Antenna for 60548, 60 miles west of Chicago.

[pretzel_logic]

I've decided to cancel my Direct TV and need a good antenna.

My zip is 60548 and I have one TV, two but rarely use the other. It's a Samsung 40 inch HDTV and the other a Sharp 32 inch HDTV.

I am about 60 miles WSW of Chicago, should be able to get some Rockford stations but not so concerned about them. I do have some large trees in the neighborhood but in general live in farm country. I live in a ranch style house, could use the Direct TV mast for the antenna and plug coax directly into the existing cable I'm thinking.

Any advice is very much welcome, TIA,

Brian

[pretzel_logic]

My TV Fool results below.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... 57d2b02509

[tigerbangs]

You are going to need a deep-fringe antenna system for your situation: whenever transmitters are more than 50 miles from the receiving location, you need to take considerable measures to insure good reception. You can use a one-antenna solution like a Winegard HD-7698P or an AntennaCraft HBU-55 or consider a 2 antenna configuration like a Winegard YA-1713 VHF-high-band yagi plus an AntennasDirect 91XG mounted on the same mast. Any antenna system that you use will require a separate mast, and not the one that your satellite dish uses. I would use a preamplifier like a Channel Master Titan 7777 or an AntennaCraft 10G221. Aim the antenna array at 75 degrees as measured by your compass, and you'll see everything from Chicago without a hitch.

http://www.winegard.com/kbase/upload/HD7698P.pdf

http://antennacraft.com/pdfs/HBU55_.pdf

http://www.winegard.com/kbase/upload/ya-1713.pdf

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p= ... enna-(91XG)&sku=853748001910

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p= ... y-(CM-7777)&sku=02057207774

http://www.summitsource.com/antennacraf ... 11103.html

http://manuals.solidsignal.com/AntInsta ... ampaign=CJ

[pretzel_logic]

Thanks for the info. Is there a big advantage to the 2 antenna system over the single? If the advantage is slight I'd prefer going the less expensive route of course with the single antenna. I'd like to mount it in the same vicinity as the dish as it's more inconspicuous. Apparently I would need guy wires but I don't or at least hope I wouldn't need a lot of mast. My biggest concern is mounting, I'd prefer using the dish cable as it's already there, no messing around with that.

My TV is at least 75 feet, I need to measure, from the actual existing dish and the TV. Will a preamp solve any problems in cable length?

Pretzel

[tigerbangs]

Actually, the two-antenna system is smaller and less expensive than the single-antenna Winegard HD-7698P, and it is a bit more effective than the HD-7698P, however it is slightly more difficult to assemble, so the choice is yours.