new to rural television

[jll424]

I am so glad I stumbled on this site while i am looking for an antenna. I am in rural Iowa, currently get two channels but i will lose both of them next week.

Has anyone found an antenna that has done what it promised and left a positive impression. I am ready to give up tv and start knitting.

I am considering a multi-directional antenna with a 100 mile range. I am 70 miles away from the biggest town (Quincy, IL). I have come across a Channel Master CM-3020 HD Antenna. Does anyone have experience, positive or negative, with this antenna?

thanks for any info..........

[jll424]

on that note... my zip is 52632 and i only have one tv. it is a sony dtv.

[tigerbangs]

HDfringeantenna.jpg (231.02 KB) Viewed 725 times

Jill, you have TV stations coming at you from a variety of directions, and you will need a deep-fringe antenna, preamplifier and a rotator to see all that is available to you.

The Channel Master 3020 is kind of a dog as antennas go: its sold in places like Lowes and other home-improvement stores, and it is a mediocre performer, bith in terms of reception and construction quality. You can and shouild do much better. Since you have a mixture of VHF high-band and UHF stations available in your area, and most of them are 30+ miles away, I suggest using my deep-fringe prescription: a two antenna array using a Winegard YA-1713 VHF high-band yagi plus an AntennasDirect XG-91 UHF antenna mouted on the same mast, with the XG-91 mounted 4' above the YA-1713. Mount the two antenna using a rotator like a Channel Master 9521a automatic rotator, and attach the rig to your roof. Use a Winegard high-input HDP-269 preamplifier to overcome the signal loss of the cable and other passive components. You will use a Pico-Macom UVSJ antenna joiner to take the separate signals from the antennas and combine them into one cable to insert into th preamplifier, which is mounted at the antenna. Run the coaxial cable and the antenna rotator wire down to the back of your TV set, and connect the rotator control cable to the rotator controller, and the coaxial cable should connect to the preamplifier power supply, which requires AC power. Run the output of the power supply to the antenna connector on your TV set, power up the TV set, and aim the antenna using the rotator at the TV stations, and have your DTV tuner scan for available TV stations: Based on the maps that I have for your area, you should have 7+ digital/HD Tv stations available to you.

Good luck: you'll do MUCH better with this combination than with the Channel Master combination antenna that you asked about, and it's in a smaller, more managable package than the huge CM 3020.

http://www.winegard.com
http://www.channelmaster.com
http://www.antennasdirect.com
http://www.channelmasterintl.com/docume ... lation.pdf

See the picture at the top of the post for an idea of what this type of installation looks like.