Antenna Selection help

[crouth]

I've gone through this a hundred times and I just keep getting more confused. My zip is 11778. It's a two story home with trees on the west side of the home (we are east of NYC).

Can someone recommend a setup? I'm assuming the best way to go would be to use two antennas, something like the Channelmaster 4228 to get all the Connecticut stations and a VHF antenna to get the NYC channels (2,4,5,7).

Does this sound right? can someone recommend specific antennas?

Thank you very much for any help.

[tigerbangs]

You asre about 56 miles from the NYC transmitters, and you need a fringe area solution. You have a couple of mis-assumptions about the local TV stations, however. Several of the NYC channels are going back to VHF after Feb 17, 2009, but WCBS, WNBC, WNYW and WWOR are going to be on UHF in digital: no more analog. WABC, WPIX and WNET will be on thir original channels, be will be broadcasting only in digital. The Hartford and New Haven TV stations are also available to you with the right antennas( WTNH from New Haven is actually on digital channel 10, the other CT stations will all be UHF) and positioning, but chances are that you are going to need a rotator to turn your antenna to get them. Complicating the situation a bit is the fact that you have two strong transmitters located just a couple of miles away from you that have the potential to overload most preamplifiers.

Here's what I would do...Get an AntennasDirect XG-91 deep-fringe UHF antenna and a VHF high-band yagi like the Funke PDP-1922, mount them on a rotator on your roof, and use a high-input preamplifier like a Winegard HDP-269, which is much less likely to overload than other preamplifiers. You will need a VHF-UHF antenna joiner like a Winegard CA-8800 to connect the two antennas into one coaxial cable line . then run the combined signal into the preamplifier. Get as much antenna height as you can get, but no less than 30' if you want reliable reception. Only one fellow I know has the imported Funke VHF yagi antenna, and, if you are interested in it, I will get his e-mail address for you: the antennas aren't very expensive, and are better han any other VHF antenna you can buy for high-band VHF reception.

[crouth]

Thank you so much for your help. You were right, I was misreading the charts (I must have looked at the chart a dozen times and not realized this). I think I'm going to start with the deep-fringe UHF antenna and build from there if it seems worth it.

My next question is what accessories do I need?
mast
mounting for mast to house
grounding block
grounding wire
co-ax cable

Can I use any 1.25" galvanized steel pipe for the mast or should I buy a specific product?
what type of wire do you use for grounding?

thanks

[tigerbangs]

Unfortunately, a UHF-only antenna won't help you much after Feb 17, as you are going ot have 3 VHF channels to contend with: some people use a Channel Master 4228 as an all-channel solution, but my experience is that the 4228 is OK for 35 miles or less from the transmitters, but you also need a real VHF solution.