Ijamsville, MD OTA reception

[smlusci]

Hello folks-

We are in Ijamsville, MD 21754. Cooridinates: 39.377568,-77.316413

We use an Antenna Direct DB8 w/ Channelmaster CM7777 amp mounted atop a pitched roof above a second floor (approx 25+' above ground level). Prior to the digital conversion, we were able to receive channels 7 & 9 well. (as well as some channels from Baltimore and DC) Today we receive 7 sporadically, but not channel 9 (CBS), despite that channel 9 recently upped its power by a factor of 400%.

A few questions:

1. Is this the best antenna for this location? If not other selections?
2. Antennaweb and TVfool both indicate that channels 7 & 9 are within top 3-5 stations; your website indicates that channel 9 is not receivable. Why the difference?

Thx for you help.

Best regards,

Steve

[tigerbangs]

The DB-8 is NOT, repeat NOT a VHF antenna! If you try to use it as such, you will surely be disappointed. It IS a very good UHF atenna. If you want to see channels 7 and 9, as well as channel 11 and 13 from Baltimore, you need to add a VHF high-band yagi to your DB-8 to get those stations reliably. Since you already have a Channel Master Titan 7777 preamp, which has separate VHF and UHF inputs on it, the is process is made a bit easier. Buy a Winegard YA-1713 or an AntennaCraft Y-10-7-13 and mount it BELOW the DB-8, separated by at least 3.5 feet. You didn't mention if you have a rotator, but you NEED one if you want to see Baltimore reliably.

When installing the VHF yagi, you will need to connect the yagi to your preamp. You will need to open the preamp and switch the input selector from 'COMBINED" to SEPARATE" in order for the preamp to see the signal from the new VHF antenna. When yo are done, you should see your VHF channels just fine.

http://www.winegard.com
http://www.antennacraft.net
http://manuals.solidsignal.com/AntInstallGuide.pdf

[smlusci]

Thank you very much. Will give this a try....once the weather allows.