Need advice in Texas

[TerryB50]

Howdy! We are located east of Dallas in Zip code 75189. It appears that we are approximately 70 miles or so from the Cedar Hill towers. I currently have an old "ship mast" antenna mounted in our attic. It has gotten to where our reception is hit or miss. More miss than hit in wind or bad weather. I really do not want to spend the money on satellite but will as a last resort. We have two HDTV's in the house. Could you give me some advice on type of antenna which would be best for us to use? Should we use a booster?

TerryB50

Lat: 32`57'35"
Lon: 96`13'49"

[tigerbangs]

When I plug in the coordinates that you gave me into my digital converter, it says that you are only about 50 miles from the Cedar Hill transmitters, and that the signals are moderately strong in your location. If the coordinates are accurate, I can suggest a few things that should shore up your reception. First of all, you need a roof-mounted antenna: attic installations cut TV reception by more that 50% in most situations, and you are handicapping your reception with an attic-mounted antenna.

I would use a Winegard HD-7696P VHF-highband plus UHF antenna mounted at least 10' above your roofline, and use a high-input premplifier like a Winegard HDP-269, which will allow you to power up to 4 TV sets from the one antenna without losing signal. Replace all of your old coax cable with satellite-grade RG-6u coaxial cable, and use a high-quality 1 gHz or better splitter to divide the signal coming from the preamplifier. Once you do that, you'll see reliable reception from all of the Dallas-Ft. Worth stations.

[TerryB50]

Thanks.