Advice on Antenna Selection

[Stingray_36]

I live rural on a bluff in the foot hills of the Allegheny Mountains in a heavily wooded area approx 20-25 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. I live within 2 miles of the town center of New Stanton PA 15672. My cabin sits on a bluff at approx 1200' elevation. My plan is to install an HDTV, an AM/FM radio, and WIFI antenna as high as possible on the same pole/mast. I expect to have 3 TV sets of which I have not yet purchased; I wanted to wait until I solved the antenna issue first so I could buy the most compatible TV set with the system I install. My TV Fool info is as follows; http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... f36f4d3823

I would like to identify all of the components and sequencing of for a successful install. This antenna was recommended, not sure if this is the right one or not... LAVA HD2805 Amplified Outdoor HDTV UHF/VHF Antenna. I can not get high enough to break the tree line, but a 40' pole/mast I think would be manageable. I am not sure what would be better, higher altitude in the wooded area or a lower altitude in an open area such as a field, which, if I do that will put the antenna anywhere from 150’ – 250’ from the house and the altitude would drop 50’- 110’ depending on location. The wood line wraps my open field. NW from the field is a hill and heavily wooded, so if Pittsburgh or N, NW, NE is the main target of directing my antenna then it will still be obscured by the hill and the wood line. My only clear line is S, SE, and with this there are still bluffs in line of sight. E and W are ok but still have some tree issues.

Thanks for your time and advice!

PS; Do you possess knowledge of radio and wifi antennas?
Thanks

[hdtvlabs]

The TVFool link you posted is broken ...

I am not sure what would be better, higher altitude in the wooded area or a lower altitude in an open area such as a field, which, if I do that will put the antenna anywhere from 150’ – 250’ from the house and the altitude would drop 50’- 110’ depending on location

The altitude per se is not important - the line-of-sight (LOS) to the towers is. If the line of sight is less obstructed on the hill, go for the hill even if the altitude is lower.

As I understand from your post you can't have LOS in any case. Without the LOS in a hilly wooded area the signal is prone to multipath interference and using a good F/B ratio antenna is paramount. Personally, I would favor the Winegard's HD796x series. LAVA does not have enough gain and F/B .

When we are talking about the low AM frequencies, trees are usually not an issue, as well as the altitude. AM propagation is very different, especially in the afterdark hours when the wave is bounced from the ionosphere.