Antenna Suggestion: 07456 (wrong side of the mountain)

[DaveGee]

Okay long story short...

Antennaweb indicates I would not see any TV at all (OTA) at my location and I'm inclined to believe them but I had to post here as a last resort.

I'm just 20 odd miles from NYC and have a property tax bill that proves it! However my home is on what we in the north east call a mountain... Those in the west would call it a hill... anywho... I unfortunatly live on what would be considered the 'north-western' face of the hill/mountain and the TV towers are as luck would have it are located south-east from me. (I think)

I pay for cable now and will likely continue to do so however my cable system is starting to remove QAM support for the FEW stations they do give us (mostly just the locals) and I don't want to be forced into renting cable boxes for every TV in the house. Not to mention I have some computer based OTA/QAM tuners that I use to record programs from the major networks.

So quick and dirty here are my vitals as per google earth and was looking to see if you think I have any chance at all of getting any OTA reception or is antennaweb spot on and I should get used to the fact that cable tv will own my tv's moving forward?

Location: Ringwood, NJ 07456
Longitude: -74.26031999999999
Latitude: 41.072849

Thanks in advance!

Dave

[tigerbangs]

The coordinates really helped me get a handle on your issue! he VHF stations from NYC: WABC, WPIX and WNET will probably be OK, WCBS, WNBC WNYW and WWOR are going to be more of an issue. You are going to need a deep-fringe antenna system, and you can't afford to make any mistakes. The investment will be about $500,00, so I will detail what you'll need if you think that you'd like to proceed.

[DaveGee]

The coordinates really helped me get a handle on your issue! he VHF stations from NYC: WABC, WPIX and WNET will probably be OK, WCBS, WNBC WNYW and WWOR are going to be more of an issue. You are going to need a deep-fringe antenna system, and you can't afford to make any mistakes. The investment will be about $500,00, so I will detail what you'll need if you think that you'd like to proceed.

Wow thats for the quick and detailed reply!

The cost doesn't thrill me and I'm going to assume that installation would be on top of that $500.00 estimate... However, I am glad to hear that all MIGHT not be lost after all.

What would really be disappointing is after the hardware and installation is said and done things turn out badly and I'm back to where I started and money all but wasted.

Finally, in a former life I was quite handy but current conditions don't allow me to do any roof top activities and even attic work is often pushing it so combine that with my desire to have a PROPERLY installed and grounded system screams 'get a professional you fool!' to me. I'm thinking you would agree with my assessment... So that being said, do you have any referral-network that I might be able to find qualified professionals to do the work?

Finally and I don't think I mentioned this... is I would optimally like to service 3 HDTVs plus my computer based DVR device. Given what you said above about 'deep fringe' and 'make no mistakes' would that many drops be too much to hope for?

[tigerbangs]

The number of drops is irrelevant: we can amplify to cover your drops, no matter how many of them you have, the issue is putting up the deep-fringe antenna system properly. To do so, you need as much altitude as you can manage: maybe a tower is possible. O would use my traditional deep-fringe prescription: an AntennasDirect XG-91 UHF antenna mounted 4' above a Winegard YA-1713 VHF-high-band yagi. Combine he signals from the two antennas using a Channel master Titan 7777 dial-input preamplifier, You can use a a rotator, if you like, to see some of the other stations that come in from Westchester and elsewhere. I use a Channel Master 9521a automatic rotator in these situations. Mounting the antenna can include a number of possibilities: consult the installation guide that I will link to you for ideas. If you want to hire someeone, remember that antenna installers are not a dying breed, and the ones that are out there are often ignorant about the needs of digital reception. If you have a good general handyman available who can use tools and is not afraid to climb roofs, you can get him to follow the instructions that I give you and you can still be successful.

http://www.winegard.com
http://www.antennasdirect.com
http://www.channelmaster.com
http://www.solidsignal.com
http://manuals.solidsignal.com/AntInstallGuide.pdf

Here is a representation of the terrain between the Empire State Building and your house:


http://www.tvfool.com/modeling/tmp/b7c8 ... WOR-TV.png

and here is what the antenna system looks like when assembled: