Antenna Selection Help!

[qtipextra]

Hello everyone! New the the forum!

I am trying to figure out which new antenna to buy to get me better reception in my area, but I do not know which one I should go with. The antenna will be mounted on a pole cemented into the ground which extends about 5 feet above my roof, which stands about 25 feet tall all together.

There are trees all around my house, but only a few provide interference. Currently I have an old-school 66" boom type antenna. I have lots of signal interruption and "no signal" messages the constantly come on and off. Gets WAY worse with even a little bit of wind.

I run about 50' of shielded coax. About 6' of that is outside, which then feeds into the house and then into a 10dB RCA brand pre-amp. This is then ran into my living room to a splitter where I have my TV, OTA DVR (w/dual tuners), and FM radio, hooked up.

I have limited it down to 2, due to budget and other things that I HAVE already researched.

The attached photos are some data that I gathered about my area and the direction of my local stations.

My goal is to get channel 3, 6, 8, 10 & 31 (digital) to come in very strong without signal interruption.

So, with the information in the photos, which of the 2 antennas would work best. I would be aiming at about 223* (as it would be right in the middle of the indented stations.)

Antennas Direct DB4:
http://www.amazon.com/Antennas-Direct-DB4-Multi-Directional-Antenna/dp/B000EHYG9K/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Antennas Direct DB8:
http://www.amazon.com/Antennas-Direct-DB8-Multidirectional-Antenna/dp/B000EHWCDW/ref=dp_return_2?ie=UTF8&n=172282&s=electronics

THANKS a lot for any help!

[ProjectSHO89]

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... 1111924973

Neither the DB4 and especially the DB8 are going to be suitable. Neither will be reliable on your VHF station and both are too directional to catch both transmitter sites.

I hate to say this, but the ClearStream 5 pointed WSW offers your best bet bet of getting all your locals without resorting to a rotor or multiple antennas with an A-B switch.

[qtipextra]

Thank you for the reply, information, and suggestion!

The only channel (8.1) is VHF, and it's the strongest signal I receive. I know the DB4 and DB8 antennas are not designed for the wavelength in the VHF band at all, but you dont think it would come in stable?

It appears the CS5 is VHF only, and essentially I only have the 1 VHF channel, all the other ones are in the UHF band.

What is the effective receiving angle of the antennas listed? I would guess the DB4 would be capable of a 50* angle? Not quite what I need though, it looks like I would effectively need an 88* angle.

What happens if 2 antennas are ran in parallel and each one pointed a slightly different direction?

[ProjectSHO89]

Thank you for the reply, information, and suggestion!

The only channel (8.1) is VHF, and it's the strongest signal I receive. I know the DB4 and DB8 antennas are not designed for the wavelength in the VHF band at all, but you dont think it would come in stable?

I think it will be unpredictable. I like more predictability.

It appears the CS5 is VHF only, and essentially I only have the 1 VHF channel, all the other ones are in the UHF band.

The C5 is a good medium-long range high-VHF antenna and does very well as a short-to-medium range UHF antenna, behaving much like an "omni". Provided multi-path does not occur, it will work very well.

What is the effective receiving angle of the antennas listed? I would guess the DB4 would be capable of a 50* angle? Not quite what I need though, it looks like I would effectively need an 88* angle.

The DB4's horizontal beamwidth ranges from about 60 degrees at channel 14 to about 45 degrees at channel 51. The DB8 is about 1/2 to 2/3rds that (even narrower).

What happens if 2 antennas are ran in parallel and each one pointed a slightly different direction?

If you can avoid phase cancellation, it will work. If you can't, it wont. A custom filter-combiner could be fabricated by someone like Tin Lee that would make it work, but the cost would be high.

[qtipextra]

So with some simple math, I need exactly 70* coverage area. When figuring in loss of beam angle for higher UHF channels, the highest I need is UHF 36, and that would bring the effective beam angle (for that channel only) to about 51*. If I point antenna directly at 221* (right in the middle), I would be just about 10* off on either side (considering the 51* effective beam angle on the highest UHF channel I want).

However, do the broadcasting towers send off a 360* signal? If so, there would be an off angle pickup of all the stations. (Example image attached).

Im really thinking that DB4 will be just enough to give me what I need.

Also, for comparison, my old (current) antenna is the RCA ANT3030X.

[qtipextra]

So just as an update, the DB4 did what I wanted it to! I was able to pull in all stations at 70% or above! Even the VHF channel.