OTA Antenna Direction

[jrv331]

In anticipation of getting E* Im going to try to install an OTA antenna over the weekend. According to antennaweb it should be pointed at 235 degrees. Is there any way of getting a general fix on this position w/o buying some piece of equipment?
Thanks
John

 

[wa1hog]

The sun sets in the west (270 degrees). Depending on what latitude you are on point the antenna just south of where the sun sets at your location.
A cheap $100 compass will work.

 

[jimisham]

In anticipation of getting E* Im going to try to install an OTA antenna over the weekend. According to antennaweb it should be pointed at 235 degrees. Is there any way of getting a general fix on this position w/o buying some piece of equipment?
Thanks
John

It looks to me like it should be about 10 degrees to the right of directly southwest.
Due south being 180 degrees, and due west being 270 degrees, splitting the difference would be 225 degrees or due southwest.

 

[K R Kimmel]

To get a general idea of where your OTA antenna will need to point I would suggest using the maps generated off the www.antennaweb.org web site.

After entering your street address, city, zipcode you will be taken to a page with the table showing channel, call letters, compass orientation, etc that you have already seen. Above that table is a button marked "View Street Level Map". If you click that button a window will pop up with a map as seen in the attachment slm.png. If you click on the "Printer Friendly Map" link in that window another window will open with a larger scale map (as seen in the attachment pfm.png) that you can print.

Using that map should allow you to get a rough estimate of where the antenna will need to point.