Upgrading OTA system at zip 42728. I Need advice on best antenna for the TX freqs in range.

[Hitechluddite]

Attached is my channel list Most nights I can get all of these at the current 60' height this summer I will be moving to my new height of 90'. I was using an 8bay Channel Master clone with a CM7777 pre amp and was fairly happy with it except during the day I would usually lose half the channels. I am hoping 30 more feet of height will go a long way toward correcting this but if a better antenna can be had now is the time to do it! Attached is a picture of my current antenna and also a TV fool report at the EXACT tower location.

Channel	Direction	City	Network
13.1​	285​	Nashville	ABC
13.2​	285​	Nashville	FX
13.3​	285​	Nashville	CW
20.1​	120​	Crossville.	CW
20.2​	120​	Crossville.	Escape
22.1​	180​	Cookeville	PBS
22.2​	180​	Cookeville	World
22.3​	180​	Cookeville	Create
29.1​	75​	Somerset	PBS
29.2​	75​	Somerset	PBS
29.3​	75​	Somerset	PBS
40.1​	300​	Bowling Green	NBC
40.2​	300​	Bowling Green	CBS

 

[Jim5506]

I believe this is your location and data from the rabbitears.info site.

RabbitEars.Info

RabbitEars, where you can learn all about local, over-the-air TV channels.

www.rabbitears.info

You may notice the channel designations are different as rabbitears is a little more up to date with the repack than TVFool.

Height is your friend with deep fringe TV watching, but distance and weak signal power are your enemies.

You must not get high winds because the antenna is relatively high load design and it appears to be mounted maybe 10 ft above the top of the tower. Hopefully with your 90 ft tower you can mount it a little closer to the bearing.

TV reception, especially digital TV reception is more of an art than a science. The numbers only get you so far and the rest is by experimentation.

Most of your reception will be spotty at best, sometimes impossible, sometimes great. You receive at the whims of the atmosphere.

You do have one VHF high station 60 miles to your west on channel 13 but the rest are UHF and UHF is the least amenable frequency to "bending" over the horizon.

Best wishes.

 

[Hitechluddite]

Yes i'm a little concerned about the windload of that antenna too, it will still be about 15' above the top of the tower but I am using 45' of mast with the thrust bearing about 32' below the top of the tower. It's my understanding those bay type antennas have the best gain in the upper portion of UHF. What would be a good single antenna for High VHF and the portion of UHF I need (Ch 20 & 22 are more critical than ch 40)

 

[Jim5506]

I had my old style CM4228 about 10 ft above a section point and a high wind knocked it over on the neighbors house. I wouldn't put but maybe 5 ft above the highest anchor point.

Manufacturers are beginning to tune their new UHF antennas to the new frequency band for UHF (channels 14 through 36) which requires slightly longer elements.

Of the old type antennas the Winegard PR-8800 was the strongest on channels below channel 40 (Comparing some commercially available antennas).

 

[Hitechluddite]

after looking at the data I think I'll just get a new 4228HD. It's the best performer for UHF and ch 13 Winegaurd Hiband VHF yagi is a couple DB better for ch 13 but not worth the$