Antenna Advice for 85225, Chandler AZ

[jescobar17]

I'd like some help on choosing an outdoor antenna for my home. I believe all the towers are ~15mi west of me on south mountain. The home is currently wired for satellite. For now the antenna will need to power one television but may want 4-5 televisions in the future. The TV is a panasonic TC-50PX14, I believe this already has an HD tuner?

Thx for any suggestions

[tigerbangs]

please-post-your-tvfool-com-results-when-posting-questions-t649.html

[jescobar17]

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... 7f9a2276ce

[tigerbangs]

Thanks for the info! Your situation is pretty easy: all of the Phoenix transmitters are line-of-sight to your house, and you will need only a small antenna to get good reception. Since some of the stations are on VHF, you will need a VHF-high-band plus UHF antenna to get everything that you are looking for. I would suggest using a Winegard HD-7694P or an AntennaCraft HBU-33 mounted on your roof, aimed at 260 degrees, as measured by your compass. use good RG-gu coax cable for your installation, and be sure to ground your antenna installation against static electricity by using a grounding rod and coax cable ground clamp where the antenna cable enters the building. If you already have satellite service, this may already have been done for you.

You will be able to use the same antenna of as many sets as you like, however, to ensure enough signal strength, you will want to use a distribution amplifier to feed the additional TV sets. If we assume 4 TV sets, use a Channel Master CM3414 amp/splitter, which will allow you to power your 4 TV sets without signal loss.

Many house in the Valley are of Concrete Block and Stucco construction, and/or have tile roofs. Houses of this type of construction are largely signal-proof, and I recommend that you do NOT use an attic installation in such a house, as you may still now see a decent TV signal under such conditions. Good Luck!.

[jescobar17]

Great info! Question on the install... Can I just use the existing coax cable that is being run for the DirecrTV into the antenna? If so then where do I connect the distribution amplifier into the system? There's coax cable from the DirectTV on the roof and of course it runs into every room from a wall plate. So how/where does the distribution amplifier connect in the whole system? Sorry for the dumb question

Thx

[tigerbangs]

No problem...do you plan to KEEP the DirectTV, or are you getting rid of it? You can use your existing cable either way, but the extra equipment is slightly different is you want to continue to use your dish and use the antenna.

[jescobar17]

I will probably get rid of the directTV but could you let me know the equipement needed for both methods?

[tigerbangs]

If you currently have satellite TV and want to repurpose the existing cable without continuing to distribute satellite signals, the job is pretty easy: Just disconnect the coax cable from your satelite dish and connect it to your TV antenna. If you want to continue to use your satellite dish, you will need to add a diplexer to combine the signal from the TV antenna and the dish into one cable , then add a diplexer at the back of each TV set in the house, with one side of the diplexer running to each satellite receiver, and the other side running to the antenna connection of the TV set. Each TV will need to have a working digital tuner in it, and it will be necessary to rescan the tuner in each TV to find the local Phoenix stations. Good Luck.