indoor antenna for three distant stations?

[gail]

I am able to get exactly the stations I want with an old-fashioned Yagi-type UHF antenna which is sitting in a chair pointed very precisely towards the NE. (The stations are at 4 and 14 true degrees from the house.)This antenna is not huge but much too big (and ugly) to keep in one's bedroom. I believe it has 15 elements, 7 cross pieces on the long central piece and 4 each on the shorter arms. The stations are 35 and 62 miles away.

I took the antenna up to the attic and received no signal on the converter box meter whatsoever. The attic is much shallower than the bedroom and has wire screening over the vents to exclude squirrels. This was very disappointing since we always had an antenna up there and once the signals were so clear in the bedroom I thought it would be a done deal in the attic.

Is there any indoor or indoor/outdoor antenna that you would recommend we try to replicate the results of the Yagi that would take up less room? I wouldn't mind mounting something small and relatively attractive out of the East-facing window, but I would prefer to avoid the roof-top since I am able to get such wonderful reception in the bedroom.

Although we are getting the same stations perfectly downstairs on an Antennaweb Clearstream 4 on a pole leaning against the house, I think that we need a directional antenna for the bedroom since the Clearstream didn't perform as well up there as does the Yagi, but I have no idea which one to try first.

Thanks in advance. You are doing a great public service with this site.

gail

[tigerbangs]

Please read 'Tips for getting good antenna advice" at the beginning of the forum and repost your question with the information requested , the info that you have given us is inadequate to make any good recommendations. I will tell you that you would probably be better off using a splitter and running that second TV set from the Clearstream 4 than messing with any indoor antenna, and that the Clearstream 4 will perform much better when it is mounted aon the roof at the highest point of the roof of your house.

[gail]

I didn't post the coordinates that I got from Google Earth because my husband is convinced that they are all wrong and would put us somewhere in the reservoir. Is it of any help to look at this from TV Fool? http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d23c52c37909952 The channels in question are WEKW, WNNE, and WVTA. (Actually, my husband would love to be able to get WFSB from Hartford for Patriots games, but even the folks at the station say that's impossible because of the hill between us and the South. FSB is one of the stations that has lost coverage since the digital transfer.)

The reception we are getting now from both the Clearstream next to the house and the Yagi in the bedroom is perfect. The only problem is the presence of the antenna in the bedroom. We have decided to make another attempt at the attic paying closer attention to the compass setting. If that fails and the TV Fool info doesn't allow you to help us, then I will try to get the correct coordinates.

[tigerbangs]

It looks like you are up in Montague, only about 30 morth of where I am, but you appear buried in the hills. You must have some very large hiills between Springfield and you, because it appears that you have virtually no reception from Springfield or Hartford, both of whikch would otherwise be available to you.

My best suggestion would be to mount your Clearstream 4 on the roof along with a preamplifier and a rotator. I'm not fond of the Clearstream 4, personally, but, you already own it, and it shoulld work. I would use a Channel master 9521a automatic rotator and a Channel Master Titan 7777 preamplifier, with the power supply mounted in a central location inside the house, and leads run to your two TV sets.

[gail]

I would just like to add that I appear to have solved my problem. Because of rave reviews online, I bought a Phillips indoor-outdoor antenna (MANT940). It is supposedly only good for 20 miles, but I am getting the stations I wanted, one 35 miles away and the other two over 60 miles away. This antenna is about the size of a regular book (not coffee-table sized), weighs about a half a pound and is paintable. Mine is sitting on a low blanket chest in front of an east-facing window. I intend to paint it so that it blends into the room better.

Anyway, I am thrilled with the result. It may not work for most folks, but it is doing what I needed. Precision aiming is crucial. And if I sit down next to it on the chest, the signal is interfered with. But that doesn't happen most of the time. I got this for a bedroom, where 99% of the TV watching is in bed, and the signal is staying strong and clear. If I weren't so house-proud, I could mount this just outside the window and I could probably sit down on the chest next to it with no problems. If anyone decides to try this antenna, heed the reactions of consumers online: it works much, much better on its side than upright as shown on the packaging.

[gail]

I just wanted to update this, to give some hope to those who are determined not to put an antenna on their roof.

I noted earlier that our downstairs tvs were hooked up to a Clearstream 4 on a pole leaning against the house. That was always intended to be temporary. Well, now I am ecstatic because my genius husband hooked up our old yagi to a Winegard AP-8700 u/v antenna pre-amp in the attic of our garage, where we always used to have the antenna before the conversion.
After the analog to digital conversion, without the pre-amp there was no reception from the garage interior. With it, it's perfect for the stations to the N and NE, with no sign on the exterior that an antenna lurks inside. So, apart from the fact that my husband still hasn't succeeded in getting CBS from Hartford/Springfield, we have made significant progress with our antennas. (He is able to get Fox/ABC from the South by mounting the Clearstream with a pre-amp on an upside-down patio umbrella in the back yard, but when he moved it to the back porch roof support nearby, pointing the same way, he lost it. But he's still trying for that, while the Patriots on CBS seem lost forever.)

[tigerbangs]

I'm glad that you were successful, but please don't think for a minute that your unorthodox approach is the BEST way to go for your situation, nor are you receiving all the TV that you can expect with a properly chosen and installed roof-mounted antena, amplifier and rotator..