Decent Omni for a suburban area around $50?

Hey there, I spent a couple hours on this forum looking around and reading reviews, but everything seems to be pointing towards directional antennas! Here's my TV Fool report, and as you can see I'm sort of smack dab in the middle of a bunch of stations. Many of them were coming in strong enough on a simple wire FM antenna, but I couldn't get NBC on 11 or 18, which I really want.



So: I've been in my attic and I toned out the cable that is already run to where my TV is, It will be simple to mount an antenna of almost any size up there. The attic is 15-20 feet above ground, the roof is asphalt shingles over plywood or some similar material, with loose insulation sitting on the floor (no aluminum to get in the way here). I also don't want to have to bother with rotating the antenna while channel surfing, the experience should be as transparent and easy as possible for guests.

Now, a night of heavy reading has gotten me a long way towards knowledge on this subject, but I'd still like some help picking out a VHF-HI/UHF antenna!

I was looking at a Winegard MS-1000 or 2000 series.


Thanks in advance for any help you can offer
-Mitch

Anyone?

Really, nothing?

Sorry about not catching this earlier. Looking at your TVfool I have to say that I really doubt you want an omni directional antenna. All of the majors are coming from almost directly east. I don't think the few possible stragglers would be worth the possiblilty of multipath interference.

My suggestions for an attic mount would be:

Winegard HD 7694P

Channel Master CM2018

AntennaCraft HBU22

The Winegard would be my first choice, Channel Master second, Antennacraft third.

Definitely no amplifier needed!

to the forum Mitch!

Wow, I don't know how I missed this thread.

What a great tvfool report! The 17 strongest stations, plus two more in the green, all come from 76 to 88 degrees, so you can catch 19 strong signals easy with one antenna. I guess the question you have to ask yourself is: "Can I live without WVEN, WVCI, WTMO, WESH, WHDO, WRCF and WATV?" You can investigate each of those stations by putting the call letters into Wikipedia. You might find the programming is all duplicated on the 19 strong stations from the east.

If you absolutely must have one of those weaker stations I listed, then you might need two antennas. You can start with one antenna, then add a second later if necessary.

Rick

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I was wrong about the omni thing, I'm grateful to have received a more experienced perspective.

Originally Posted by dkreichen1968

Looking at your TVfool I have to say that I really doubt you want an omni directional antenna. All of the majors are coming from almost directly east. I don't think the few possible stragglers would be worth the possiblilty of multipath interference.

Thanks, I'm going to pick up that Winegard you suggested! Just need to make a few measurements in my attic and find a short base that will work with the low attic ceiling.

Originally Posted by Rickideemus

to the forum Mitch!
I guess the question you have to ask yourself is: "Can I live without WVEN, WVCI, WTMO, WESH, WHDO, WRCF and WATV?" You can investigate each of those stations by putting the call letters into Wikipedia. You might find the programming is all duplicated on the 19 strong stations from the east.

It's mostly unique (only WESH looks duplicated) spanish language programming, but then again I don't speak spanish!



I'll report back after the install and tell you how it went.

So, I finished the install of the Winegard 7694P in my attic:



And here are my signal quality numbers with the old FM wire antenna numbers for reference:

Station	FM	7694P
WESH WKMG WFTV WSWF WDSC WKCF WMFE WRDQ WOFL WOTF WTGL WHLV WACX WRBW WBCC	37 69 66 - - - 45 40 45 63 75 63 42 66 -	100 100 87 93 93 100 93 100 93 100 100 100 84 100 93

I wonder if WOPX, WRCF, WDTO, W21AU are still broadcasting, I'm not getting anything for them.

Is that the Winegard DS-2000 /DS-2016 mount you are using in the attic?

Onmi antennas do not work well for DTV no matter how much hype the antenna manufacturers try to use to sell you one. Avoid omni's at all costs.