as directional as you can get and unless all your towers happen to be closely grouped, you migh find it more of a headache. You can try the usually top rated Silver Sensor for this.

You surely want to get a quality antenna and mounted outside and up high like at least the roof line for the BEST results and likely least headaches. This is the CM4228.

From your zip your towers seem to be from 12.0m - 34.4m & 13° - 91°; so I would recommend the CM4228.

If you don't care about PBS you can say 12.0m - 16.7m & 46° - 66° and still I would likely say go with the CM. Hell, if you EVER move the CM will 99% likely work no matter what where a directional is always lower %.

When I run antennaweb for your location I get the following:

* yellow - uhf WLWT-DT 5.1 NBC CINCINNATI OH 62° 13.2 35
* yellow - uhf WKRC-DT 12.1 CBS CINCINNATI OH 66° 13.9 31
* yellow - uhf WXIX-DT 19.1 FOX NEWPORT KY 59° 12.0 29
* yellow - uhf WCET-DT 48.1 PBS CINCINNATI OH 62° 13.2 34
* yellow - vhf WCPO-DT 9.1 ABC CINCINNATI OH 64° 14.3 10
* blue - uhf WSTR-DT 64.1 MNT CINCINNATI OH 46° 16.7 33
* blue - uhf WPTO-DT 14.2 PBS OXFORD OH 13° 34.4 28
* violet - uhf WCVN-DT 54.1 PBS COVINGTON KY 91° 12.0 24

This means you have NBC, FOX, CBS, PBS and ABC all at 12-14 miles and 59-66 degrees. But you need to run antennaweb.org with your address not just your zip since this may change some of the data.
ABC is on VHF and CBS will be moving back to channel 12 when analog goes away in 2009.

A silver sensor indoor antenna is pretty directional but would get your major stations except it has poor VHF performance. The Terk HDTVi (not any of the other Terks) is a clone of the silver sensor but with added "rabbit ears" for VHF and may be able to get ABC.

If not you will have to go to an outdoor antenna (although you may be able to mount it in the attic). The CM4228 has a pretty narrow beamwidth and will not cover 13-91 degrees. Even 46 to 66 is a bit wide for the CM4228, but it will easily cover the 7 degrees you need for your main stations. The CM4228 is a UHF antenna but has pretty good performance on VHF-hi so should be OK for your ABC and (in 2009) CBS.

The CM4221 is lower gain and wider beamwidth but still won't cover 13-91 without a rotor. It should receive all your UHF stations OK and may be OK for the VHF ones also since they are so close. It is essentially "half a CM4228" so is a bit easier to handle and to mount.
 
I too have a CM4228. It is one of the best UHF antennas available - the only other one in the same category is probably the Antennas Direct 91XG.
And it has really useful performance on VHF-hi (channels 7-13), probably up to VHF stations listed in antennaweb as "red". Beyond that it's a bit of a lottery, you may need a separate VHF-hi antenna.
The CM4221 as I said is like "half a CM4228". It obviously does not have the range of the CM4228 but is great for closer in stations. It isn't as good on VHF as the CM4228 but if all your stations are UHF and reasonably close it's an excellent antenna. Some people even use it as an indoor antenna, because it's flat it's not as obvious as some antennas. I read a post from someone who mounted it BEHIND his TV, pointed in the direction of the transmitters!!
 
Befor I decide on my mount location and method, I was so "geeked" to use it I just set it out the nearest window that was close to the correct heading and it was nearly dead-on.
 

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