Miami Beach Reception VERY directional.

[Mannye]

I am on the west coast of Miami Beach (the bayside) and recently purchased the biggest OTA atenna the local Radio Shack had in stock. It was some time ago, so I honestly don't remember if it was an old one they had sitting there or one ofthe new Antennacraft brand they are selling in the catalog now. This particular store has been there for almost 20 years.

The antenna works well, but is extremely directional and the TV signals seem to originate from either the west or the north. It was very difficult to find an orientation that brought channel 2 (PBS) and also channel 7 (FOX) and at the moment, reception is excellent for some and spotty for others.

I feel that anyone living in my area (33140 zip) will only get the best results from an omni-directional but I want to make sure I get the absolute best one available at the moment. Since I want to eliminate pay TV (I am using DirecTV at the moment) cost is not a factor, considering the savings it will bring.

[ProjectSHO89]

All of the Miami stations transmit from sites about 2 miles south-west of Hollywood.

A small high-Vhf/UHF combo such as the HBU-22 from Radio Shack or the RCA ANT-751 (available at Wal Mart) pointed north-west should suffice.

Channel 2 and channel 7 towers are less than a mile apart along Hwy 441, about 11 miles away.

[tigerbangs]

Omni-directional antennas rarely work as advertised: they are especially weak on VHF digital stations, and Miami has 2 VHF stations: channel 7 and 10. The issue with using a bigger antenna than what you actually need is that antennas become much more directional as they become larger, and, in a close-in environment, you will find that you will most likely have to rotate your antenna to see all of the stations. If you want to continue to use your existing Radio shack antenna, consider adding a rotator like an AntennaCraft TDP-2 or a Channel Master 9521a to the antenna. By doing so, not only will oyu be able to aim at the local stations, but will likely see the West Palm Beach stations if you turn the antenna north.