OTA antennas

[PeoplesElbow]

RabbitEARS – Welcome to RabbitEARS

Welcome to RabbitEARS

www.rabbitears.org

Good. I'll let my rabbits know.

That would be rabbitears.info.

Anyway, I didn't see a LOT of channels. Maybe a dozen and a half in the DC direction, and the field strength was bad for almost all of them, for my location. I'm thinking this is still not going to be worth experimenting with.

For each station shown there are 3-4 substations.

Have you tried locast? For $5 a month you can get a ton of stations, all DC stations.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

My little RCA antenna gets 4 and 5 pretty well, it's actually pretty impressive for it's size. I'll try the new antenna and see how it goes. And now I remember why I got such a frikkin' big antenna, it was for the low VHF range.


I've had a rotor for many years, and it really only takes a few seconds to slew it to the right direction. It's nice to be able to "tweak' the antenna direction when signal is weak, you can zone right in on the best reception. If aimed at DC, frequently can't get Baltimore and vs versa.

You can get BMore stations with that little RCA Yagi?

 

[Sneakers]

You can get BMore stations with that little RCA Yagi?

When conditions are right, channels 2 and 11. Like I said, this little antenna pulls some serious signal for it's size. If conditions get weird, I get Richmond instead of DC on the same frequency, the tv just switches channels to the best signal.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Just FYI a new standard is coming ATSC 3.0 that will make reception much better.

 

[Sneakers]

Just FYI a new standard is coming ATSC 3.0 that will make reception much better.

Yes. Been looking at new tvs, seeing if any of them mention 3.0 compliance.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

When conditions are right, channels 2 and 11. Like I said, this little antenna pulls some serious signal for it's size. If conditions get weird, I get Richmond instead of DC on the same frequency, the tv just switches channels to the best signal.

Get your new antenna yet?

FWIW wineguard makes a low VHF version of your small Yagi, it has extensions you put on your elements. The extensions make it wider than it is long, but it works well from what I understand and other than the huge ones like your channel master it has a fairly high gain for low vhf. Most antenna makers only provide lip service to low vhf and throw on a simple dipole only.

 

[jrt_ms1995]

We had a rotor when I was little - back when there WERE only about 4 or 5 stations.

We had a rotor when I was little, too. One of us kids would be sent outside to lift and rotate the antenna mast while Dad shouted through the window!

 

[Sneakers]

Get your new antenna yet?

No, got an email that they mis-calculated stock and it wasn't available. Re-grouping....

 

[PeoplesElbow]

No, got an email that they mis-calculated stock and it wasn't available. Re-grouping....

Televes makes one with a low vhf element.

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www.televes.com

 

[Sneakers]

Televes makes one with a low vhf element.

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www.televes.com

Thanx. Hadn't had a chance to look at other offerings yet.

Had some really strange things happen last night. Couldn't sleep, so I was trying to pull in some new channels at 4am. Got an alternate PBS on Ch 22 (usually use 28), and a CW on 54. Watching 54, and all of a sudden, the screen goes nuts and I loose the channel. Figured it was just atmospheric, went to the new PBS station. Low and behold, there is the CW station on the PBS channel, but the station info still indicated PBS. But everything on PBS was down-shifted one sub-channel. What should have been on 22.3 was on 22.2. 22.2 was on 22.1. And 54 would randomly disappear and re-appear from the channel list. Then all of a sudden, it was back to normal. Did this a number of times. I've seen anomalies before where entire stations would swap, but it's because one station was out of DC and another out of Richmond, both assigned to the same frequency, and the stronger station at the moment would come thru, but never had stations move to another channel and back again.

The only thing I can think of is that the stations were playing with channel assignments. Or maybe they're experimenting with ATSC 3.0 and my 12 year old TV can't deal with it. It's all normal today.

 

[Sneakers]

Televes makes one with a low vhf element.

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www.televes.com

Just got it. Impressed with the quality, built strong, better than any other I've seen.

"Some assembly required"

 

[Sneakers]

Got it assembled, stuck it in the ground about 3 feet high. Got about 20 channels. Pretty good, considering I've never gotten anything with any other antenna when I've done this before.

Kinda breezy here today, so no roof.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Got it assembled, stuck it in the ground about 3 feet high. Got about 20 channels. Pretty good, considering I've never gotten anything with any other antenna when I've done this before.

Kinda breezy here today, so no roof.

What low vhf channel was you trying to get? I didnt see one in my rabbit ears report.

 

[Sneakers]

What low vhf channel was you trying to get? I didnt see one in my rabbit ears report.

I've had 2-7 (all of them except 6), but weak and loose them easy. It would be nice to be able to pull them in consistently. I'll take whatever I can get.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

I've had 2-7 (all of them except 6), but weak and loose them easy. It would be nice to be able to pull them in consistently. I'll take whatever I can get.

Can you pull in Laff, MeTV, Cozi, AntennaTV and Charge normally? Other than the big 4 networks those are what I am interested in

 

[Sneakers]

Can you pull in Laff, MeTV, Cozi, AntennaTV and Charge normally? Other than the big 4 networks those are what I am interested in

I get COZI on 4-2 and MeTV on 47-3, Charge is on 7.3, and I get those pretty consistently. Antenna is on a couple of stations. I remember seeing Laff, don't recall what channel it was on.

What's interesting, is that when I set the antenna up "correctly", use a metal upright, ground it, make sure the ground plane is right, etc.... I get crap for a signal. I accidentally discovered that if I use a PVC upright and omit the grounds, I get a great signal strength from this little yagi.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

I get COZI on 4-2 and MeTV on 47-3, Charge is on 7.3, and I get those pretty consistently. Antenna is on a couple of stations. I remember seeing Laff, don't recall what channel it was on.

What's interesting, is that when I set the antenna up "correctly", use a metal upright, ground it, make sure the ground plane is right, etc.... I get crap for a signal. I accidentally discovered that if I use a PVC upright and omit the grounds, I get a great signal strength from this little yagi.

I'd say that is a sign of something noisy in your house. LED bulbs are notorious for killing reception. It could also be a neighbors house doing it.

 

[Sneakers]

I'd say that is a sign of something noisy in your house. LED bulbs are notorious for killing reception. It could also be a neighbors house doing it.

No way of knowing without a spectrum analyzer. All I know is that it works.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Put up your antenna yet? I found a review of the LR-MIX from Tyler the Antenna Man.

 

[Sneakers]

Put up your antenna yet? I found a review of the LR-MIX from Tyler the Antenna Man.

Thanx. Would have been nice if he did a little more spectrum analysis on this one, but he did have good things to say.

Hoping to get to the install tomorrow.