Outdoor antenna for 49090

[olongapojoe]

Hi, I have a 2 story roof mounted UHF/VHF rotor antenna that dates from before 1970. I have upgraded it with a adapter from the old ribbon wire feed to co-axial cable. The transmitting towers are approx. 45 miles away that I can receive from now. The digital channels best signals are 75% on my Panasonic TH-50PZ800U set with the level dropping to 55% in bad weather. I plan on buying a new rig soon that will draw in stronger signals and from towers approx. 78 miles away. I will need VHF/UHF due to WMMT broadcasting at a actual channel of 2. I was looking at the Winegard HD7698P, does anyone have suggestions of a good antenna, also pre-amp yes/no which one?

Thanks, Olongapojoe

[tigerbangs]

WWMT is moving to channel 8 in a few weeks, so the only low-band VHF station that you will have is PBS-WGVK, which will be on channel 5 after the transition. You will have a mix of VHF and UHF stations after the digital transition, so what you really need is a good all-channel VHF + UHF antenna mounted on your roof along with a rotator and a high-input preamplifier. The Winegard HD-7698p won;t do low-band VHF, and it is too expensive for what it does to remain in consideration.

I suggest a Winegard HD-7084p or a Channel Master Crossfire 3671 along with a Winegard HDP-269 preamplifier and a Channel Master 9521a automatic rotator. Don't count on seeing Chicago Tv 100% reliably with this or any other antenna, but you should get excellent TV reception on at least 20 or so stations.

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

[olongapojoe]

Thank you for the info. One last question, do you think the Winegard HD-8200U would do a better job, or are they all pretty equal.

Olongapojoe

[tigerbangs]

I don't think that the added size or cost of the HD8200 will benefit you: construction quality is the same, and the difference in gain will be insignificant in your application. Save yourself some money and go with the HD-7084P