Lost in Phoenix AZ.

[jerrycpsrep]

I live outside of Phoenix Az. The Actual city is Florence AZ. My zip is 85132. I want to get the best for the least. I am guessing I need an antenna, Pre amp, and a rotator. What equipment would you suggest for the best quality. There is so much to choose from. I was thinking the Antennas Direct DB4, with the AP8700 Pre amp and the Rca Vh126N rotator. Can I have some wisdom and guidance please. I have no idea what to get really.

[Melvin63]

Hello. If you have not checked this reference yet here is a link that can help with making the right antenna/equipment choices : http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... c5e6c127f1

You will have less difficulty receiving broadcasts from Tucson stations which are line of sight from Florence due to the towers located on Mt. Bigelow, about 8550 ft. above sea level. KGUN transmits on physical channel 9(VHF-HI band). The other channels are in the UHF Range. Tucson stations will probably not require preamplification assuming less than 150 ft. of coax to two receivers.

Phoenix towers are located on South Mountain, somwhat lower elevation than Mt.Bigelow. Reception is still possible. but you will need to have an antenna that is designed to pick up VHF-HI band transmissions since KAET, KSAZ and KPNX all transmit on channels 8 10 and 12 respectively. I recommend you check out the Winegard HD 769* series of VHF/UHF antennas for either application. ( Summit Source or Solid Signal.com are great)

Looking at the TV Fool output for your ZIP (you can input your street address and mast height for more accurate output) the first section of the matrix "Channel" shows the station callsign, physical(broadcast)channel assignment and the Virtual(digital)channel assignment and network affiliation. Next the "Signal" section is divided into NM(Db) which is Noise Margin and Signal Strength(expressed as DBm, or how "loud" the station is at you location) The rest are Distance to transmitter(in air miles), Signal Path(LOS is Line of Sight, 1 edge or 2 edge diffraction and Tropospheric scatter) and Azimuth(compass direction)

As for preamplifiers and antennal rotors, I would recommend order the preamp but do not open it yet. Do the antennal installation and see what you are getting without the signal amp. If you plan to feed multiple TVs and the signal is acceptable at the first tv, you should use a distribution amplifier to feed up to 4 sets or D-VHS or DVR OTA recorders, whatever combination of equipment you may have. As for the rotor, if you want to receive both Phoenix and Tucson stations it will be needed, but be sure your TV Tuners have a feature that lets you add channels from a new scan without erasing the current channel list. Using a rotor usually means having only one TV and one recording device however, so you will need to consider the pros and cons.

[jerrycpsrep]

Thank you so very much for your help. You not only answered my question but added some much needed information that I was unaware of. I am very much appreciative.
I do have one more question. Is it possible to get 2 antenas and wire them in togather. So I can use one for tucson and one for phoenix.

[Melvin63]

Yes. Using two antennas is a better solution for a multiple TV household. Your mast should have sufficient length to accomadate them with eighteen inches space between. If you get two that have a 300 ohm twinlead wire (two wingnuts) connection you can use a short twinlead jumper or coax with two 75 ohm transformers to connect the upper to the lower antenna, then make the second connection for the downlead on the lower antenna. Winegard antennas use a 75 ohm (coax) connector directly on the antenna so to use two like that you can purchase a signal combiner (Winegard, $15-$20 ) that can be mast mounted and make two conncetions from the aerials to the combiner. This adds about 3 Db insertion loss(probably negligable in your area). Be sure you ground your antenna mast in accordance with NEC guidlines, your mast should be located near as possible to the power service entrance where the grounding electrode is located. Good luck with your project.

[Melvin63]

I had another look at the TVfool.com radar plot for Florence 85132 with an antenna height of 20 ft and it is possible you will need preamplification to get the phoenix channels under less than ideal atmospheric conditions. I would suggest doing the dual antenna installation without the preamplifier(leave in box) and see how signal level is on all channels. Channels that fall below 50% signal level may dropout or have other reception problems. adding the amplifier after the main installation should be no problem. If all channels are over 70% signal level you can probably get away without the amp. Scan/rescan for channels and check signal levels a few times at different times of the day/night for best results