hddave2

staticMHZ

What kind of wiring was installed on it? Twin lead? Coax? Is it aimed in the right direction? You can try replacing it with some RG6 and seeing if any of the elements are broken off, and try re-aiming. You'll need a compass for that and look at the orientations on tvfool for your address.

TV Fool

__________________
DTV USA Forum is not affiliated with the converter box coupon program in any way, visit http://DTV2009.gov for more info.

Tim58hsv

I think thats the Lava antenna discussed here.
http://www.dtvusaforum.com/dtv-recep...a-reviews.html

__________________
I Want My RETRO TV

hddave2

well the wiring is i know at liest 12yrs and the antenna is also 12yrs old..now it could be older. it has been here since i've owned the house and it does show some wear.. looks like 2 of the long bars are broke off so im thinking im just gonna replace everything and start over..i see that little antenna on ebay and it says 100 mile range so unless someone can give me a reason not to buy it or know of a better antenna that will work in a very rural area please let me know..what ever i buy will be installed outside about 25 to 30 ft in the air..thanks for the advice

Piggie

Yes you need a new antenna, but not that one. That is not a good antenna to begin with and horrible in a rural setting.

With the biggest best antenna a person can buy with a preamp and 50 ft tower, in most locations in the US, the limit of analog is about 80 miles. Digital is less.

Antenna 10 times it size have trouble at 100 miles.

Ratting an antenna in miles is like saying my car will go 120 mph because the speedometer goes that high. Antenna companies should not be allowed to use miles.

If you go to here Google Maps Latitude, Longitude Popup and move the map to your location, then once very close zoom in satellite mode, you can find your property or house. click the map there so a red ballon show up on your house. Then take the coordinates it gives you and put them in this web site.
TV Fool by clicking the cooriginates.

Also put in the height you plan to mount an antenna.

It will give you a link at the top of the page to share back here.

Post that back here then we can go from there to recommend an antenna system.

__________________
The more I understand, the less I know.

hddave2

i think this is it....... TV Fool ......i hope..lol..

Piggie

You live in a very tough situation. While when you put in your coordinates, TVFool is dead on your house, it rounds on display. But that was close enough to see the river valley with mountains on all sides, at least toward TV stations.

You need a very large antenna, rotor and pre-amp, and then signals are weak enough it's a gamble what would actually come in.

Two choices one is Cowboys Deep Fringe Prescription

Antennas Direct 91XG UHF Antenna for uhf Digital stations mounted 4 ft over a Winegard YA1713 VHF Antenna. Channel Master Titan 7777 preamp to combine the two antennas signals it has one vhf and one uhf input and one output. a Channel Master 9521a rotor about 20 to 30'+ antenna height from the ground. http://www.dtvusaforum.com/dtv-recep....html#post5128

Solution two is a single Winegard 7698P antenna with the same Channel Master Titan 7777 preamp and a Channel Master 9521a Rotor. Also 25 to 30 ft above the ground.

All of the above are available at SolidSignal.com

If you do it yourself you need coax jumpers from the antenna(s) to the pre-amp. Coax to get inside and rotor control wire to the rotor.

You could about double your chances with a 50 ft triangular tower or higher.

But one thing to be sure to understand, is your TVFool numbers are low enough it is not abosoutely certain what you will pick up and at what time of day.

If you start at the top of the TVFool list your chances to receive end at WBNA starting from the top of the list with the green channels plus
the first couple of reds/pink how ever you see that color.

I am positive the Lava would never have worked now, not that it helps to know that now.

__________________
The more I understand, the less I know.

hddave2

well just let you know..when i 1st hooked my tv to the converter box and hooked it to my very old and broken antenna i just picked up fox 56.1 now after posting my 1st thread here on the forum i went out and turned the antenna just a little. now i get fox, abc, nbc,cbs and some kind of channel cw 34.1 and to boot it is raining hard here this morning and im still getting the channels..now this is happening with 12yr old antenna and old cable thats about 50ft long..when i check my signal strength im at about 14 to 16 on all channels i get..now that we know this would a brand new long range antenna with a amp and 50ft of the best cable help with a better signal and maybe even more channels?ok i have to ask after looking at my situation why do you think the lava antenna wont work..im just trying to understand and to make sure i dont buy somthing that is junk..thanks

Aaron62

In whatever case, if you do choose to buy a new antenna, get one you can return, just in case it doesn't work out. That's kind of been the mantra here at the forum.

divxhacker

I ordered a similar one. Those photos they use on the site look like stock photos.The one you posted has pictures hosted from a former car dealership site. There is a Chinese photo there (the picture of a HD TV with baketball game on it has a Chinese watermark on it.

This one that I ordered says "not made in China" so I bought one. NEW! AMPLIFIED ROTOR ANTENNA HDTV HD TV VHF UHF OUTDOOR - eBay (item 390048771272 end time Jun-30-09 15:49:16 PDT)
It's my third antenna I bought on eBay.

My first one was the EZ-Dish antenna seen here, third one down: Dish King - Local TV Antennas Worked great for full-power stations. It's still sitting in the attic.

Second one is the Chinese A-Neutronics antenna which worked fine for full power stations but will NOT pick up weak VHF DTV stations. UHF only!:
AMPLIFIED VHF UHF FM OUTDOOR HDTV HD ROTOR TV ANTENNA - eBay (item 350213715339 end time Jun-25-09 09:00:00 PDT)


I will test the one I got "apartment style" first, meaning connected in the room, at 5 feet off the ground.

__________________
I love Computers, but I could never eat a Whole one.