Need Antenna Recommendation. Stations are 35-50 Miles out.

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christinescoms

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Just as the title says. Finally got the wife on board with cutting the cord. Use antennapoint.com to find my local stations. Looks like they are all about 37 - 42 miles out. Need an antenna to catch these stations.

Mounting Option One:
Have a bookshelf on the side of my TV. Could use one of those flat sticky antennas and mount it to the back of the bookshelf.

Mounting Option Two.
Put the Antenna in the Attic and run a coax cable down through the wall to the AVR.
 
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At that distance it's unlikely any indoor antenna will work.
Even putting it the attic (2-story or 1-story) will likely require a good outdoor type antenna rated for 50-75 miles.

Are all the stations in the same approximate direction?

Depending upon the length of the coax, you may need an RF amp mounted near the antenna also.
 
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Height is very important.
Where are you?

I went to www.tvfool.com, for US maps. Here is a list of how far, what direction, how strong....
I have a very old antenna facing south and a little west. I want to try facing NNE and see what I can get.
 
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I have been building TV antennas for 35 years. There is a lot of good information in ARRL Handbook. I have learned several things from experimenting that are not in the ARRL book.

House roof with, aluminum oxide shingles, nails, staples, aluminum foil back plywood, will block TV signal, faraday cage effect can block more than 50% of the TV signal.

First thing to do is check Rabbitears.org look see how many channels you can receive. Next check see how many channels are UHF and how many VHF. If you have all UHF then you only need a UHF antenna. If you have all VHF then you need a VHF antenna. If you have both UHF & VHF then you need a good antenna that will receive both OR 2 separate antennas, 1 antenna for UHF and 1 antenna for VHF. Look up the REAL frequency of each TV Station transmitter to learn frequency range of all the stations.

T combiners are not all the same test several see which 1 works best for you. T combiner in picture works best for ME but maybe not for you test several. The 2 caps are both 5 pf.

I have a home built CM4228 antenna with many years of changes that more than doubled the TV signal reception. I made improvements over & over until reception is over kill to the point I don't need a tower taller than 8 feet and storms, rain, snow, fog, hail, NEVER blocks my TV reception.

Reception on my antenna is about 12 degrees both sides of center. I aim antennas at the center point of each VHF area and each UHF area. I am receiving 80 channels from 37 to 45 miles away. Field strength meter shows 98% of 50% of the channels. No signal below 92%.

Be sure to use GOOD coax cable, 1 cable for each antenna, shortest possible length. Never connect several cables together to get the length you need. Test cables from time to time to make sure they are still good.

Do maintenance on your antennas from time to time wire connection need to be cleaned.

You can also build antenna with a adjustable reflector screen 5" to 14" to tune the antenna to a certain hard to receive frequency.

Any antenna that claims 990 miles is BS. 60 miles is about max because earth is round. Antenna past 60 miles will be below the horizon. BUT if you live in Phoenix AZ all the TV transmitters are up on South Mountain elevation about 3000 ft I was able to receive 70+ channels 92 miles away.

If you connect 2 antennas together make sure they are in phase with each other.

If you buy an antenna HD8200 is a good one. Best price I see at the moment is $135 free shipping on Ebay.








 
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thank you so much for your suggestion
 
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1 more thing, 8 bay antenna in the picture the reflector screen has 1" x 2" holes in the screen. Smaller holes work better for higher frequency. 1" x 1" holes will work better. 1/2" x 1/2" holes are even better especially for a channel that is hard to receive. Your antenna needs to be tuned to all the frequencies you want to receive. Reflector screen is 48" x 48".

Solid metal bow ties work much better than V shape wire bow ties. I used roofing aluminum.

If you buy a CM4228 or DB8 you can make improvements for better reception or scratch build your own antenna.

Once you have an excellent antenna you can use an antenna amp for stronger signal if it is needed.
 
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also thank you for your suggestion
 
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ronsimpson said:
wide band antenna.
Click to expand...

Factories try to make reception for all channels equal as possible but its not perfect. Do google search for information about each antenna there is a lot of good information online that tells you how well each antenna works at all frequencies from channel 2 to the highest channel. You need to know the real frequency of each channel. Channel 2 for me is probably not the same frequency for you or other people. Go to Rabbitear.org look at the channels you can receive. Look at the real frequency and the power of the transmitter and the chart will tell you now strong the signal is for you. If you have poor reception for 1 or 2 channels work on better reception for those channels. Sometimes you can make improvements to the antenna and sometimes put up 2 or 3 or 4 antennas. You can have a selector switch to switch TV to different antennas or connect antennas in parallel. I am luck all 74 channels that I receive are at about 315° magnet plus or minus 305° to 330°. I aim my 2 antennas about in the center. Both of my antennas reception is about 10° to 12° each side of center. I can aim 1 of my antennas at 315° and the other antenna at 318° for best reception for all 74 channels. If your stations are far apart you might need a rotor or aim 1 or more antenna in several directions or use a selector switch for the antenna you need to use to receive stations in other directions. You can make improvements to factory antennas too. Read about antennas in and ARRL handbook you can buy a used book online at ABEs books and Ebay. You can make changes to the T combiner too. You can make changes to the wires used to connect elements on the antenna, experiment to see in field strength meter shows is you have a stronger signal. Cut all coax wires short as possible.

If you have a channel that is exceptionally hard to receive build a beam antenna reception is 5° both sides of center. Use a good accurate compass to aim your antenna in the correct direction.

I learn what works better by reading about it in the ARRL book then build it and test it to see if it really does work better. Often making changes to an existing antenna is the easiest thing that works.

I have also learned things that are not in books or online. TN is very windy yesterday we were having 48 mph wind so I turned TV for a few minutes just to see if any channels lost reception an 3 channels were gone. Wind is blowing east so I rotate antenna 15° east to find a good signal in a different location. I don't understand how transmitter signal can be blown down wind. In the past when wind stops signal will return to its correct location.

My antenna amp is old but it works good for me. There are better amps than what I have.


 
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I'm surprised no one has mentioned this: indoor or outdoor, to get the VERY BEST out of ANY antenna requires a good ground. If indoors, use a large ring connector on the coax connector (outer is ground) and wire it to the center screw of your electrical cover plate. Electrical outlets are supposed to be grounded by law (in the USA anyway). Establishing a good ground plane for an antenna will dramatically improve reception.

Case in point: I live way out in the sticks in northeast Texas, and radio reception is spotty at best. In my workshop I recycled an old car radio & speakers (with a 12v wall wart power supply) so I could listen to music as I worked in my "Dave-Cave". I ran a car radio antenna out to the high point of the roof and ran a 20' RV extension cable down thru the window to the radio. Reception at first was on par of what I could pick up in my car, a couple rock and country stations on the FM dial, each within a 50 mile radius. Then I ran a ground cable (solid copper) to the base of the antenna and tied it into the ground rod coming to the circuit breaker box. Now I have a dozen rock and country stations to choose from, one of which is in Texarkana, almost a hundred miles away! Between the height of the antenna coupled with a decent ground plane, my reception is awesome. Even with an inside antenna, if you ground out the ground plane of the antenna, you too will see good results. The higher you place the antenna, the more stations you can pull in due to the curviture of the Earth.
 
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Super-Dave said:
Between the height of the antenna coupled with a decent ground plane, my reception is awesome. Even with an inside antenna, if you ground out the ground plane of the antenna, you too will see good results.
Click to expand...

How do you provide a ground plane to a horizontally polarized (for TV) yagi, or dipole, or magnetic loop ?
Your radio (analog) reception can behave very different than digital television reception.
 
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Sorry, but you're talking complete and utter nonsense - grounding and ground-planes makes a difference on only a very small range of aerials - none of which are suitable for TV reception anyway.

Basically quarter-wave whips (ground-plane), or long wires (ground connection) - or in your case a fairly useless off a car.

If you're using a walkie talkie (such as for 2m or 70cm radio ham use), standing it on a metal car roof makes a huge difference, as it supplies the missing ground plane, and effectively creates a full dipole from the whip.
 
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