Outdoor UHF HDTV Antennas -
- Thread starter aubriana
- Start date
glhs837
Power with Control
Very dependent upon your location and antenna type/height. I suggest using antennaweb.org to see what you might get. My house, down by St Marys City, even if I say my antenna will be 30 feet in the air, says I most likely wont be able to receive any OTA signals, or not strong enough to make a picture anyway.
hitchicken
Active Member
Go for it.
I am in Town Creek, 1/4 mile from the Patuxent River and my antenna is 30-35 ft above the water. I have some trees in the direction my antenna needs to be pointing. I get consistently...
2-1,2-1,4-1,4-2,5-1,7-1,7-2,7-3,9-1,9-2,9-3,11-1,11-2,13-1,14-1,16-1,20-1,20-2,20-3,21-2,21-2,22-1,22-2,22-3,26-1,26-2,26-4,28-1,28-2,28-3,45-1,45-2, 45-3,47-1,47-2,54-1,66-1,66-2,66-3,66-4.
I get other channels as well but they are less consistent. I currently have a cheaper antenna because a tornado came through here a while back and a falling tree destroyed my fringe antenna. I expect the above list to become dramatically longer once I buy my replacement fringe antenna. What you will want if you want to try this is:
A highly directional deep 'fringe' antenna. They are long with a lot of elements. I recommend starting with SolidSignal.com.
A pre-amp.
A rotor
An powered signal splitter for more than 1 TV.
Coax
cable connectors with kit, mast, tie wraps, odds and ends.
You're looking at spending up to $300 if you get quality stuff. The antenna alone may run $160.
You get a lot of HD channels, some 720i channels and some SD channels. They include sports, old movies, 24 hr weather, talk shows, local news, PBS, game shows, variety shows and golden-oldie serials. If you want to learn Spanish, this is the way to go. There are a couple of Spanish kid's shows and adult shows as well.
For daily channel programming go to titantv,com. There is also an online website which will give channels and signal strengths and antenna directions if you enter your location. I forget the website name. Somebody else on thread might be able to tell you what it is.
Add Netflix and Amazon Instant video and you'll never go back to cable or satellite (unless you like the phoney scripted reality shows.)... and paying out a lot of money every month.
Best O Luck.
I am in Town Creek, 1/4 mile from the Patuxent River and my antenna is 30-35 ft above the water. I have some trees in the direction my antenna needs to be pointing. I get consistently...
2-1,2-1,4-1,4-2,5-1,7-1,7-2,7-3,9-1,9-2,9-3,11-1,11-2,13-1,14-1,16-1,20-1,20-2,20-3,21-2,21-2,22-1,22-2,22-3,26-1,26-2,26-4,28-1,28-2,28-3,45-1,45-2, 45-3,47-1,47-2,54-1,66-1,66-2,66-3,66-4.
I get other channels as well but they are less consistent. I currently have a cheaper antenna because a tornado came through here a while back and a falling tree destroyed my fringe antenna. I expect the above list to become dramatically longer once I buy my replacement fringe antenna. What you will want if you want to try this is:
A highly directional deep 'fringe' antenna. They are long with a lot of elements. I recommend starting with SolidSignal.com.
A pre-amp.
A rotor
An powered signal splitter for more than 1 TV.
Coax
cable connectors with kit, mast, tie wraps, odds and ends.
You're looking at spending up to $300 if you get quality stuff. The antenna alone may run $160.
You get a lot of HD channels, some 720i channels and some SD channels. They include sports, old movies, 24 hr weather, talk shows, local news, PBS, game shows, variety shows and golden-oldie serials. If you want to learn Spanish, this is the way to go. There are a couple of Spanish kid's shows and adult shows as well.
For daily channel programming go to titantv,com. There is also an online website which will give channels and signal strengths and antenna directions if you enter your location. I forget the website name. Somebody else on thread might be able to tell you what it is.
Add Netflix and Amazon Instant video and you'll never go back to cable or satellite (unless you like the phoney scripted reality shows.)... and paying out a lot of money every month.
Best O Luck.
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hitchicken
Active Member
To find direction and signal strength for most OAT transmitters use:
https://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29
Enter your location and antenna height and it gives you some nice charts and graphs. Please note they only list the first channel (like 7-1)even though there are more subchannels in that set (like 7-2 and 7-3). Also note, that while there are several channels you won't get, there many more they have failed to list.
https://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29
Enter your location and antenna height and it gives you some nice charts and graphs. Please note they only list the first channel (like 7-1)even though there are more subchannels in that set (like 7-2 and 7-3). Also note, that while there are several channels you won't get, there many more they have failed to list.
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A lot of information ~ Thanks!
1stGenSMIB
Active Member
hitchicken touched on the important parts. I have used many of the same resources.
I like my 91XG deep fringe UHF by Antennas Direct (available at solid signal). I am in the California area near the ToeJam bridge. I have my antenna roughly 110 feet above sea-level.
Be aware that the FCC screwed us several years ago when they initially stated 'all over-the-air TV will be digital and UHF', so I bought the 91XG thinking it was the only antenna I'd ever need. Then, they decided to keep the hi-VHF band for TV before cutting off the analog signals. Channels 7, 9, 11 & 13 are still in the VHF band. However, the 91XG can sometimes also pick these up, but it is a highly directional antenna, so you may or may not be able to get hi-VHF, or UHF channels outside the 30-ish° width of its target area, and a lot of this depends on terrain and antenna height. I also bought a relatively lightweight Hi-VHF antenna to pick up those stations mentioned above. Hi-VHF antennas thankfully no longer have those ultra long elements since the lo-VHF band is gone. A combo Hi-VHF/UHF antenna will always be a compromise..the more elements (generally) the better the antenna for a fringe area such as Southern Maryland, hence I have one for each band. Random trivia..unless you live northern county, the likely closest TV tower is actually on the Eastern Shore.
I had a little twisting of my rig during the California/TownCreek tornado last year, and need to get back up and fine tune everything and re-sync my rotator, and see if I can't get it all a few feet higher. I am having a little trouble with FOX in D.C. I may have a localized tree, as 1° off is NBC 4 which comes in most of the time.
If you want to get fancy, put some type of tuner card in your PC, or something like a SiliconDust box on your home network which capture over-the-air broadcasts from the antenna, which you pipe to your computer running DVR software of your choice (Windows Media Player will even do it, but I do not have any first hand experience with this yet.)
I like my 91XG deep fringe UHF by Antennas Direct (available at solid signal). I am in the California area near the ToeJam bridge. I have my antenna roughly 110 feet above sea-level.
Be aware that the FCC screwed us several years ago when they initially stated 'all over-the-air TV will be digital and UHF', so I bought the 91XG thinking it was the only antenna I'd ever need. Then, they decided to keep the hi-VHF band for TV before cutting off the analog signals. Channels 7, 9, 11 & 13 are still in the VHF band. However, the 91XG can sometimes also pick these up, but it is a highly directional antenna, so you may or may not be able to get hi-VHF, or UHF channels outside the 30-ish° width of its target area, and a lot of this depends on terrain and antenna height. I also bought a relatively lightweight Hi-VHF antenna to pick up those stations mentioned above. Hi-VHF antennas thankfully no longer have those ultra long elements since the lo-VHF band is gone. A combo Hi-VHF/UHF antenna will always be a compromise..the more elements (generally) the better the antenna for a fringe area such as Southern Maryland, hence I have one for each band. Random trivia..unless you live northern county, the likely closest TV tower is actually on the Eastern Shore.
I had a little twisting of my rig during the California/TownCreek tornado last year, and need to get back up and fine tune everything and re-sync my rotator, and see if I can't get it all a few feet higher. I am having a little trouble with FOX in D.C. I may have a localized tree, as 1° off is NBC 4 which comes in most of the time.
If you want to get fancy, put some type of tuner card in your PC, or something like a SiliconDust box on your home network which capture over-the-air broadcasts from the antenna, which you pipe to your computer running DVR software of your choice (Windows Media Player will even do it, but I do not have any first hand experience with this yet.)
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