Picking Up Far Away Stations

[taelon721]

I just got an HD TV, but my outdoor antenna needs replaced. I'm in the city of Tulsa, Ok. Looking at overkill and getting a Channel Master CM3671 Deepest Fringe Crossfire Series. Will this work for HD signals? Is it possible to get to big of an antenna, causing poorer reception?

Also, thought about buying a Channel Master CM9521A TV Antenna Rotator System to move the antenna and point north towards Coffeyville, KS which is about 60 miles from here. South is where the Tulsa towers are. Will this work, or would I be wasting my money? If I can pick up Coffeyville, it adds a lot more locals.

If any Tulsans are hitting other stations away from us, please let me what other cities to focus on.

Thanks in advance....

 

[rogerduncan100]

I would definitely go for a rotor if you think you will want to watch channels from both cities.

As for getting stations from far away, I have a Toshiba HD TV but also a small tuner box that outputs on channel 3. I find the box performs much better than the TV for the weak signals. I guess it's more sensitive and also in only has to output SD.

 

[No Static At All]

The 3671 is not the right antenna for you since there are no stations below channel 6 in the area. A channel 7-51 antenna is all that is needed.

On the other hand, having too much of the right antenna is a good thing if your goal is getting weak distant signals with strong stations close by. An amplifier is usually out of the question, so you will need all the antenna gain you can get. It's nearly impossible to overload a TV with an un-amplified antenna from my experience.

Please post a TV Fool report so we can get a better idea of what is available at your location & list the desired distant stations.

 

[taelon721]

TVFool Report

Here is my TV Fool Report for exact location, but did not enter antenna height. Looking at KOAM and KFJX, which is in Coffeyville, KS zip 67337. I'm in zip 74115.

TV Fool

Just realized, what is the best way to load channels when aiming at different locations? Or do you just have to rescan when you want to watch a different city? I do have 2 DTVPal downconverters besides the turner built into the high def TV. Didn't know if you could use a signal splitter to go to different DTVPal boxes, so when you switch actuator to a different city, you just switch to a different box that has channels already scanned in....

Thanks for the quick responses. Digital OTA is my newest play thing!!!!

 

[Mr Tony]

The good news is both of those stations are on the same channel. CBS and Fox subchannel)
bad news is you might be out of the area to get it normally. Looking at the tvfool it shows the signal of KOAM at 100 miles away. Thats really pushing it. I see Fox has their own station too but that is only at 4500 watts so the only way you could get it would be from KOAM. It shows grey on tvfool which means "These channels are very weak and will most likely require extreme measures to try and pick them up" but dont let that discourage you. My tvfool showed a VHF station 72 miles away in grey yet I can get it with a VHF only antenna.

As for loading channels you can just do a couple scans. My HDTV is older so it just scans in channels and logs whatever it finds, but my new one has a "new scan" that leaves the existing channels in the system and scans for new ones. I've got 2 DTV converter boxes and I think they keep the channels in too on a scan. If it doesn't after the antenna is turned do a manual scan of the RF frequency and it will log the channels in.

 

[taelon721]

The 3671 is not the right antenna for you since there are no stations below channel 6 in the area. A channel 7-51 antenna is all that is needed.

So what would be a better antenna to get for channels 7-51 that picks up the farthest? If something is cheaper and still as good, I am all for that.

 

[Jim5506]

The big UHF/VHF antennas are pretty expensive, you can usually beat or match the price of one of them by going with an Antennas Direct 91XG for UHF and a VHF high band like the Winegard YA-1713 or Antenna Craft Y-10-7-13 coupled with a CM7777 pre-amp and since the very wide band antennas are always a compromise, the seperate antennas give you superior performance.

 

[taelon721]

The big UHF/VHF antennas are pretty expensive, you can usually beat or match the price of one of them by going with an Antennas Direct 91XG for UHF and a VHF high band like the Winegard YA-1713 or Antenna Craft Y-10-7-13 coupled with a CM7777 pre-amp and since the very wide band antennas are always a compromise, the seperate antennas give you superior performance.

Looks like it would be cheaper for the one antenna and actuator if I am trying to hit markets in different directions, though. Wouldn't I need actuators for both antennas, plus the pre-amp to do the above if I go with the cheaper antennas?

 

[Bob2011]

With all the UHF stations spread out to the south you may be better off with a wide beam width antenna like the Antennas Direct DB4 or similar Channel Master version. It has a coverage of 90 degrees so if you point it south in the sweet spot between SE and SW stations you should get all of them. If the two independent UHF stations to the NE are important then you may have to combine another antenna or go with a rotor setup. The VHF at 100 miles is really a long shot and would require a tall pole and big VHF-HI antenna like the ones mentioned above. KOAM looks like the only one strong enough but don't expect it to be perfect everyday.

 

[Jim5506]

The VHF high band antenna can be mounted just below the rotator and the UHF just above the rotator and still connect them with a CM7777.

The last time I looked the price of the seperate antennas was less than the price of a Winegard HD6798.

If you do use two antennas you can join them with a relatively inexpensive UVSJ (UHF/VHF signal joiner).

Two antennas get you better signal than one all channel antenna and they cost less - no brainer in my estimate.

 

[sergei]

Looks like it would be cheaper for the one antenna and actuator if I am trying to hit markets in different directions, though. Wouldn't I need actuators for both antennas, plus the pre-amp to do the above if I go with the cheaper antennas?

One think to remember about digital TV is if the signal is not strong enough then your not going to get a picture to watch, not like before as you might have snow but could still see a station.. In that case one large antenna with preamp or stacking two smaller antenna and a rotor and maybe also with a preamp would help. Preamp are primarily used to eliminate the noise (snow) that we used to get so adding one now shouldn't cause a problem. Co-Channel interference or adjacent Channel interference since going digital doesn't seem to be problem like it was before.
In my setup I have Channel Masters largest UHF and VHF antennas with both preamped and feeding into a Blonder Tongue distribution amplifier. This gives me a good solid signal from all my stations with no problems.
The one think to remember is weather in your area and what it will take to install a system and keep it up.

 

[taelon721]

Well, I ordered the equipment today. Will hopefully get it by Wednesday, and then will get it set up next weekend. I will post how the setup goes that I chose. Thank you for everyone's input.

 

[Mr Tony]

what did you end up ordering?

 

[taelon721]

what did you end up ordering?

Channel Master CM3671 Deepest Fringe Crossfire Series
Channel Master CM9521A TV Antenna Rotator System
And Channel Master pre-amp, but I forgot which model.

Our local wholesale supplier, checked on the Wineguard options too, but he said it looked like I was right about the Channel Master being the better choice. I guess we will soon see.