Another Attic Antenna Question!

[Gregew]

We live in a 3-storey, 1898 wooden house half-way up the western-facing side of a hill in ZIP 05401 (downtown Burlington, Vermont). This part of the city has a terrible time getting TV and radio reception from the principal transmitting tower atop Mt. Mansfield to our East--we're in the hill's shadow and don't have line-of-sight of the tower. I do have access to our uninsulated, unheated attic whose steeply-pitched roof is all wood with asphalt shingles--a place where I might have the best shot at the Mt. Mansfield transmitter, but still not line-of-sight. There's no similar problem to our West, where on a clear day we can see transmitting towers across Lake Champlain in New York State. Is a wooden roof with asphalt shingles transparent to TV signals? If it matters, the roof's ridge is oriented North-South.

I already have my compass headings and antenna types pretty much all set (I'm going to need two directionals), but if putting the antennae inside the attic won't work to begin with, then I likely won't bother and just stick with cable TV.

Also, if an attic install would work for me, can I just combine the leads of two directional antennae up there with a simple passive junction box and just bring the one lead down to my TV?

Greg.

[tigerbangs]

If you have any chance to get the antenna on the roof, you are going to be MUCH happier. Burlington has multipath issues because of it's low position in the face of multiple large mountains. In the past, NBC (WPTZ) came from across the lake, and you used to need to aim a separate antenna in that direction. All of the local digital stations are now transmitted from Mt. Mansfield, including WPTZ-DT, so, you can use one antenna aimed at Mt. Mansfield to pick up your local digital stations. Since WVNY-DT is on VHF channel 13, I suggest that you look at an antenna like a Winegard HD-7694P, which has excellent high-band VHF reception as well as plenty of gain for your local UHF stations. Most folks in Burlington also watch WCFE-DT (Mountain Lake PBS) from Lyons NY, and if you also want to watch that channel, you may want to consider using a small UHF yagi like a Radio Shack 15-2160 aimed at Lyons Mountain in NY, joined to the other antenna using a Channel Master 0585-3 Jointenna tuned for channel 38, which is WCFE-DT's frequency. I have a feeling that the multipath created in your attic may foil your attempts at reception from Mt. Mansfield if you don't go up on the roof.

[Gregew]

Thanks much for the tips. I won't be doing anything on the roof, but may try to just aim an antenna at NY state...

Greg.