Antenna Trials - Channel Master 4228, WineGard HD9085, Radio Shack UHF

HoustonDigital

I’ve tried these antennas:
Radio Shack 15-2151 VHF/UHF yagi with 50” boom - rated range VHF/UHF = 75/50 miles
Channel Master 4228 array - rated range UHF = 60 miles
Radio Shack UHF yagi with 40” boom - rated range UHF = 75 miles
WineGard HD9085 UHF yagi with 75” boom – ratings shown in db over dipole, 11.9 to 14.6

Transmitter distance is about 27 miles and bearings are within 3 degrees. There are large trees in the line of sight.

The small Radio Shack VHF/UHF was put in the attic a couple of years ago for regular analog broadcast and had a 12db pre-amp. With this antenna all digital stations were received but NBC on 35 had enough drop outs to be annoying and ABC on 32 had many. The others were close to 100%. Removing the 12db pre-amp, located in the attic, actually slightly improved reception and adding an FM trap also made a small improvement.

The Channel Master UHF was installed atop a 30 foot mast with 100 feet of RG6. Again all stations, even including the VHF PBS station on channel 9 and PAX on channel 5, were received but still some stations had a few drop outs. A 12db pre-amp near the antenna did not improve the digital reception.

The small Radio Shack UHF yagi was tried atop the same 30 foot mast and was slightly better than the Channel Master for the UHF stations and was about the same for the two VHF stations.

The WineGard UHF yagi atop the 30 foot mast receives all UHF channels with no drop outs observed so far. The two VHF stations, channel 9 and 5, are not received at all. I haven’t tried a pre-amp yet with this antenna but I did experiment with two 6db inline attenuators. With 6db attenuation there was no visible difference in the signal and with 12 db channel 51 dropped out completely but the other channels stayed in with no drop outs.

HoustonDigital

I've since added a VHF/UHF Splitter/Combiner to get the VHF off of the VHF/UHF antenna in the attic and the UHF of the antenna outside. With this setup these Houston stations seem to be 100%:

KPRC - NBC on channel 35
KPXB – PAX on channel 5
KUHT – PBS on channel 9
KHOU – CBS on channel 31
KTRK – ABC on channel 32
KTXH – UPN on channel 19
KETH – TBN on channel 24
KRIV – FOX on channel 27
KHWB – WB on channel 38
KAZH – AZA on channel 41
KZJL – SAH on channel 44
KXLN – UNI on channel 46
KTMD – TEL on channel 47
KNWS – Independent on channel 52

Antennaweb.org also lists these digital stations that I am not able to receive at all:
KBTX - CBS in Bryan on channel 50
KLTH – DAY in Galveston on channel 23
KTBU – Independent in Conroe on channel 42 – I contacted the station and I was told they do not have a digital broadcast.

And KFTH – TFA, a Spanish station, has a strong signal but repeatedly freezes and unfreezes.

I hope my trials an errors can be of use.

denyart

sorry to replay to this so late, but i just read this post and was wondering if i could clarify. you are basically saying the winegard yagi did the best in your situation. do you have any idea why the other antennas did not do as well? was the winegard you used more directional, higher front to back ratio, more built in reception gain, or just plain a bigger better antenna? thanks

calicogang

First, thanks for taking the time to do these tests. From everything that I have read, here and our local bbs, I am going to wait unitl DTV launches their SFO Hi-DEf channels next year. The over the air reception seams weak and the stations seam not to care that much. I am be wrong, but it isn't worth the hasttle to find the right OTA and mount it, and hope that it works.

acoldstarnolds

I am also in Houston and am using the the old rabbit ears and small uhf indoor antenna I had from years ago. I hooked up the Dish 811 last week, did a scan for the local HD OTA channels and it found them all. Problem is, the local vhf channels are coming in on the vhf band, such as kprc on 2.1, khou on 11.1, etc. The strongest reception I get is about 75%.
Your post shows you getting kprc on 35 and khou on 31. I have tried manually adding those channels where antennaweb.org shows there are but cannot get the 811 to accept those channel locations.
I live in NW off Highway six and get 11.1 and 26.1 very well with the antenna I have. I get most of the uhf channels much better than the vhf. If there is a way to program and get all of these on uhf?

hdtv4me2

I believe that your Dish 811 finds your UHF digital stations and groups them with your VHF analog stations by network. For example, KPRC is your local NBC channel, channel 2 is the VHF broadcast and 2.1, which is UHF channel 35, is its digital broadcast. It lists them like this so you can just jump one channel down, 2 to 2.1, when you want to watch the digital version of NBC. You probably have it memorized that channel 2 is NBC so this way you don't have to remember that channel 35 is channel 2's digital counter part. Make sense?

acoldstarnolds

So if antennaweb shows my kprc channel is broadcast on 35 but is found on channel 2.1, then it is really being picked up by my uhf antenna and not the vhf rabbit ears?

rbinck

Yes that is correct. What happens is when your receiver is tuned to channel 2 it is redirected to 35 where the actual signal is being transmitted.

ifudd

HoustonDigital,
Great stuff, I'm new to this forum and HD, I am in The Woodlands and bought the RCA ant-706 powered indoor/outdoor antenna, I have it installed in my attic (cannot have outdoor antennas in The Woodlands) I get between 30and 60% reception for most of the local channels. I want to try to improve that and would like some suggestions as to hardware/setup given:
Has to be indoor/attic mount 2nd story
Have some trees
would like not to have to move antenna for seperate channels (right now have to move slightly to get Fox/UPN.
Could I mount any of those suggested antennas in my attic understanding I would loose some signal? or is there some better alternative?
Thanks again ifudd

denyart

not to harp on the subject, but you are supposed to be allowed to put the antenna on the roof if you need to in order to get signal reception. see the sticky thread at the top of the local info and reception forum. i would put an antenna on the roof.

denyart

http://www.hdtvexpert.com./pages/squareshot.htm

I thought if you were still looking into this, then you may want to go look at this article to get some ideas on antennas you may want to try.

acoldstarnolds

I purchased a Zenith Silver Sensor UHF HD this week. I believe I have solved my problems. I hooked it up yesterday and played with it briefly, was getting all the HD OTA channels in Houston and most were over 80%, one over 90%!
I am even pulling in the PBS channel now with a 70% and it is broadcast on VHF channel 8.

Sport73

Anyone know how to connect 2 antennas simultaneously?

I have an outdoor antenna (GS-1000) provided by DirecTV. On the day of install, I got what I wanted: NBC, ABC, CBS & Fox local broadcasts. Since then, ABC or Fox have dropped out intermittently. I can recapture ABC by turning the antenna one way, and Fox by turning it another, but not both simultaneously.

I don't want to use a rotator, so how can I connect a second antenna (indoor or out) and aim it to receive the missing channel? Is it as simple as putting a splitter?

speakers3

Is there a meter that will measure the strength of the HD signal before you put up an antenne?

Boneman

Yes just put it on the same pole and aim it at the station you want.