OTA Antenna Advice ?

[Ozzzz666]

Below is what antenna web says about my location. I am a newbie at this and spent a small sum of $ on an indoor HD antenna and got a pretty good signal on NBC, FOX and PBS but couldnt for the life of me get my dishnetwork receiver to find ABC or CBS.

Is the 46 degree spread going to be my biggest hurdle in getting OTA HDTV ? and if so can someone give me advice on an antenna ? I would like to put it in the attic if at all possible (tile roof, not much metal up there) as my receivers are on the 2nd floor and running cable would be easy.

As you can i am really close to the transmitters, i am at the bottom of the mountain they are located on so i dont think distance is going to be an issue unless you can be too close.

TIA for any advice.

Antenna





Compass Miles Frequency Type Call Sign Channel Network City State
Orientation From Assignment yellow - uhf KBLR-DT 40.1 TEL PARADISE NV
133° 1.4 40 yellow - vhf KLVX-DT 10.1 PBS LAS VEGAS NV
138° 1.6 11 yellow - vhf KVBC-DT 3.1 NBC LAS VEGAS NV
135° 1.5 2 red - vhf KLAS-DT 8.1 CBS LAS VEGAS NV
179° 5.8 7 blue - vhf KTNV-DT 13.1 ABC LAS VEGAS NV
179° 5.8 12 blue - vhf KVVU-DT 5.1 FOX Henderson / Las Vegas NV
136° 2.1 9

 

[kevinwalton]

Uhf

Make sure you get a good UHF antenna Amazon.com: DIRECTV 2-BAY UHF ANTENNA: Electronics

Something like this should work well and not cost a fortune. You may have to point it slightly upward toward the top of the mountain. If the spread is too much you can purchase a splitter and have two antennas or get an omnidirectional.

 

[Ozzzz666]

even though the big 5 are showing as VHF signals ? or can UHF antenna pick up VHF without a problem ?

 

[Peter Parker]

If ia m reading that correctly you even havea channel 2 that you would like to receive. While i sometimes advoate trying a UHF antenna for digital VHF that might bea stretch. You might need either two antenna or a good VHF/UHF antenna.

There are some antennas that would conceivably work for taht beam width but I do not knowa good UHF/VHF one perhaps soemone else can advise there.

 

[muddyboot]

Geronimo are you saying that you think a UV antenna will pick up digital VHF (i think they all broadcast digital in UHF now) better than just a UHF antenna will?
Today I took down a customers U/V antenna system and replaced it with a simple CM4221 and all of their digital reception improved (even those that register on the tv as VHF channels 6, 8 etc...).

 

[texasbrit]

Geronimo are you saying that you think a UV antenna will pick up digital VHF (i think they all broadcast digital in UHF now) better than just a UHF antenna will?
Today I took down a customers U/V antenna system and replaced it with a simple CM4221 and all of their digital reception improved (even those that register on the tv as VHF channels 6, 8 etc...).

If they are digital stations they are probably not VHF. The channel number you see is the "virtual" channel number, not the actual one. If you enter the customers zip code at a site like antennaweb, you will see both the virtual and actual channels listed. The problem your customer might have in the future is that many of the stations are going to move back to their current analog VHF channel allocation when analog goes away in 2009, and the CM4221 might not do a good job in receiving those stations.

 

[texasbrit]

Below is what antenna web says about my location. I am a newbie at this and spent a small sum of $ on an indoor HD antenna and got a pretty good signal on NBC, FOX and PBS but couldnt for the life of me get my dishnetwork receiver to find ABC or CBS.

Is the 46 degree spread going to be my biggest hurdle in getting OTA HDTV ? and if so can someone give me advice on an antenna ? I would like to put it in the attic if at all possible (tile roof, not much metal up there) as my receivers are on the 2nd floor and running cable would be easy.

As you can i am really close to the transmitters, i am at the bottom of the mountain they are located on so i dont think distance is going to be an issue unless you can be too close.

TIA for any advice.

Antenna





Compass Miles Frequency Type Call Sign Channel Network City State
Orientation From Assignment yellow - uhf KBLR-DT 40.1 TEL PARADISE NV
133° 1.4 40 yellow - vhf KLVX-DT 10.1 PBS LAS VEGAS NV
138° 1.6 11 yellow - vhf KVBC-DT 3.1 NBC LAS VEGAS NV
135° 1.5 2 red - vhf KLAS-DT 8.1 CBS LAS VEGAS NV
179° 5.8 7 blue - vhf KTNV-DT 13.1 ABC LAS VEGAS NV
179° 5.8 12 blue - vhf KVVU-DT 5.1 FOX Henderson / Las Vegas NV
136° 2.1 9

First, you should look at/post in the Las Vegas HDTV forum to see what other people are using. Las Vegas, NV - HDTV - Page 191 - AVS Forum

You have two problems. The biggest problem is not the spread of the stations (although it needs to be considered when selecting an antenna), it's that you have 5 VHF stations, and one of them KVBC is on VHF-lo. And I believe your five stations that are on VHF are all staying on VHF when analog goes away in 2009. So you need good VHF capability, that will receive VHF-lo, and then need to receive one UHF station KBLR.
Because the Las Vegas situation is unique, I hate to recommend any antenna solution and think you should get local advice (e.g from the local forum I mention). I suspect most people use a medium size VHF/UHF combo antenna. You could also use a small VHF antenna, coupled with a small UHF antenna pointing at KBLR.

UHF antennas will do a terrible job down at channel 2. You really do need an antenna designed to receive VHF-lo.

 

[Ozzzz666]

I will have a browse through the forum you recommend. Maybe I'll post the same question there. I don't have a problem getting KVBC, I get a great signal for that. Same with KLVX, comes in great. The problems I am having are KLAS and KTNV. A scan on the Dish VIP 622 DVR never finds them so I went to the manual tuning section, and selected 7 for KLAS and then played with the indoor antenna and i can't even get a trace of a signal no matter which way I put it. If I was getting something at all then I wouldnt have a problem buying a better antenna and trying it in the attic or outside but I don't want to waste any money if I am in some sort of shadow from the mountain..

 

[texasbrit]

Antennaweb says that KLAS and KTV are much weaker signals for you than the other two, even though they are only six miles away. Probably none of the OTA web sites are going to be accurate enough for your situation, it sounds like just a hundred yards could have a major impact on the reception.
You could try a VHF/UHF combo antenna from somewhere with a good return policy - Lowes, Home Depot, Radio Shack.... Do you have any near neighbors with digital TV and an outside antenna, that would be a good place to start looking.

 

[Ozzzz666]

I cant say I have noticed any OTA antenna around my place. There are a number of dishes around for Dish and Direct, but I think cable still might be the prevalent provider. BTW, are you a Brit as your user name suggests ?

 

[Jim5506]

Buy you a small UHF/VHF outdoor antenna and mount it indoors if you must. ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS digitals are ALL VHF here. NBC is on CH2.

Mount your antenna outside for best performance. Indoor antennas are a crap shoot.

You are very close to the towers, it may cause bad multipath indoors (every time you move).

Go outdoors with a small UHF/VHF from Lowe's or Home Depot.