attic antenna for zip 32128

[wewallin]

...2752 Autumn Leaves Dr
...2 connections: 1 ea. DirecTV HDVR & SDVR
...no buildings/trees
...excluding Spanish & religious: 13 transmitters @ 32-35 mi, within 182-186 degrees; 1 @ 68 mi & 185 deg (ch 48, not important); 1 @ 10 mi & 315 deg (forget it)

Motivation for antenna is solid local coverage when hurricane bearing down. Bought a Coby TFTV1904 (and even an inverter to run it off the car battery if lose power at height of storm).

As experiment, made small fractal antenna; hung it in attic and using the Coby TV, got most/all UHF ch. Added rabbit ears, screwed leads to fractal terminals, got ch 6; ch 2 & 9 kept dropping out. Interesting, fooled around for hours, will not pursue further. Maybe needed JoinTenna?

Read number of reviews on internet. Winegard HD8200U overkill for our application. Since available at Walmart, read reviews on RCA ANT751. Did get your email re. rating that antenna (rated 4.5 of 5), thanks much. Figured I'd buy one at Walmart, return it, and if it worked, order from Amazon, save $$. Lots of space in attic. Looking forward to your recommendation(s).

Although storm preparedness motivated this project, since with a proper antenna, HD digital is available OTA, my study results so far beg a reassessment of us staying with DirecTV (14 yrs). We essentially watch everything utilizing DVR(s) playback. Options appear to be: utilize satellite/cable HDVRs, or buy new Tivo Premiere (45 hr, $300 plus $13/mo). Incidentally, DirecTV charges $10/mo for HD, $7 for HDVR, and $5 for extra SDVR. Other providers differ, no doubt.

Would subscribe to basic satellite/cable package, adding DVR(s) or use new Tivo. Beyond locally available OTA, we watch: regularly USA and Lifetime; occasionally History, Discovery, National Geographic. With this limited non-OTA, would likely forego any "HD fee" for satellite/cable. During summer rerun season, might have to add premium package such as HBO. Or learn how to use the Blue Box TV rentals at the supermarket.

Although TV options are morphing rapidly, it seems that streaming TV utilizing the home computer is not ready for most of us yet (and at age 75, I may never get there).

Incidentally, lost typing work a couple times due to not using "Save"; began saving drafts, but when finished, could not find a button for "Submit" anywhere. So just copy/pasted to get this submittal. What am I missing?

[tigerbangs]

OK, there was a lot of extra information in your post that muddies the waters a little, but here goes: You appear to be about 33 miles from the major Orlando transmitters, and have moderately strong signals available to you. All but one of your local TV stations (WESH, NBC, channel 11) are on UHF. Florida presents some interesting reception challenges when mounting any antenna. Attic-mounted antennas are often rendered useless by tile roofs, HVAC ducting in the attic, and /or aluminum or stucco siding.

I usually tell Florida dwellers to avoid attic mounting an antenna at all costs, as it is usually a frustrating and often futile exercise. I also understand the issues with hurricanes and other strong storms that are a way of life in Florida, and realize that roof-mounting an antenna can also tough because many antennas will blow away in such strong storms. Generally speaking, UHF antennas have a much lower profile to the wind than VHF and combination antennas have. If this was my installation, I would risk roof-mounting an antenna because of the certainty of successful reception with a roof-mounted antenna vs. the risk of poor or intermittent reception using an attic mounting.

Based on your location and reception needs, i would suggest using a Winegard HD-7694P mounted above your roof-line aimed at 185 degrees as measured by your compass. Run the coaxial cable into a central location in your house, such as where your existing satellite satellite signals are split, and add an antenna diplexer that will allow you to distribute the TV signal along the same cable as the satellite cable. You will need one diplexer where the antenna and satellite signals converge, and an additional diplexer at each TV set where you intend to present a TV antenna signal. I would also add a small distribution amplifier to the antenna side of the splitter BEFORE joining the TV signal and the satellite signal to insure having enough TV antenna signal to power all the tv sets that you intend to connect.: here are some equipment links:

http://www.winegard.com/kbase/upload/HD7694P.pdf
http://www.winegard.com/kbase/upload/WC-819.pdf
http://search.solidsignal.com/?cart=13& ... ?sp_link=1

[wewallin]

Thank you for your extensive reply. But before I saw your reply, I went ahead and bought the RCA ANT751 and installed it in the attic at 188 deg compass. Have composition shingle roof on plywood. (I inadvertinately used geologic angles in my initial post, i.e. 5 deg less than customary/published compass angles.)

Outstanding results with ANT751! Scanned and got 4 of 4 bars for 15 channels (Coby "meter"): it even picked up RF49 ch 26.1 @ 245 deg & 20 mi; and got 1-3 bars for ION RF48 ch 56.1 @ 68 mi, not viable, but still impressive. Total 42 channels counting all subchannels.

My initial post mentioned a home-made fractal antenna plus rabbit ears. After the ANT751 success, I thought I'd reconnect my home-made to compare results. I rescanned, and amazingly, got the same 15 channels with 4 of 4 bars. Previously, I'd spent a number of frustating unsuccessful hours on the home-made and gave up; all I can guess is that I previously had some fault within my hook-up. I'm returning the ANT751 to Walmart. If in the future the home-made bails out on me, I'll order a ANT751 from Amazon.

Per your reply, I now understand that "RF channel" is indeed the channel frequency; and that I'm dealing with only one VHF (WESH, NBC, RF channel 11, "channel 2.1"), and not VHF ch 2, 6, and 9 as I had thought. Thanks again.