Updated TV Antenna Thoughts

lakngolf

lakngolf

Well-Known Member
I have taken over my Mom's farm house and plan now to disconnect Direct TV and go with OTA antenna. Will be at the house for summer gardening and fall/winter hunting so TV programming needs have greatly reduced, after my Mom's passing in August. Some time back I posted a thread and was about to settle on a Winegard HD7698P or Channel Master CM-4228HD EXTREMEtenna 80.
I am about equa-distance between Montgomery and Birmingham channels, but the websites show Bham to be a bit better.

Now I go to Winegard website, run the address test and they recommend this:



It supposedly has built in amplifier and some good reviews
 
I haven't tried one but each area is assigned a DMA or area that channels have to serve.You should be able to find the strongest signal by looking at the local DMA map
 
We are using an exterior 6' antenna with TV's that have the built in HD "box". My brother has a HUGE antenna(I think it is 15 or 18' long) in his attic that runs to his old cable hook up and is wired to each room with a TV. Each TV either has one of the HD boxes with the antenna wire attached or has the built in box. He picks up quite a few channels that I can't get with my little antenna, plus the ones I can. Here is one similar to the one we have.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Channel-...-Mile-Range-Outdoor-Antenna-CM-3020/203763044
 
I installed a Channel Master similar to the one you listed above. It worked for me because I am pulling signals from two different cities. Each about 40 miles away and 130 degrees apart. I also had to install a booster on the antenna that plugged into an outlet in the house. Each splice in the wire will drop signal strength along with splitters.

I can look up the details in my amazon account if you are interested.

Best decision I have made to drop cable. Each month it makes me smile not have to pay the dish bill.
 
I bought four 10 foot tripod sections of an antenna tower from Craigslist. Put the base 4 feet in the ground with cement in the hole. I have a rotor with a regular inverted V type of antenna to get the channels in my area.
 
gasman said:
I installed a Channel Master similar to the one you listed above. It worked for me because I am pulling signals from two different cities. Each about 40 miles away and 130 degrees apart. I also had to install a booster on the antenna that plugged into an outlet in the house. Each splice in the wire will drop signal strength along with splitters.

I can look up the details in my amazon account if you are interested.

Best decision I have made to drop cable. Each month it makes me smile not have to pay the dish bill.
Click to expand...

What type of channels are you receiving, Local or Internet type?
 
I am receiving local antenna tv channels. Get 10 channels from one city and 3 from the other city. Have amazon prime that we watch sometimes.
 
I haven't had cable in years. Though my WI house gets lots of channels. I never did any thing different for digital. I still got 30 foot antenna. Doesn't rotate anymore. Actually freewheels, which was a problem with analog.

I do know people that do the digital antennas.

If you are close enough to a big city, I don't feel the need for cable. I am not a big TV guy though. I get all the major networks. I will go to GF house to watch walking dead or series. High speed internet isn't available by me. If it is, you really don't need cable.
 
I finally settled on the HD Stacker antenna with the Winegard LNA 200 preamplifier.
Had good email conversation with the guy who sells the HD Stacker and gave it a try.

Put it together today with a make shift arrangement
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Worked like a charm
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One of the suggestions made was to disconnect power to the amplifier to see if it was working. I was shocked. With it off I lost the picture I was viewing. Happy so far. Now to get it installed on a pre existing pole as high as possible.
 
How far away is the station? I am looking for an antenna, but I am far from the stations and down in a canyon here near Dodge City.
 
So I got the antenna in its final location now, getting 1 Fox, 1 NBC, 2 CBS and 3 ABCs, plus the side channels that come with them.
I chose this spot because there was a splice in the Direct TV cable here, and it is RG6 cable already run under the house to the TV. Saved me some money and a tough run of cable.

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I am a happy camper.
 
Glad it worked for you Lak.

Just thought it might be worth mentioning to everyone: watch out for overhead power lines when installing antennas. I've seen several fatalities from contacts in my lifetime. I always feel the need to mention this anytime I'm taking to folks about antennas.
 
I dont know how I missed this thread but if you still need some advice let me know. My username is satguy, which is short for satellite guy. I run a large business here in the St. Louis/East central Missouri area.We are dealers of Dish, Directv, Exede, Hughesnet and Charter. The only Brand of off air antenna I will sell,install and guarantee is Digitenna. I have never had any complaints and they work as advertised. http://www.digitenna.com/
 
lakngulf said:
40 to 60 miles. I was surprised that I received channels from North and South.
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Using the Bat Wing Antenna on my camper I could pick up all of the stations in Birmingham about 45 miles from their transmitter. It's on a mountain and so am I... and in Rome, Ga. This was from my camper in my yard in Gadsden,Al. I'm a candidate to put up one too. I have the elevation, just hadn't decided on an antenna.
 
Satguy said:
I dont know how I missed this thread but if you still need some advice let me know. My username is satguy, which is short for satellite guy. I run a large business here in the St. Louis/East central Missouri area.We are dealers of Dish, Directv, Exede, Hughesnet and Charter. The only Brand of off air antenna I will sell,install and guarantee is Digitenna. I have never had any complaints and they work as advertised. http://www.digitenna.com/
Click to expand...
Glad you are in the business Satguy. I could have used your help, but found guy at this site to be helpful as well. Will check out your digitenna page. Thanks

http://dennys-tv-antenna.mybigcommerce.com/about-us/
 
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