Would Appreciate Any Help With Antenna

[Mister Breeze]

Really don't want to cave into a satellite....
Live near Clarksburg, PA, 15725, in a valley, with trees around.
Have gotten stations at different times of day and weather, but lose them too.
Have a Winegard 8800, new Channel Master digital rotator, pre-amp, and hooked up to four tv's from a chimney mounted set up (old set up was on a old telephone pole that snapped with me up it last week installing the new rotor!........fell about 10-12 feet and got the bruises to prove it )

The Winegard got bent a bit in the fall too......so thinking of replacing. Funny thing is now I get CBS and wasn't before it was bent and moved! Lost Fox and some others though. I don't want to cheap out on this, but don't want to keep wasting money either.One of the seller sites suggested a Winegard 7698p.....is this the best for me? I did like the smaller size of the 8800, but want a picture more than looks.

Thanks for any replies

[Mister Breeze]

Just used the GeoSelector tool and find I don't really care if I pull in the two vhf stations in my area. Still looking for the best antenna for my area. Was going to try to find my coordinates, but am on dialup and downloading anything takes forever.

Thanks

[tigerbangs]

Wow, Try going to http://www.tvfool.com, entering your information there, and post your results here: that will give me a good idea of what to expect at your exact location while preserving your privacy.

[Mister Breeze]

Thanks so much for the reply.....this is about to drive me nuts. Family is ready to kill me as I don't want to cave in to a satellite. Unless of course, if I have no other choice. I'd be happy with just the major networks and any others would be a bonus. Forgot to mention earlier, that my amp is from radio shack.
Hope this is what you needed......http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... 1443f81611


Thanks again!

[tigerbangs]

Thanks for posting your TVFool.com report: fortunately, your report looks MUCH better than the generic report listed for your zip code. The good news is that you ought to be able to see the Pittsburgh stations with the right antenna, rotator and preamplifier, which is NOT the case when using your generic zip code TVFool.com report.

Since you have several V Hf stations to contend with, I suggest using a VHF-high-band plus UHF antenna like a Winegard HD-7698P mounted as high on your roof as is practical. You'll need your rotator for this antenna, and I strongly recommend using a preamplifier, especially since you plan to run 4 TV sets from this antenna My choice would be to use Winegard AP-8275 or a Channel Master Titan 7777, since you need the gain to power all 4 TV sets. I believe that the CBS station that you are looking for is KDKA from Pittsburgh, and that stations should be available using combination, as should the other major Pittsburgh stations.

Here is a good installation manual to help you along:

http://manuals.solidsignal.com/AntInstallGuide.pdf

[Mister Breeze]

Thanks tigerbangs!

If you really believe that the 7698p will be an improvement over the Winegard 8800, then I'll give it a shot. I guess I was looking for some moral support, before dropping more coin into this project. I'll report back on how it turns out.

[Mister Breeze]

Well.....very sad to say the new 7698p has made no improvements.....in fact it seems worse than the bent up Winegard 8800.

I admit I stayed with my Radio Shack mast mounted amp, used the better quad shield coax and also kept the new Channel Master digital, rotor. I've spent the better part of four hours trying all kinds of different positions and no luck. Disconnecting the other tv's doesn't seem to help either.

My new Samsung tv is a pain too, in that it won't hold in memory my stations when I turn the rotor to rescan a new area. So that means, I must re-scan every time I want to change the rotor. You can't force feed it a station and then run the rotor to find it. So you scan one place and get two channels and then move the rotor and have to rescan to pick up one more and lose the first two......it sucks.

Really depressed about this whole thing....spent a lot of time and money since June and it just seems to be an endless struggle.

Looks like I may indeed have to cave.....thanks for trying to help anyway.

[Taco.Dan]

Looks like another strike for the 7698p...............

antenna-help-for-zip-45133-t1256.html

I realize I'm not in the same area as you Mr. Breeze and I only have one VHF channel but the 91XG is working great for me.

I feel your pain with your TV scan issue I had the same problem until I made a small discovery, I have a Panasonic, I found if I scanned late a night I could pick up most of my channels. The ones that didn't pick up on the scan I found I could force if I peeked the rotor/antenna to the station then enter the DTV channel (17.1 etc.) the tuner would pause for several seconds then the channel would lock in.

good luck

[jjvincent]

I found out something on my Samsung. If I deleted all of the channels and then did a scan for the antenna in position 1, then moved the antenna to position 2 (do another scan) then move it to position 3 (do another scan) he kept all of the station (just added stations from position 1. If I went to position 4 and do a scan, it then starts all over. The trick was to delete the channel list.

[Mister Breeze]

Looks like another strike for the 7698p...............

antenna-help-for-zip-45133-t1256.html

I realize I'm not in the same area as you Mr. Breeze and I only have one VHF channel but the 91XG is working great for me.

I feel your pain with your TV scan issue I had the same problem until I made a small discovery, I have a Panasonic, I found if I scanned late a night I could pick up most of my channels. The ones that didn't pick up on the scan I found I could force if I peeked the rotor/antenna to the station then enter the DTV channel (17.1 etc.) the tuner would pause for several seconds then the channel would lock in.

good luck

I did the same thing with the old antenna and at one time with it, got as high as 14 channels when you count the doubles (4.1.4.2. etc) I now get 5 total. My new tv won't take it if you enter a number you know worked in the past. it just picks the next closest that comes in. I've been trying running to the older sets that locked the old channels in the converter boxes and then back to the living room (where the rotator is) to tweek them in, but no luck. Guess my only chance may be when the weather, interference, time of year and day, and whatever else wants to mess with my head will cooperate.

Just bummed I dropped another $120 into this ever growing hole...

Thanks for the reply....I'll read up on 91XP, just doubt I can justify to myself any more cost.