Looking for a great antenna for my valley location

I am looking for a new antenna for my house. I bought a cheap one complete with amp on ebay and I got all the channels that antennaweb said I would get but PBS came in weak with the amp on. I have the antenna mounted to a radio shack pole on my chimney on my roof. My house is 1 story and the pole I think is 10 feet. So I would imagine the antenna is 25 feet from the ground. At any rate the antenna rotator control box and amp fried since my cable got cut in the window. This is like the antenna I have now: DIGITAL VHF UHF OUTDOOR HDTV HD ROTOR TV ANTENNA 106 - eBay (item 290428940315 end time Jul-24-10 12:04:17 PDT)



I would like to buy a better antenna. Does anyone on here have any good experience with something that they think will do better than this? I dont understand how the Db gain numbers work on the TV fool website but it shows a couple more channels further out on the little chart I would like to get. I really would like to get boston stations but I have a hill blocking line of sight. At the top of the hill by my house the website says they get way more channels. I live in New Boston NH on River road. I was going to buy the philips antenna rotator. I was thinking of maybe the 4228 antenna but I don't want it if it won't pull in any more channels. I will get another ebay special if that is the case. Can someone explain how the db gain numbers work on the tvfool website? i dont understand what it means when its negative. The antenna has been fine on my roof for about 2 years I just broke the cable with the window. Would I be able to buy another 10 foot pole to raise it 10 feet without much trouble? I have a band chimney mount.

rrob,

If you moved to Beijing, China that antenna might work for you but since we use different frequencies in North America, you couldn't have chosen a worse antenna to try.

Please go to this website: TV Fool, plug in your information and share the result (LINK) with us so the crew can make suggestions on an appropriate antenna system for you. Be sure to enter the anticipated height above ground where your antenna will reside. The website automatically conceals your personal information.

Jim

PS Regarding db numbers and other technical issues, let's see what you are potentially able to receive first and let our crew comment.

rrob, welcome to the Forum

IF you plan to put another 10 ft on top of your existing Chimney Mount, you'd better have locations where you can run some Guy Wires. 20 Ft is TOO much for those bands to handle, if you get some wind !

On the db issue... I think you are referring to the "NM (db)"

That is a number which indicates the strength of the signal at your location.
Top of the chart is strong, and the strength drops as it goes down the list.
TVFool says, you "should" be able to get any station that has a value of 0.00 or greater.
My personal experience is...that's NOT true !!!

I'm not saying that "someone" with the right setup couldn't get "all" of the channels indicated in the "plus",
But my experience is...you're going to have reception issues, or take extra steps, to get stations below about 40 db. In some cases, that number must be MUCH higher to get good reception.

But, before we can do much more for you, we GOT to have the link to your TVFool Chart, like Jim said.

Have a good Day !
S.W.

TV Fool

That is my TVfool map set at 25 feet.

rrob,

WOW !, that's probably the worst reception chart I've ever seen !!!

Rob, I'm sorry about this, and I don't do it very often, but....
I think you need to consider a PTV Cable or Satellite provider for your TV Service.
Sorry about that.

Have a good Day !
S.W.

Looks like you could get the first four stations listed on tv fool and maybe a few others in the evening and early morning. Good news is with the subchannels you'd have a total of eight viewing choices. Bad news is you'll still need a rotor and possibly a preamp or distribution amp (depending on how many tv's you hook up to the antenna) to get even those channels. As for an antenna Summit Source sells the antenna craft Super G1483 8-bay and that should bring in all four stations despite the Super G being a uhf antenna. Two of your stations are in the vhf high band frequencies but from my experience the bow tie antenna designs (like the Super G) work well on the upper vhf band.

rrob,

Are there houses near you with OTA and if so what are they picking up?
Stan

Originally Posted by SWHouston

rrob,

WOW !, that's probably the worst reception chart I've ever seen !!!

Rob, I'm sorry about this, and I don't do it very often, but....
I think you need to consider a PTV Cable or Satellite provider for your TV Service.
Sorry about that.

Have a good Day !
S.W.

I've seen worse, but I'll have to agree that unless your happy with ABC, PBS, and ION your better off with a pay TV provider.