Antenna help for 98115

[Devizier]

I've been reading the user guides pretty extensively around these parts, but this is my first post in the forum. I hope I'm doing this correctly!

My wife and I moved to North Seattle about two years ago. At the time, we had decent success receiving OTA transmissions on our Dynax HDTV and a digital converter for a smaller SDTV upstairs. Occasionally, we had to adjust the antennas to improve reception on PBS and FOX, the two VHF transmissions in the area, but mostly our reception was good. During the transition, we lost PBS and FOX completely; no adjustments or rescans would work. The other stations were significantly weakened.

I tried a Winegard SS-3000 for indoor reception and saw no improvement over our rabbit-ears/UHF loop combination. So I caved in, bought a subscription to DISH and paid the price for their crappy (PBS comes in SD!) local TV service. I'm tired of this, and I'd like to receive the supplemental PBS stations to boot. My landlord is totally okay with hooking up our antenna outdoors and the dish mount is conveniently located, about 10 feet off the ground, facing south.

The reception looks pretty straightfoward: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... 7b14919760

There are few tall trees in the area, although there is a tower belonging to Comcast about 1/4 mile due south of my house.

Looking to hook up to two TVs (Dynex 720p and SDTV with RCA converter). I don't know if it matters, but there are four outlets in the house.

I'd like to buy a somewhat lower-profile antenna that won't affect the aesthetics of the house too much.

[tigerbangs]

Luckily for you, the TV signals are all strong where you are, and using the dish mount for an antenna shouldn't present a problem. I would use a Winegard HD-7694P mounted on top of the dish, aimed at 215 degrees by your compass. it wasn't clear to me if you planned to continue to use DISH service, or if you wanted to repurpose the satellite cabling for TV antenna reception, but, in either case we can use the existing cabling. If you plan to disable the DISH, you can use the cable pretty much as it is: just disconnect the cable from the LNB on the antenna, and connect the antenna to that cable, then connect the cable going into the DISH receiver inside the house, and put the cable into the antenna connector on the back of the TV. You will have to remove any other passive devices in the DISH cable line like splitters or diplexers, and, if you plan to run multiple TV sets from the antenna, consider using a distribution amp like a Channel Master CM3414 at the point where the cable coming inside from the antenna and the other coax cables converge in the house. If you plan to continue to use the DISH AND want local TV reception, then we need to do things differently: just tell me in your reply.

[Devizier]

Tigerbangs,

Thanks for the assist. As it stands, I'm hoping to keep my DISH service and run the antenna in on the second coaxial that my landlord has set up running into the house.

As far as antennas go, how low-profile can I go without losing the VHF signal from FOX or PBS?

Thanks in advance!

[tigerbangs]

The HD-7694P is about as small as I would advise you to go without sacrificing your VHF digital stations.

[ProjectSHO89]

The other compact (but not inexpensive) alternative would be the Clearstream C5. At 20" tall, 24" wide, and 12" deep, it's pretty close in size to a satellite dish.

The C5 is very well behaved on high-VHF (70 degree beam-width) frequencies and performs almost like an omni-directional on UHF. The tech data sheet posted on the manufacturer's website shows its response curves and polar plots on high-VHF and on UHF.