Advice on VHF antenna to get San Fran signals 35+ miles away

[JSinMtnView]

Hi. I'm new to this forum and would appreciate some advice. I live in Mountain View, Calif., about 35 miles SE of San Francisco, and have a ClearStream2 outdoor antenna that works tremendously well, but it only picks up UHF stations. With football season coming, I want to get the ABC telecasts of college games but the local ABC affiliate for some reason stayed with VHF, and it broadcasts from Mount Sutro in San Francisco. So, I want to add -- not replace my ClearStream2-- a VHF antenna. I understand that to blend two antennas I need to use a combiner, which I have, so I really just could use some advice on the best solution to just get VHF. I've tried a couple from the local Fry's but they just come up way short, i.e., no VHF signals.

So, any suggestions???

Thanks much.

JS

[tigerbangs]

Use an AntennaCraft Y-5-7-13 in addition to your Clearstream antenna: you can mount the 2 antennas on the same mast, but try to separate the two antennas by at least 3 1/2 feet vertically. Combine the signals from the 2 antenna by using a Pico-Macom or equivalent UVSH antenna joiner, and be sure to rescan your digital TV tuner once the new antenna is in place so the tuner will recognize KGO and KNTV.

[JSinMtnView]

Thanks, but that one's kinda large; I have some aesthetic restrictions in my neighborhood. Is there a smaller one that could fit on the side of my house, like where I have the ClearStream2, that would do the trick?

Again, thanks.

JS

[tigerbangs]

No: VHF signals are physically much larger than UHF signals are, and require a larger antenna to achieve the same results. The Y-5-7-13 is the smallest VHF high-band antenna of which I am aware. If aesthetic considerations are a neighborhood issue, please read this sticky:

hoa-deed-restrictions-antenna-installations-read-this-t1393.html

[tigerbangs]

I stand corrected: I forgot about the Clearstream 5, which is a VHF high-band antenna: it will work, but it IS expensive.

[gcd0865]

All VHF-high antennas would be expected to be about 33" wide at the rear end, tapering smaller toward the front. The Y5-7-13 is 60" long:
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=03&p=Y5-7-13

There are a few additional (and less expensive) smaller VHF-high possibilities (in order of decreasing length, below). Tough to predict how small you could go in this list and still have good reception at 35+ miles, though:

(1) Winegard YA-6713 - 50" long:
http://winegard.com/kbase/upload/ya-6713.pdf
http://www.summitsource.com/winegard-ya ... -4588.html

(2) Fracarro LP345F (an end-mount log-periodic VHF-high/UHF antenna that might be decent on VHF-high) - 45" long:
http://www.abilityhdtv.com/product-info ... pid64.html
http://www.fracarro.com/international/d ... /40_43.pdf

(3) Fracarro 4E512F - 42.5" long:
http://www.fracarro.com/international/d ... _6E512.pdf
http://www.abilityhdtv.com/product-info ... pid66.html (U.S. distributor shows only the larger 6E512; might have to call them)

(4) RCA ANT-751 (a small end-mount VHF-high/UHF antenna made by Winegard with decent VHF-high reviews) - 35" long:
http://www.dtvusaforum.com/dtv-hdtv-rec ... w-vhf.html
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1295982
http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=1274
http://www.amazon.com/RCA-ANT751R-Outdo ... B0024R4B5C

(5) Make a K6STI VHF-high yagi - 32" long, but dedicated to VHF-high (probably has better VHF-high gain than the VHF-high/UHF antennas in this list):
http://www.ham-radio.com/k6sti/vhftv.htm
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=136920
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost ... count=4472 (even though it's in a UHF forum)
http://imageevent.com/holl_ands/yagis/k6sti

(6) Fracarro LP345MF (a smaller version of the end-mount LP345F log-periodic VHF-high/UHF antenna) - 30" long (also not shown on AbilityHDTV's site; might have to call them)
http://www.fracarro.com/international/d ... /40_43.pdf

Hope this is helpful...