Attic antenna recommendation and installation

Would a attic antenna be better than a indoor antenna? I've got a small attic (only 3'x4') available above my family room which is perfect for mounting something like the Phillips Mant940 until I read the reviews here http://www.dtvusaforum.com/dtv-recep...a-reviews.html

Here are my TV Fool results

you can get the los stuff from the attic but the 1 edge and 2 edge stuff needs a roof mount like a 91-xg from antennas direct. need a bigger view of the tv fool report can't read it.

Originally Posted by CrabTreeJack

Would a attic antenna be better than a indoor antenna? I've got a small attic (only 3'x4') available above my family room which is perfect for mounting something like the Phillips Mant940 until I read the reviews here http://www.dtvusaforum.com/dtv-recep...a-reviews.html

The Mant940 is way too small of an antenna for you. Attic is better than indoor, but outside is the best.

How high is your attic? Attics above a second story work pretty good a lot of time (never as good as outside).

Then it depends if you want stations from Corvallis/Eugene or you want Salem, or both.

Listing the channels you want, preferably by call sign, not channel I can make a better educated guess. At it will determine, do you need a rotor? How many TVs will you feed will determine amp/no amp, though with KOAC an amp might overload.

Can you even put up an outdoor antenna? Both directions have or will have a VHF station, so you will need an antenna that will work well on VHF. For example if they have not already, KOAC will be cutting back to RF7 for digital.

The mant940 is rated for 20 miles or less. Don't buy it because I doubt it will work for you.

91XG is a good choice for Fringe areas and if need be you can stack a seperate antenna for VHF with it.

The antenna would be mounted about 15' from the ground inside our attic. It's a 2 story house but the space that the attic occupies is next to the second story, not above the second story.

MANT940 is for 20 miles or less? Thanks, did not know that.

My goal is to get th stations that are 37.7 miles away or less. Why is it that most of them are red? I don't want to instal the antenna on my roof because we just spent $15,000 getting it redone and I guess it's just something I want to avoid.

91XG will work great especially for the 1edge and 2edge, you have to tilt it to get over the terrain

Originally Posted by CrabTreeJack

Would a attic antenna be better than a indoor antenna? I've got a small attic (only 3'x4') available above my family room which is perfect for mounting something like the Phillips Mant940 until I read the reviews here http://www.dtvusaforum.com/dtv-recep...a-reviews.html

That's a pretty small space to put an antenna in but if that's all the room you have to work with then go with a db4.

I use two of them in my attic. One is for a station to the east which is 54 miles away and the other is for several channels to the south which are 40+ miles away. They work good and a lot of those stations I get are listed as 1 and 2 edge on tvfool.

Basically, any station tvfool shows to have a NM (noise margin) above 10, you have a good chance at picking up. Anything below is a big maybe with an attic installation.

IMO the db4's sound like the best solution for you.

DB4 or 91XG. Thanks everyone. One more question, are there any good medium sized UHF and VHF antennas?

In addition to the DB4 there is the DB8 which has even more gain.

Originally Posted by CrabTreeJack

DB4 or 91XG. Thanks everyone. One more question, are there any good medium sized UHF and VHF antennas?

Hope you have not ordered, and sorry I wasn't johnny on the spot getting back to this thread.

The DB4 and 91XG unless combined with a YA-1713 will be a very bad choice.
They are both UHF only antennas with very little reception on VHF to none in particular at your distance.

Just so I said it, you are far enough away being in the attic might work, but it might also be an act of futility. But it might work.

Also in the attic tilting may or maynot work. The TV signals once inside most attics do strange things. You can find a spot 10 feet away from where it doesn't work to where it works.

Frankly I don't have a lot of faith you can get what you want in the attic, which I repeat so it's not missed. Your location doesn't lend toward attic antenna installs in the slightest. If the 2nd story is above the attic toward the NE, then you have double trouble looking through the 2nd story.

But you need something big even outside.

I would suggest Winegard 7696P as it's about the biggest thing you could put in the attic, a 7698P would be best but it's LONG antenna.

I would also buy a Channel Master 7777 preamp. You will be pointed away from the strong locals.

If you could put a 7698P outside, up just 20 feet, I think then you would have what you want.

Originally Posted by Piggie

Hope you have not ordered, and sorry I wasn't johnny on the spot getting back to this thread.

The DB4 and 91XG unless combined with a YA-1713 will be a very bad choice.
They are both UHF only antennas with very little reception on VHF to none in particular at your distance.

Just so I said it, you are far enough away being in the attic might work, but it might also be an act of futility. But it might work.

Also in the attic tilting may or maynot work. The TV signals once inside most attics do strange things. You can find a spot 10 feet away from where it doesn't work to where it works.

Frankly I don't have a lot of faith you can get what you want in the attic, which I repeat so it's not missed. Your location doesn't lend toward attic antenna installs in the slightest. If the 2nd story is above the attic toward the NE, then you have double trouble looking through the 2nd story.

But you need something big even outside.

I would suggest Winegard 7696P as it's about the biggest thing you could put in the attic, a 7698P would be best but it's LONG antenna.

I would also buy a Channel Master 7777 preamp. You will be pointed away from the strong locals.

If you could put a 7698P outside, up just 20 feet, I think then you would have what you want.

No problem at all, and I appreciate everyone's help too. What I may end up doing for now is buying the Winegard 7696P or Antennas Direct DB8 with the Channel Master 7777 preamp and running a temporary coax line to the 1st floor attic, and then just laying the antenna against a temporary support to see how well it'll do. I figure I'll invest about an hour of time just to see if it'll receive a few channels and mess with the direction/tilting it. Will try either this weekend or next weekend.

Originally Posted by CrabTreeJack

No problem at all, and I appreciate everyone's help too. What I may end up doing for now is buying the Winegard 7696P or Antennas Direct DB8 with the Channel Master 7777 preamp and running a temporary coax line to the 1st floor attic, and then just laying the antenna against a temporary support to see how well it'll do. I figure I'll invest about an hour of time just to see if it'll receive a few channels and mess with the direction/tilting it. Will try either this weekend or next weekend.

KOPB
KOAC
KGW
KPTV

Are all going back to or to VHF on June 13th. The DB8 while it has some VHF capacity, absolutely won't work with NM signals down in the teens.

I would go with the 7696P has between 10 to 20 more db gain across ch 7-13 than a DB8.

The more I think about this limited space, and the fact you are buying a CM7777, you might want to try the cowboy deep fringe solution.

YA-1713 for VHF
XG91 for UHF

The CM7777 is setup to allow combining antennas and does it perfectly.

Both of the above antennas are 100 inches or less. Actually 10 inches shorter than the 7696P

In limited space like an attic you can set them side by side 5 to 8 ft apart.
Put the amp closer to the UHF antenna.

Just another idea.