(Part 2) Best products from r/ota

> 3, 10, and 17

they are super easy to get

so you had dish and then you got cable tv?
as long as your cable tv / internet is not on the same coax you should be good... I considered a roof antenna but we get crazy winds here because we have no hills like you do.. 50+miles of wind building up as it moves from maryland to delaware means all winter we get these crazy gusts all the time.

Honestly heh i wonder how much grounding really matters but if I had a roof antenna they make surge protectors with coax connections.. I would use one of them if i had an outside antenna...

If you use the attic then you don't have to ground it but you could ground it if you want.

there are two reasons you need to ground your outside antenna... first is lightning strikes .. direct and anything within like 100 feet can send a charge right into your tv and burn it out.... the second reason which I did not understand at first is that wind across an antenna can build up a ton of static and that can burn out your tv tuner.

If you are in the attic you don't have to deal with either of those problems.. however you might get as much as 50% better reception on the roof than in an attic.

We have a steep roof but we have trusses in the attic.. its a crisscross of triangular supports every like 2 feet wide for the rafters but the rafters do have some large openings.. so i have to fish the antennas through them and assemble them in the attic piece by piece and then slightly bend some of the longest dipoles which is not good but i have no choice.. the are wedged in there real tight heh

you know you can hook your tv antenna to a radio .. we use to have a stereo tuner that had a connection for that and it worked well

it kinda sucks that philly and allentown are on the same path because if they weren't you could amp the philly antenna and keep the allentown one without an amp and get them all pretty strong.. if you are on the same path then if you amp for philly you might overload the allentown stations..

did you run your www.tvfool.com report using your coordinates? you can find your coordianates by finding your home on Google Maps and then click your home and it will display your coordinates like 35.0003, -71.2535 or something and you put that in the tvfool and it will show you your nmDB signal strengths .. now I will tell you tvfool is not the most accurate now but that nmDB rating .. if your signals from Allentown are over 60nmdb then you probably shouldn't amp because you have a limit of about 90db on your tv tuner for maximum... and then you have to add a buffer because signals change.. so figure 80db very maximum or 75 safe... ok so you say 75maximum ... your antenna adds maybe 7db so you subtract that from 75dbmax and you end up with 68db .... so what you have to do is make sure none of your stations are coming in stronger than 68db maximum... ok so you look at your TVFool report and you see WFMZ channel 9 is coming in at 45nmdb and that is your strongest station.. so you subtract 45nmdb from your 68db max and you end up with 23db that you have to play with... ok so 23db


you could get a piece of crap like this heheheh
25db amplifier ... BUT it has a little dial on it that lets you adjust the gain so you crank it back to 50% and you end up with 12-15 db boost.

https://www.amazon.com/Skywalker-Signature-SKY38323-Amplifier-variable/dp/B008UDF55E

that small amount of boost might be enough to get you some philly stations and not overload your allentown stations.... maybe... heh

or you can get an amp like this

https://www.amazon.com/RCA-TVPRAMP1Z-Preamplifier-Outdoor-Antenna/dp/B003P92D9Y

and as you can see it has two separate inputs.. one is for two antennas where you have a VHF and a UHF antenna... and the other is for an antenna that does both UHF and VHF...

Ok so channel 6 WPVI is actually on VHF but so is 9 WFMZ so hmmm rethinking this as i write it.. not sure seperating the antennas and this amp would filter out UHF signals BUT

hmm LVT is on 39 hmm no it is actually on 9 with WFMZ ...

you might have a possibility if you used that RCA one and switched it so it was separate VHF UHF .. and then hooked an Antenna to the UHF Side you might not amp Channel 9 which is pretty much every station out of Allentown


VHF 9 broadcasts these virtual channels

35-1 MHZ MHz Worldview
35-2 WORLD World Channel
39-1 WLVT-DT PBS "PBS 39"
39-2 Create Create
39-3 FRAN24 France24
60-1 WBPH-D1 Religious "WBPH"
60-2 WPBH-D2 Religious "Radiant TV"
69-1 WFMZ-HD Independent "WFMZ 69"
69-2 WFMZ-AW Weather "69News Weather Channel"
69-3 WFMZ-HI Heroes & Icons

so all those channels above are actually being broadcast over Channel 9
and then your tv converts it to whatever station on your tv because there is a code inside the signal that tells it put this WLVT on 39 but its really coming in on 9 VHF


ok that might work

filter out VHF on one of your antennas... and then don't amp an antenna

you are using 2 right?

and then amp the one that you want to be UHF put it through that amp on the UHF connection.. idk might work might not .. might amp everything... but you can always return it to amazon easy...

then you could amp all the stations on UHF from Philly .. check again

7 WNEP is on VHF Allentown

Only problem you might run into is in Reading.. Channel 24 rebroadcasts all those Channel 9 WFMZ stations but maybe you don't get hit by that idk its only a 5kilowatt antenna probably to help reception in the hills around reading but I can't say for sure...


SO.................................. HA!

im i making your decisions even harder than you thought they were? HAHAHAHAHA



ok so the page I am reading is www.rabbitears.info and the philly market


https://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?mktid=4

it gives general info

The Physical channel column is the one you are concerned with

you will see a lot of the stations near you are reporting 9 (G) as their physical channel

WPVI is on VHF 6 if you can grab that with your vhf antenna and get 1-2 bars out of 5 on your tv it should lock pretty well under most circumstances you have another ABC you might get too


and then you can run a antenna which you amp on UHF and that should improve a lot of stations out of philly for you ....

IF that RCA Amp works like that .. I truly forget but I have owned one .. I am pretty sure it will amp VHF and UHF on separate antennas or amp everything / both VHF UHF on a single antenna

But Amping UHF and keeping VHF unamped seems to be your solution to better reception from Philly and maybe you can't get ABC 6 WPVI .. but maybe you can.


if you tried that RCA Amp you have to open it to switch it from 1 antenna to separate antennas .. they ship it as an amp for a single antenna amping both VHF and UHF ..


anyway you can see i like antennas heh ... see what your tvfool says for signal strength .. mount your antennas and use a combiner to combine them both into a single coax out ... has to say in and out on each port.

https://www.amazon.com/CHANNEL-2532-2-Way-Splitter-Combiner/dp/B00006JPE1


then run that to whatever... see what you get

if its not great then maybe you try that amp to boost your UHF stations from Philly

idk heh

Wish you good luck ... screw paying for tv :o)

> RG6 coax

Well, I used to have lots of fun with this before everything became digital and wrecked everything. But it's just a hobby, so I got nothing to loose (except money lol). If I cant get WPIX I was also hoping to get WPVI out of Philly.

I will put RG6 cable down on the list of things to get.

I am still looking at a few amps (by the way, would multiple amps make any difference versus just one amp?)

Would you say these would be good antennas? https://www.amazon.com/ViewTV-Outdoor-Amplified-Antenna-Rotation/dp/B017JEF126/ref=pd_lpo_23_bs_t_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=94Q9RFAN3RMTNY2M345P

http://www.channelmaster.com/Digital_HDTV_Outdoor_TV_Antenna_p/cm-3020.htm

If I do get the 100ft tower, it would put me above some mountains and over any interference

What do you think about this for the VHF antenna. It appears to be a Yagi tuned for the VHF-Hi frequencies: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BP4KV9Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A1RMSRQK09KFYY&psc=1. I will also take a look at the antenna list you provided me sometime to see if they compare. Than, I would probably need a UHF antenna and a good VHF & UHF antenna slitter. Looking at my TVFool, what UHF antenna would you guys recommend. Thanks for your help :).

P.S The reason why I would want to get a separate UHF antenna is because I have issues getting in Analog Channel 28 with the current indoor antenna.

The Stealthtenna product page is here:

• http://www.channelmaster.com/STEALTHtenna_Digital_HDTV_Outdoor_TV_Antenna_p/cm-3010hd.htm
  
  From that we see that it as quite weak on VHF but you don't need VHF. Comparing it to the 4 bay UHF type (CM4221HD), we get 10 dB for the 4 bay and 6 db for the Stealthtenna. That means that the 4 bay would receive over twice as much signal.
  
  Note that a 2 bay UHF type like the Channel Master CM4220HD has 8 dB of gain and so also outperforms the Stealthtenna. I guess the decision would come down to mechanical considerations. Do you need a pointy antenna or a flat antenna?
  
  Added: A friend bought one of these:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Aspen-EASDTV2BUHF-Directv-Approved/dp/B000GIT002/
  
  ... and it came with the grid reflector painted black. That makes it fairly hard to see..

If you just want one for basic antenna orientation and giving you a general signal strength, (not channel specific), you can get the $39.99 one from Antennas Direct. Combined with your TV Fool report preinted out, (or brought up on a laptop, whatever), you can get a pretty good idea of what channels are stronger than the others. (usually good enough).

If you want specific dBm readings, and channel selection, you're going to be paying some decent money, but you'll have a top notch tool. If you want to go this route, I reccomend the DigiairPro ATSC tuner for $359. Unless you're going to be installing antennas regularly or servicing them, it's probably not a nessecary purchase.

You should be fine with an attic antenna.

First I would probably go for this distribution amplifier.

I would then pickup a Winegard FreeVision from Home Depot to test things out and check reception. With your good signals it may be all you need.

If you have reception issues then you might try one of the antennas below. Position the antenna for any direction that gives you the best reception. Your optimal direction is South-Southwest, but depending on the layout of your attic you may find another direction/location has better reception. The less amount of building material to degrade the signal the better (such as an attic vent/window).

• RCA ANT751
  
• Winegard HD7000R
  
• 1byone OUS00-0557
  
• GE Pro Outdoor Yagi Antenna (Walmart)
  
• Antennas Direct Element
  
• Winegard HD7694P

In a similar situation, I had good luck with a Clear Stream 2 and VHF Retro Fit Kit.

This comes with both I believe.

Its kinda pricey, but it worked well for me.

We've used a Terk antenna for years but we're around 15 miles from the transmitters, works great indoors, upstairs in the closet attached to our Tablo DVR:

https://www.amazon.com/Terk-HDTVAZ-Amplified-Indoor-Antenna/dp/B0007MXZB2

KTTW (FOX) is a very weak station at only 7.5 kW according to Rabbitears.info

It's also VHF. You could possibly keep your existing antenna and add one of these using a VHF/UHF joiner . Other joiners may be better. https://www.newark.com/stellar-labs/30-2476/deep-fringe-directional-antenna/dp/71Y5462

https://www.amazon.com/Masthead-Antenna-Combiner-Inputs-Combined/dp/B015ZSVDAW/ref=pd_sbs_23_4/143-7438751-5525118?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B015ZSVDAW&pd_rd_r=fd457858-ae20-4cd3-bfaa-555a3d812692&pd_rd_w=5DFhR&pd_rd_wg=tzNo4&pf_rd_p=d66372fe-68a6-48a3-90ec-41d7f64212be&pf_rd_r=FTCAJF0JYW6RJD6TX48Q&psc=1&refRID=FTCAJF0JYW6RJD6TX48Q

Or buy a new antenna that excels at VHF and UHF like this (or better) https://winegard.com/products/hdtv-digital-antennas/outdoor-antennas/platinum-hd-series/platinum-series-hd7694p

What about using something like this?. .......

Flat Cable CCTV JUMPER Dish Network and Directv Approved https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003ZVRU1S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_4ytHDb7A3NTSC

There are flat cable jumpers that let you close the cable in a door or window.

They're not the best, but better than an indoor antenna...

I pick up ION out of Atlanat that is 2Edge 60 miles out. My antenna is pointed at 296° and ION comes in from 150°.

This bad boy picks itup from my attic crawl space which is just big enough to fit this antenna. Winegard Platinum Series HD7694P Long Range TV Antenna (Outdoor / Attic, 4K Ultra-HD Ready, ATSC 3.0 Ready, High-VHF / UHF) - 45 Mile Range https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001DFTGR4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_-TrezbVKEVZCP

I get 55% signal, anything over 48% on my TV is reliable. From the Antennas I have 30ft RG6 that goes into a powered distributor and feeds two TVs, one with a 75ft run.

Quick and dirty: :)

You can insert a channel with an RF modulator like this onto channel 3 or 4. Attach the antenna feed and RF modulator into a splitter in reverse.

https://www.amazon.com/RCA-Compact-RF-Modulator-CRF907A/dp/B0014KKV7W/

Now, here's the rub. You need to block the transmission from the RF modulator going to the antenna or else you'll broadcast your channel to the neighborhood. A high-low VHF splitter will take care of this beautifully. Connect the antenna to "HI", the splitter to "LINE", and cap off the "LO"

https://www.amazon.com/FYL-SEPARATOR-JOINER-FREQUENCY-CABLETRONIX/dp/B01F3YAXM2

Now, you will loose about 4db signal strength from your antenna and will no longer receive Lo-VHF channels, but most stations don't use it anyway.


EDIT: Even better. Connect the RF modulator to the "LO", the antenna to "HI", and the TV to "LINE." This will simplify the connection and also minimize signal loss to about 1db.

Interesting, I hadn't seen that ClearStream 2MAX, only saw the ClearStream 2V before. Seems a lot cheaper than the one I saw listed on Amazon, but has one less piece? Not sure what it is.

https://www.amazon.com/ClearStream-Indoor-Outdoor-Antenna-Mount/dp/B007RH5GZI/

buy it now - don't hesitate;
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DFTGR4
it's rarely this cheap and
amazon prime had 30day returns - they pay shipping.

and if hd7698p does not work for you, little else will.

I'm a ways out in the burbs and this works great indoors.
https://www.amazon.com/Terk-HDTVAZ-Amplified-Indoor-Antenna/dp/B0007MXZB2

I was thinking that, but then I found this review which unfortunately is exactly my scenario. Hard to ignore that one.

So, HD 7694p vs ANT751... Which one offers better vhf-hi capacity?