Please help w/antenna: 07501

[Chris G]

Address: Quartz Ln., Paterson, NJ 07501
Altitude: approx. 400'
# TV's: 1, maybe 2 in the future.
TV type: Pioneer Elite plasma.
Looking for digital reception.

Please help me choose the right antenna:
I live in a townhouse on top of a mountain, I would like to mount an outdoor antenna in the attic as I can't mount on the rooftop.
Is an amplifier needed?
Is it possible to get FM reception from the recommended antenna?

Thanks

[tigerbangs]

When I run your zip code, I get a report that says that you have a highly-obstructed view to the ESB. It sounds as if you are at a higher elevation that the center of town, so if I had a street address or specific coordinates, I could have a better idea of what to recommend. What is your reception like using an indoor antenna?

[Chris G]

Thanks.

Does this help:
Latitude = 40.9042, Longitude = -74.1815
Lat = 40 degrees, 54.3 minutes North
Long = 74 degrees, 10.9 minutes West

The center of town is much lower in elevation and is north of me.

I hooked up my parents old 13' antenna inside my living room and pointed it towards midtown Mahattan (assuming that's where the broadcast is from) to see what kind of signal I would get and I was getting a signal stength of 53 on WNBC-DT, WABC-DT, WNYW-DT. But couldn't get WPIX-DT unless I turned the antenna slightly, then ABC-DT got worse.
Would putting the antenna in the attic provide better signal? I should make you aware that even though I am at a higher elevation, there's still like 3 stories of mountain between me and Manhattan.

Best Regards,
Chris

[tigerbangs]

At the moment, Chris, everything in NYC is on UHF, but on June 12, WABC, WPIX and WNET will return to their analog channel assignments. When I ran a TVfool scan of your coordinates, things looked much better, but you will need a deep-fringe antenna mounted in your attic if you want reliable reception of the NYC stations. My first choice for you would be to use an AntennasDirect XG-91 plus a Winegard YA-1713 VHF antenna in your attic, but I don't know how much vertical height that you have available in your attic. Can you give me an idea of what kind of space you have up there?

[Chris G]

The picture shows just one half of the attic. The pitch of the roof is pretty steep, so I would say at the highest part it's maybe 9 or 10 feet, and there's quite a bit of length before the pitch tapers off going backwards.

I think you mean Antennas Direct 91XG?

Looking at the two that you recommended I would say they would fit in my attic easily. Which antenna would point where?

I'm assuming I would need a UHF/VHF combiner?


Thanks again!

[tigerbangs]

Chris., take a compass up into the attic, stand in the middle of the attic, and see if you have 5' of floor space if you aim the compass at 138 degrees. if you do, then you should be able to mount the two antennas without a problem. Use a Pico-Macom UFSJ to join the coaxial cable leads from the two antenna into one downlead. You can also look for an AntennasCraft FM-6 antenna for your FM needs, but I suggest that you use a separate coaxial cable downlead for that antenna. The Fm stations in NYC are on the ESB, and in the same place as the TV transmitters.

[Chris G]

Thanks for all your help. This forum has saved me a lot of time, guesswork, and hopefully money

Best Regards,
Chris

[Chris G]

I think this was suggested above but not positively sure; Is it unorthodox to put the VHF and UHF antenna on the same mast?

[tigerbangs]

Not unorthodox: it is done all of the time: just be sure that the UHF antenna is on top, and the Vhf and UHF antenna are separated by at least 4' .. We do it all the time sucessfully.