Fringe situation

[weffy]

My zipcode is 52566 (901 S. Cedar St.). I have 1 TV with a CM-7000 converter box hooked up into a Directv receiver. I am on high ground with no tall buildings around and not heavily forested, but there is a 30 - 40' tree next to my house to the north.

My current system consists of a chimney mounted mast probably 25-30' off the ground, a short to medium range ( about 3-4' long) UHF yagi antenna at the top, an old Winegard 2300 VHF antenna 4' below that, connected with twinlead to the TV. Pointed to the northwest at about 310 degrees. This puts me at the upper left edge of the aforementioned tree.

At a minimum I would like to get the high band VHF(8, 11 and 13) and UHF(17) stations located to the northwest (Des Moines) plus KTVO (ABC virtual 3, real 33) to the south and 15 KYOU to the east. As currently set up I get 13, 17 and 15 marginally and 3 pretty well, 8 and 11 not at all. If possible, I would also like to get 27 KFXA (virtual 28) at 18 degrees.

I know I am probably in need of a major overhaul, if it is even possible to do. I already have RG-6u coax cable ready, but I am not even sure of the best way to hook up my current antennas to it in regard to baluns, joiner vs. pre-amp, etc. The VHF antenna has a coax port, but the UHF antenna does not. Any advice would be much appreciated.

[tigerbangs]

The situations is not as bad as it might seem: although the Des Moines transmitters are 75 miles from you, they still put a usable signal in your area, and we can probably manage them without too much of an issue. You do have some other closer stations , particularly translator stations, that could potentially cause overload with the wrong preamplifier, but we can overcome this.

Becasue you ave a low-band digital channel (WOI-DT, ABC) from Des Moines, we will need to get an antenna that will give you excellent low-band VHF reception. I think that we will need to look at a deep-fringe VHF antenna like the Wade-Delhi VIP-306SR, which is a biggie, but the best antenna currently out there for VHF: It will get you WOI-DT as well as the other Des Moines VHF stations when we use a good preamplifier. As for UHF, we need the very best UHF antenna available for your situation. Usually, I would suggest using an AntennasDirect XG-91, but all of the UHF stations in your area are below channel 30, and the best antenna for low-frequency UHF stations is the Winegard HD-8800: a vertical-bay style antenna that has terrific gain below channel 30: the very best in the business. You have several other stations available to you, like KTWO-DT, which is in another direction, and if you want those stations, you will also need a rotator, if you don't care about them, you can fix your antenna system aimed at Des-Moines and forger about it...

When mounting the antenna system, mount the UHF antenna on the same mast as the VHF antenna spaced at least 4' apart. with the VHF antenna on the bottom. Use a Winegard HDP-269 preamplifier on the mast, and combine the cables from the two antennas using a Pico-Macom UVSJ, then run the output of the UVSJ into the preamplifier. When you are all done, I expect that you'll see everything that you are looking for, but be sure to recan your tuner after installing the new antenna system so the tuner can find your new channels. Good Luck!

http://www.winegard.com
http://www.wade-antenna.com
http://www.pico-macom.com
http://www.channelmasterintl.com/docume ... lation.pdf

[weffy]

Thanks for the awesome response. One question - if I wasn't interested in the channel 5 or any low band VHF, what antenna would you recommend? Just trying to explore all options and cost/benefit.

Thanks again!

[tigerbangs]

If Channel 5 wasn't an issue, I would suggest using the same UHF antenna abd substituting a Winegard YA-1713 VHF high-band yagi, but I would still use the rotator to pik up stations other than the Des moines channels.

[weffy]

Just wanted to let you know that I got my new antenna setup complete and it is working great. I went with the YA-1713 (instead of the Delhi), which was backordered and took an extra week to receive. I get all the Des Moines stations 100%, a few of which I had never seen before. I am getting channel 27 from 18 degrees marginally even though I'm pointing at 310 degrees. Haven't installed a rotator yet pending further experimentation with pointing.

Thanks for the great recommendations.

[tigerbangs]

I'm glad that it all worked out for you: if you use a rotator, you'll see even more TV stations, including KWTO
BTW, which UHF antenna did you go with finally?

[weffy]

I went with the HD-8800. I should have mentioned, I get KTVO (3.1 virtual, 33 real) perfectly even though I'm pointed away from it by about 140 degrees. Must be a strong signal.