DTV Antenna Recommendations

[Zenith26kc20]

And be careful when buying, the Magnavox and Philco converter boxes are on a death spree. I've seen many go out already.

[toxcrusadr]

Lots of good info here folks, keep it coming!

I need to talk to the fam out there and see what channels they are having problems with. I know a couple things right off the bat: 1) I don't think Mom's roof antenna is a UHF type, looks more like VHF to me. Could be why they *never* got very good UHF signals. And there are channels up there in the UHF in Albq., lots of them. 2) The proverbial wood framed stucco house in Albuquerque is going to cause big problems for indoor antennas especially with UHF. Why? The stucco is embedded with chicken wire. The whole house is a Faraday cage!

[site123a]

Can you take a photo of the outdoor antenna and post it up? Is the outdoor antenna on a rotor? And what is your mother's & sister's ZIP code?

[toxcrusadr]

Oops, missed the last reply by site12a back in Sept!

I was just out there and on mom's house in particular, she is having problems with channels 5 and 19. A UHF antenna would help with 19 but 5 sometimes tiles or loses signal randomly, so you can't really watch a show some days. She is in 87111, way up in the NE heights looking at Sandia. Sister is in 87105, halfway to downtown.

[Edit: I did not get a pic of mom's roof antenna, but it's a standard looking VHF type, as I said above it's about 5 ft. long with the axis pointing toward the transmitters, and several crossbars along it. No rotor.

I am curious what I could put up there for a UHF, and can I parallel that in with the VHF or do I have to run separate cable into the house?]

[old_tv_nut]

best place to start with antenna questions is antennaweb:

http://www.antennaweb.org/

[Bill R]

Originally Posted by toxcrusadr

Oops, missed the last reply by site12a back in Sept!

I was just out there and on mom's house in particular, she is having problems with channels 5 and 19. A UHF antenna would help with 19 but 5 sometimes tiles or loses signal randomly, so you can't really watch a show some days. She is in 87111, way up in the NE heights looking at Sandia. Sister is in 87105, halfway to downtown.

[Edit: I did not get a pic of mom's roof antenna, but it's a standard looking VHF type, as I said above it's about 5 ft. long with the axis pointing toward the transmitters, and several crossbars along it. No rotor.

I am curious what I could put up there for a UHF, and can I parallel that in with the VHF or do I have to run separate cable into the house?]

A UHF antenna may help with both since channel 5 may not be on VHF channel 5 anymore. With digital it doesn't matter what frequency it is on the channel information is sent as data. Here our channel 7 is actually transmitted on what was UHF channel 46. Even though the channel id is 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 they are not on VHF channel 7 anymore. Channel 7 somewhere else may be on a totally different channel.

[toxcrusadr]

Holy cow, OK, I'll go to antennaweb and check it out. I looked at it initially but there was something about sending me emails - I assume selling stuff - so I didn't put in my info, but I'll take another look.

[toxcrusadr]

Well, they have some helpful info on there. Channels 5 and 19 that we're having trouble with are actually both broadcast in UHF. It recommends a "yellow" antenna which is the simplest and smallest UHF type. I would like to find out what one looks like but this appears to be a generic site and doesn't actually show any products.

Anyone have advice on whether a UHF ant. can be mounted with the VHF on the roof and hooked up in parallel into the same cable?

[EDIT: If anyone has suggestions for a DIY antenna site, do tell.]

[old_tv_nut]

Antennaweb is a joint project of the National Association of Broadcasters and the Consumer Electronics Association - not a sales site. They have been upgrading their prediction software - it models topography very well, but there is actually little available that takes into account local clutter (buildings, etc). If you want to just enter your zip code, you can do that, but obviously it will be less accurate than an address. You do not need to enter email, phone, or etc. unless you really want to be contacted.

You will get a list of all possibly receivable stations at your address, their directions, and the recommended antenna type needed for them.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by toxcrusadr

Well, they have some helpful info on there. Channels 5 and 19 that we're having trouble with are actually both broadcast in UHF. It recommends a "yellow" antenna which is the simplest and smallest UHF type. I would like to find out what one looks like but this appears to be a generic site and doesn't actually show any products.

Anyone have advice on whether a UHF ant. can be mounted with the VHF on the roof and hooked up in parallel into the same cable?

[EDIT: If anyone has suggestions for a DIY antenna site, do tell.]

You cannot just connect the cables from two antennas together. However, a VHF and UHF connected backwards to a UHF/VHF splitter to make a combiner may work OK. That's what I have in my attic.

[old_tv_nut]

To see what some look like, go to:
http://www.winegard.com/offair/index.php
and click on any of the antenna models, which are color coded to match the antennaweb color coding.