My Minneapolis/St. Paul antenna situation; advice welcome

Hello All,

Thank you for help in the past. I think I'm ready to try to make a fix to my antenna situation. Here's my house:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3dbefb1c61373861

I just bought a house in Chanhassen (Minneapolis-St. Paul) with an 5-foot long antenna in the garage attic pointing the right way. I hooked it up and, after replacing a thin coax, am getting a excellent signal on 9-1 and 11-1 (seem to be VHF) and the other UHF channels at 40-50%, with 29-1 and 2-1 (UHF) having zero signal. After this thread ( http://www.highdefforum.com/local-hdtv-info-reception/102125-what-required-connected-terminals-antenna.html#post947053 ) I understand a lot more. I'm guessing my antenna does little to nothing for UHF; it seems to only have a few UHF directors.

So I need a UHF antenna. My first attempt is to repair a Silver Sensor and try that. I hope to put it also in the garage attic with a VHF/UHF combiner; I hope that will work. I am not sure if my combiner isolates one from the other; I will have to just try it.

Otherwise, I looked at the Radio Shack U-75 online; looks a little big (four feet or so?); I'm not sure if it will fit near my other antenna without touching it. Price is certainly good. But can anyone recommend a smaller UHF antenna that I could use with my current VHF antenna up in the garage attic?

(I know I should put it on the roof for best results. Have mercy!)

Why all the gyrations it's much easier to do it once before the snow flies, and do it right. A Winegard HD-7694P aimed at the Shoreview towers will do the job for your perfectly. You SHOULD mount it on the roof!

To PSzalapski,

To me, it appears you have a simple solution. Just get a fairly good combination VHF/UHF antenna with decent gain, and you should bag the lot of those channels pointed at 58 degrees. Without having to use any other antennas.

As for that real channel 40 at 347 degrees, its strong enough so you will likely get it also even though its well off aim. The only other marginally gettable channel is that real channel 12 to the southwest, and its a duplicate network.

Something like the winegard 7694 P springs to mind at about $60.00 shipped from solid signal. I do not think you need a preamp but one could be later added if needed.

You could try to use a join antenna scheme, the radio shack 75 R is not a bad UHF antenna, but were it me, I would not try to mess around with all the complexities and high wind loads involved with just a five foot mast and two antennas. Or repairing your silver sensor.

Just my take, others on this forum may have different ideas.

Hmm, the HD7694P is 65" long. Anyone know of a smaller one that might work well?

I should add that I'm going to have to run 50' or so of RG6 around the house to get the TV outlet where I want it. Does this matter? (Must I avoid using RG59?)

Oh, and I don't care much about channel 41 in St. Cloud (actual ch 40) or anything from Mankato. I just want the nearby channels.

In terms of RG-6 v. RG-59, the latter simply has more loss, especially at UHF frequencies.

In my case, I bought a house where the RG-59 was pre installed to one television. I have 30 feet of RG-59 leading from my antenna to the basement in my house. And almost impossible to easily replace with better cable.

From my basement, I installed a splitter. One end ran another 75 feet of RG-59 to my living room TV, the other end of the splitter ran 50' of RG-6 to my dining room TV. Bottom line, the dining room TV did much better than the Living room TV.

I later added a medium powered distribution amp at the split point in the basement. And not only did it get me more channels on the dining room TV, it also made up for cable losses and the Living room TV gets as many channels as the dining room TV.

Maybe just one isolated incident, but its false economy to run RG-59
when RG-6 costs only a little bit more in the case of a new install.

Otherwise, I looked at the Radio Shack U-75 online; looks a little big (four feet or so?);

The U-75 will work, but also take a look at the 4220HD or similar 2 bay bow tie.

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=03&p=4220-HD&d=Channel-Master-4220HD-2Bay-HDTVUHF-Antenna&c=TV%20Antennas&sku=020572030168

You should use a preamp. If so, get one that combines VHF and UHF. I like the AP-2870.

What shocks me is that they read the post - what needs to be connected to the antenna to make it work and yet they won't take sound advice.

It's just like my drunken neighbors, you try to give them advice and they shake their heads up and down like as if they understand every word you say and the minute you walk away, they return to doing everything wrong and the way they intended on doing it in the first place.

Why do people ask for advice if they are not going to take it?

The RG 59 is a poor performer for UHF and should be avoided at all costs. In this day and age, there is no benefit to using RG 59.

There is nothing cheaper about it, even if someone gave it to you.

For someone to say - it doesn't matter if I get this channel or that channel doesn't do one bit of good for your cause.

The antenna has to be a certain size to work properly and that is it!

Put up too small a antenna or try to combine two different antenna's at the same time and chances are you will get more problems then you will get benefits.


At this point, anyone that wants to put a antenna in the attic of a garage and not put it outside when 3 different people all gave the same advice, tells me that you are not willing to do any work and trying to reason with you would be useless.

Have a good day.

Tigerbangs ought to be proud of me, I didn't even mention a rotor.

I spent a half-hour today hooking up the Silver Sensor. It now works better. I'm glad I did that; now we get most channels. It'll do temporarily.

Thanks for the advice. I'll probably buy one of the above antennas. Yes, it will go in my garage attic. I'll use the time I save not figuring out a roof solution to mow the lawn, make supper, and study--and maybe watch some TV, since I'm clearly not willing to do any work. ;)

Oh, and here's a funny SNL sketch for JB.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/19050/saturday-night-live-nick-burns

Thank you all very much; this forum turned a head-scratcher into a very good, cheap, easy solution.

For someone to say - it doesn't matter if I get this channel or that channel doesn't do one bit of good for your cause.

Hmmm, you don't allow posters to have their opinions? Why not? I would not want ION either... In Mpls/St Paul, the shoreview towers are all you need to have great OTA tv! No other station need apply...

While most everything has been covered, I'd like to put my :2cents in just the same...

I'm not sure what the big deal is about mounting the antenna outdoors. A chimney mount is a piece of cake to install... and a wall mount almost as easy. But if you can get decent reception from within the attic, then that's your prerogative of course.

A point to bring up however is concerning how much space PSzalapski has to deal with in his attic:

I looked at the Radio Shack U-75 online; looks a little big (four feet or so?); I'm not sure if it will fit near my other antenna without touching it

If your two antennas end up on top of one another (so to speak) this will not be a good thing... So time spent fiddling with indoor positioning and the monies spent on the second antenna must also be considered when analyzing how much "work" you're putting into this...

I also have to wonder what "5-foot long antenna" you actually have there, and if mounted outdoors would it do the job fine by itself?

Add me to the list that says why bother with RG-59, and the extra loss it incurs... And if that's what's there now may be inhibiting UHF performance, (as NMT illustrates) and should be the first thing changed - before purchasing a second antenna!

If you do go with the second UHF antenna, do combine the two with an UVSJ, as this rejects out of band performance from either antenna and adds minimal loss.


And I don't know about anyone else, but I'm proud of you JB for not mentioning a rotor!:D
Although as Rick points out, you did come off a bit abrasive again...

Thanks, Mr. Hooper. Since a new all-sufficient all-purpose antenna will be about the same price as the U75, I'll probably just take down my old one and be done with it. And I'm not using any RG59; don't worry. :)