Need a good suggestion for San Diego

[Craigsd619]

I gave up on the cable company. I bought a clear stream 2 antennna from best buy and it works ok. My address is 3825 kettner blvd San Diego ca 92110.

I live on the third floor of my apartment building and have a clear view to the west. I don't have roof access so I can only mount my current antenna to my balcony that faces straight west.

I can get all the major networks but have to move the antenna from one end of the balcony to the other. Sometimes I can only get two station and they cut out. It seems to depend on the time of day.

My main question is there a better antenna I can get that I don't have to move and I can mount in one spot? Moving it around and the stations cutting out is getting old fast! Cost isn't an issue considering the amount I'm going to save from not paying for cable.

Any help would be great. Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks

[tigerbangs]

The San Diego transmitters are in two different locations: the UHF stations are West of Downtown, and channels 8 and 10 are closer to the city, The ClearStream2 is NOT a VHF antenna, so it would not surprise me that some of your network stations are so spotty. Unfortunately, there are very few decent indoor antennas that do VHF decently. I have had some luck with a TERK HDTVa, but I wouldn't guarantee success.

[Craigsd619]

OK this is a good start. Channels 8 and 10 are the two that usually come in the best. It is the other networks that I have to move around the antenna to get a good signal.

I am not really interested in an indoor antenna just because it seems no one has any luck with them.

Can you suggest a better outdoor antenna? Whats the difference between UHF and VHF? Is there one antenna that will pick up both?

Ive been looking around and people seem to like the RCA ANT751, Terk HDTVo and Winegard FV-HD30. That is all based on customer reviews and their situation will be different than mine.

Like I said before I can mount it out on balcony facing west and it will be running one Samsung Series 7 LCD HDTV. It would be about 20 ft from the antenna to the TV. I have a clear view downtown San Diego to the south but im about 3/4 up a hill and can't see to the east very well.

Thanks

[ProjectSHO89]

The SD UHF stations broadcast from the mountain about 3 miles east of the intersection of highways 54 and 125, just east of Sweetwater Reservoir about 15 miles ESE. Additionally, several stations transmit from the Tijuana side of the border, one of which is your CW affiliate about 15 miles SSE.

The two VHF stations transmit from La Jolla, about 7.5 miles NNW of your address.

The C2 is an excellent compact UHF antenna. On high-VHF, it utilizes a little-understood engineering trick to get what reception it can even though the loops are not involved in that process. It takes a bit of effort to purposely exploit this undocumented function in which the coax cable's shield provides for limited high-VHF reception.

My best suggestion is to try to position the antenna so that the downtown (and if desired, CW) UHF stations come in. Once that is achieved, leave the antenna stationary and manipulate the coax so that a portion of it immediately adjacent to the reflector forms a horizontal segment or loop that is perpendicular to the direction that the VHF signals come from. Experiment with the shape and size of the coax loop to change the VHF reception. I have successfully exploited this at over 50 miles from the high-VHF towers. I do, however, have a handheld spectrum analyzer that shows me the effect of the coaxial manipulation.

Your most difficult task will probably be to get the UHF stations while "shooting" through your building. You might get lucky and find something that provides a solid reflected signal, so you might end up with best UHF reception from an unexpected angle.

Give it a shot and see how it works for you.

PS89