OTA Antenna Help

Looking for help choosing an OTA Antenna to receive stations in both the Boston and Providence market. Here are my tvfool results: (sorry, I can't post a link)
tvfool(dot)com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d8ecded9461b561
The antenna will be located on my condo's third floor balcony, I am surrounded by trees and other buildings. I know it would be best, but is this possible without a rotor?
Thank you for any and all help.

I know it would be best, but is this possible without a rotor?

To try it without a rotor, get a big UHF only for Boston and a small 7-69 for Providence. (HD-8800 + HD7694P or similar) Try adding them with a splitter backwards. If you find that a preamp is needed try the UHF only AP-4700. If the backwards splitter doesn't work the alternative is two feedlines and an A/B switch.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d8ecded9461b561

Welcome to the forums mistermitch!

Here is your corrected tvfool link: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d8ecded9461b561

Boston stations are located at ~32 degrees and Providence stations are located at ~155 degrees. Your balcony is located on which side of the building? Do you have line of sight to the North/Northeast and South/Southeast? Will you be recording the OTA signals with a dvr or watching live only? Providence has high vhf and uhf channels while Boston only has uhf channels.

Would you consider a two antenna solution, say a CM 4221 aimed at Boston and an HBU-22 aimed at Providence? With this solution, you would have two antenna feeds running to the back of your tv and connected to an a/b switch. There would be a single coax feed from the a/b switch to the back of your tv. Simply flip the switch to change between markets. This is a solution for a single tv and becomes more cumbersome if you have multiple tvs.

HTH,

Rick

My balcony is located on the East side of the building. I have line of sight to both North/Northeast and South/Southeast with some obstruction by trees and the corner of the building. I will mostly be recording for later viewing.
I would consider a two antenna solution, although I know the law about antenna placement in exclusive use areas, I don't want to make too many waves with my condo association, but if that is what must be done, it must be done...

To mistermitch,

To me, the key operative sentences are, "The antenna will be located on my condo's third floor balcony, I am surrounded by trees and other buildings"

But until we understand in what direction your third floor balcony sees, and what directions it does not see, all else is somewhat irrelevant.

Simply because you can have the best possible antenna, but if it has to get a signal through your own building, it will flat out fail
to do so.

After that there are other surrounding buildings and if they are higher than your balcony, they will leave your antenna blind if those other buildings happen to be in the way.

And now I see why I was writing the post, the question is already partly answered.

The other buildings face North/Northwest and are about 10 feet higher than my balcony. Does that help?

The corner of the building affects the LOS to which set of broadcasts, Boston or Providence? Tower Guy and I gave similar solutions, only he reached into the bag for a bit higher gain antennas than I did. I like his solution and would go with it.

If appearance becomes a factor, something like a bed springs type antenna might better fit the bill as it can be installed on the North and South facing sides of the deck and them be slightly biased to better point on aim.

The CM4221 somewhat meets that criteria, but seems to tall to
be ideal. But I note there are plans for do it your self antennas made from paintable PVC that would be almost look like part of the deck.

But others here more familiar with that segment of the antenna market could probably come up with some better alternatives that would not stick out like a sore thumb.

Mistermitch, I do have plans for DIY 2- and 4- bay antennas that receive high vhf and uhf. The 2-bay would work for Providence and the 4-bay would work for Boston. Send me a PM if you would like the plans with your e-mail address.

Would you recommend using a pre-amp with the 2 and/or 4 bay antenna setup?
If so, do I have to be concerned about overload?

How many tv's are you using? Based on signal strengths, there is no need for a pre-amp with the Providence stations but it may advantageous for the Boston stations. The primary benefits of a pre-amp are: a) covers distribution losses between antenna and tv(s) and b) pre-amps have lower noise floor than most tv tuners. I'd try it first without the pre-amp.

Got your PM, will send info this evening.

Best,

Rick

Mistermitch,

After looking at your tvfool results, I think there is a good chance that you can get both Boston and Providence with a single reflectorless mclapp 4-bay. Cost to build one is less than $10. I would aim the antenna due north (whiskers are perpendicular to antenna aim). Your environment has a moderate to high potential for multipath. Build it first and let's see if multipath is an issue. A reflector would reduce/eliminate reflections from the rear (typical 4-bay reflector is 36" x 36" and utilizes 1"x2" hardware cloth) but would definitely mean you need two antennas.

I recommend building a 9.5x9 mclapp in your situation. See this link for plans: http://www.frontiernet.net/~mclapp/Antennas/diagrams.html


I have attached a photo of reflectorless 4-bay that I built. I used 2x2 pine as the base, 1/2 inch carlon pvc strap, 12 guage copper wire, and zinc hardware (#10-24x5/8 bolts, nuts, and #10 washers). You may want to consider using lock washers and nylon insert lock nuts. The carlon pvc strap is a real time saver for building a mclapp. They are available in packages of 5 straps for $1.25 at Home Depot (part E977CD-CTN). Carlon pvc is non-metallic, non-conductive, and non-corrosive. Ideal for our purposes! The attached carlon image illustrates some of the unique features:

1) On the inside of the strap, there is an X marking the center point. Very easy to drill a hole in the exact center of the strap without measuring and less than 5 minutes to prepare 5 straps for mounting on wood. There is a ridge on the top outside edge that can be easily filed off for a flat mounting surface. No need to file this ridge if using soft pine as the base.

2) There is a nice small reinforcement ring around the strap mount. The phase line and whiskers fit nicely on top of this mounting ring. Phase line spacing between the two mounting locations is 1-5/16 inch, close enough to recommended 1-1/4 inch. A number ten washer is large enough to cover both the phase line and whisker but not too large to enter the space between phase lines. Carlon straps are an ideal material for building mclapp 4-bays!

You could mount the reflectorless mclapp on a 2x2 as I did or you could mount it to pvc (schedule 40, electrical conduit, $1.30 for 10 ft long 3/4" pvc at Home Depot). It is easier to mount a reflector to the pvc pipe so I recommend using pvc. This should be enough to get you started. Oh, the crossovers are important. You need to make sure you have about 1/2 inch separation between phase lines at the crossovers.

****You'll also need one of these to attach between your antenna and your coax run to the tv: http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=TV-2900 All the big box stores, hardware stores, and Rat Shack have them.

HTH,

Rick