High Def Forum - Your High Definition Community & High Definition Resource - View Single Post - tigerbangs prescription for deep fringe reception

Davepet · 01-08-2009, 04:00 AM

I've been reading in here for hours now & haven't found a definite answer to my situation.
Here's what TV Fool says about my location:
Sorry, I am not allowed to post urls until I post 5 times
I am over a mile high in the Sierras outside of Sacramento, Ca. Most of the stations I want to see are within a 30 degree arc of my location.

I currently use a mid-sized broadband antenna of unknown make & a distribution amp of unknown gain & get most Sacramento area stations (analog) fine some San Francisco stations (analog) watchable but not great.

With my converter box, reception is all over the place, during an hour's show, a perfect picture can deteriorate into various ugly artifacts to no signal at all. On good days, the reception is way better than analog, on bad days I may get one or two stations reliably.

So clearly I need an antenna upgrade at the least. Probably a new amp & perhaps a better rotator as well. I am only concerned about the UHF channels at this time, I know there will be a few digital VHF stations in my range, but I have a couple of Blonder Tongue style single channel antennas here I can use for that if needed. Only one of those 3 channels is watched often enough to be concerned about, in any event.

I don't think the multi-path problem exists up here, how can I tell? (Ghosting isn't a problem with my current antenna, if that helps) I suspect the 4228HD is the best option, wish I could have seen this early enough to get the original 4228, but it seems too late for that.

It's not clear (even after all the discussions in here) if the 91XG would be a better choice for this location. I am also wondering about the Clearstream 4 , since the smaller the antenna the better it deals with the severe snow loads up here. It is not uncommon for a storm to leave 3 feet of snow on the horizontal portions of an antenna & it can take several days before it falls/melts off. Is Antennas Direct using snake oil to get those performance figures on the Clearstream 4?

This form has the most useful information I've found so far on this topic. Thank you to all who contribute.

Dave

01-08-2009, 04:00 AM	#812
Davepet How can anyone watch standard def? Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Northern Calif Posts: 15	Clear LOS, but 80-120 miles away I've been reading in here for hours now & haven't found a definite answer to my situation. Here's what TV Fool says about my location: Sorry, I am not allowed to post urls until I post 5 times I am over a mile high in the Sierras outside of Sacramento, Ca. Most of the stations I want to see are within a 30 degree arc of my location. I currently use a mid-sized broadband antenna of unknown make & a distribution amp of unknown gain & get most Sacramento area stations (analog) fine some San Francisco stations (analog) watchable but not great. With my converter box, reception is all over the place, during an hour's show, a perfect picture can deteriorate into various ugly artifacts to no signal at all. On good days, the reception is way better than analog, on bad days I may get one or two stations reliably. So clearly I need an antenna upgrade at the least. Probably a new amp & perhaps a better rotator as well. I am only concerned about the UHF channels at this time, I know there will be a few digital VHF stations in my range, but I have a couple of Blonder Tongue style single channel antennas here I can use for that if needed. Only one of those 3 channels is watched often enough to be concerned about, in any event. I don't think the multi-path problem exists up here, how can I tell? (Ghosting isn't a problem with my current antenna, if that helps) I suspect the 4228HD is the best option, wish I could have seen this early enough to get the original 4228, but it seems too late for that. It's not clear (even after all the discussions in here) if the 91XG would be a better choice for this location. I am also wondering about the Clearstream 4 , since the smaller the antenna the better it deals with the severe snow loads up here. It is not uncommon for a storm to leave 3 feet of snow on the horizontal portions of an antenna & it can take several days before it falls/melts off. Is Antennas Direct using snake oil to get those performance figures on the Clearstream 4? This form has the most useful information I've found so far on this topic. Thank you to all who contribute. Dave Last edited by Davepet; 01-08-2009 at 04:15 AM.