HD Antenna options

[marcplante]

I live about 10 mi from DT DC and have checked with Antennaweb. I am currently using a Mohu Leaf plus in our LR and pull down 27 channels with that option. I am exploring an outdoor antenna and wondering about signal loss on a long run since I might be looking at an 80-100 ft run of coax to the roof.

I have three options.

In LR (15 ft above grade) 6 ft run
In crawlspace (25 ft above grade) 50 ft run
On roof peak, ~40 ft above grade. 80-100 ft run.

Short of doing all three installs, is there any rule of thumb I can use? I have purchased a couple trial antennas that are both amplified to try, and I will start the trial and error process this weekend.

The initial option that I already got and set up in the LR is a little flat outdoor Terk antenna. http://www.amazon.com/FDTVO-Directio...d_rhf_gw_p_t_1

It works better than the leaf, just sitting in the same spot in the LR. I pulled down 36 channels with that. I'm assming I'll get even better performance if I raise it's elevation, but wondering about tradeoffs on cable length. I also have a little GE can on order

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o00_s00_i01

(Yes, I do not want to mess with large antennas physically, and have humble (less than 40mi.) range requirements.

Any suggestions or pointers to better antenna resources?


Antennaweb used to be much more complete.

 

[SaurusX]

I never use antennaweb. Try tvfool.

 

[NutBucket]

Outdoor is always the best option. Elevation is more important if there are tall buildings/objects between you and the transmitters.

So I always advocate outdoor antennas when possible. 80ft of cable will introduce some cable loss so I would suggest getting an antenna with a pre-amp on the mast. This will maximize the S/N ratio.

 

[marcplante]

how bad is loss from an attic mount vs outside. Are trees as important? i have a spot that is lower, but has a relatively clear shot through trees to most of the broadcast towers.

 

[NutBucket]

The roof is great attenuator of signal given how much metal is in it (nails). However, it should still work given you are relatively close to the transmitters. I would pick out an antenna, try it first in the attic and if that fails you can go outdoor.

Trees aren't as important but still have some effect. I would worry less about trees and more about the roof. Again, trial and error before you drill any holes

 

[Josh123]

As redneck as it may be, I took my indoor antenna and mounted it to my DirecTV satellite dish. I get a few more channels than I did when it was inside so I consider it a success lol.

 

[marcplante]

I actually have the same situation. I have the old mounting plate from a previous DirecTV install up on the roof with coax down to the LR. I also have a star of Coax going to the attic crawlspace, so I'm going to be trying each spot. I'm hoping that because I got very good results in the Living Room that I'll get solid results in the attic crawl and won't have to deal with the roof.

I'll also need "Duck" tape to keep my 5 yr old son at bay while i explore all of these neat places that he will want to follow.

I'll report back, though cutting the cord has been a success. Between the Antenna (even as is) and Netflix, we're not missing the $80 monthly Fios video bill

 

[marcplante]

So placing the antenna in the crawlspace (not even mounting it) yielded 38 channels. Unfortunaely I remembered that the line in from the crawlspace is used to bring the data into the living room from the FIOS node at the other end of the house. I'll be putting this antenna up on the roof at the other end of the house. It'll be another 15 feet in the air, so I expect excellent reception, though I wonder about exposure to snow etc in the winter (not so bad in Wshington DC area). I also figure I can put it high in the garage since it'll have similar dynamics to the attic crawl, and it will be out of the elements. Getting close...

 

[SaurusX]

Another forum you may want to check out is AVSForum. In particular, the "HDTV Technical" board. I speak from experience when I say that plenty of people there will be able to help you when it comes to setting up an OTA antnenna.

 

[silverpig]

digitalhome.ca has a good antenna forum. It's Canadian so there's probably not a lot of DC-specific info you can get, but they do talk about antennae, amps, pre-amps etc.

For 40 miles, a simple roof-mounted antenna is probably plenty. If the towers are all in roughly the same direction, you can probably do fine with a CM-4221. If you have to run a ton of coax, then a pre-amp up on the mast (or in the attic close to the antenna) would help.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Outdoor antenna is the only way to go. I bought 4 antennas - 3 powered indoor models and 1 outdoor 4-panel mesh and tried each.

Mounted it on a 6ft pole, strapped it to chimney on top of two story roof in a downtown urban environment with a 9-story building directly across the street.

Amazed at the results on how much more it could pick up and how much clearer it was compared to the shitty indoor amplified ones. Line of sight is whats needed and wind & rain do not make much of a difference.

I used a 50ft length of coax, no issues.

if you have a Fry's nearby, they have a huge selection of this stuff.

I bought a grey PVC pipe from Home Depot to mount it to.

 

[marcplante]

Thanks all. I was convinced enough by my quick experiment in the attic crawl that I will be moving the antenna from the LR to either the Garage or the roof above the garage. I've spent a fair amount of time with TVfool data, and I know where all of the transmitters are (thankfully, they're tightly clustered which makes aiming pretty easy). I just need to do a couple more rounds of trial and error to fine tune. i got 38 channels last night including several instances of all majors, plus CW and WB networks. Wonderful picture quality.

Once I get the antenna done. I'm going to work on the HD Homerun feed to a home DVR feeding different DLNA clients around the house. Wife is going crazy with the tinkering, but things get a little better every night.

 

[marcplante]

BTW, of the two antennas above. The Terk worked very well. The GE didn't do much at all. I'm in Vienna, VA, which is 10 mi from many broadcasters over some slight rolling terrain and 50 mi from a separate set of towers in Baltimore. I'm getting both DC and baltimore signals with the Terk antenna in the crawl, which is about 15 ft above roof level.

 

[riversend]

OP,
Any additional thoughts? I am moving out past Burke in a couple of weeks and am thinking about ditching cable and just going with a fios 75/35 internet plan. I will not be able to mount external if we decide to go that route. A bit further than you from the city (~18mi), I might be out of luck from a LOS perspective.

 

[sdifox]

100ft antenna run should not have significant loss.


this should be good enough, there are plenty of cheaper brands

http://www.channelmaster.com/EXTREMEtenna_CM_4228HD_s/43.htm