Just want ABC without taking 15 mins. every time!

Esteemed DTV afficianados-

Here are my TV Fool results.

TV Fool

I am using a Radio Shack Amplified HDTV Antennae. It works decent, but I cannot get ABC (7) well unless I spend 15 mins. with the bunny ears. FYI, one bunny ear snapped off a month after I bought it and is now held together by duct tape. I also would like to get channel 24 as well because they are showing 'I Spy' on weekday nights (right?). Yesterday, I bought an Antennaecraft HDTV Indoor Ultrathin Antennae from Radio Shack. It proved unable to match performance of the bunny ear model I had been using in same location. I just purchased online the Terk HDTVa antennae. It has yet to arrive.

I am using out-of-the-box coaxial cable into Digital Converter box. The antennae is positioned 3 ft. from television but in another room. Our home has an indoor/outdoor porch and a window is in between antennae and TV. The antennae sits out on porch. Windows surround the antennae from the north, but the southern, city side is impeded by many walls, roof, and aluminum-foiled pyramids.



Can't wait to hear your feedback so I get to watching a young Bill Cosby do mod.

Michael!

Your ABC channel 7 is a high-band VHF channel and I'm not surprised your bunny ears worked and the Ultrathin wonder does not. In any case having an indoor antenna is always a problematic since it is trying to receive signals that have had to pass through building materials (attenuated) and it receives competing signals that are bouncing off of household appliances. The aluminum foiled pyramids you mentioned are not helping your reception.

If you could mount an antenna outdoors facing south, I bet you could capture southern stations down to WHNW-LD (18). Antenna height is usually king, so the higher the better.

Jim

Jim-

My family is renting, so I don't want to put something on the roof. Plus, we live on the top floor of a big two-flat and I am petrified of heights. Last, our living room is at the north end of the house. I would have to string quite a bit of cable to get it from one end of building to other. I guess I will give it a go with the Terk when it arrives. I am getting 80% of the TV I want easily, after all. I'm open to other advice, of course.

Cheers,
Mike

Michael,

I'm not sure just what you mean by a "two-flat", but...
do you have/can you access the Attic ?

Yes, I can. That takes the heights (whew!) out of the situation, but it still leaves me with running quite a bit of cord around or else drilling/punching holes in stuff I don't own. I thought there would be wondrous, easy solution to this, but I get the physical constraints of indoor antennae. We love where we live, but it is old housing stock designed before modern technology needs. We already run our DSL from the one working phone jack we have at south end all the way to the porch. My wife will hang me by the next cord.

...but the southern, city side is impeded by many walls, roof, and aluminum-foiled pyramids.

This is your main issue. All the main stations are to your south. If you can get the antenna to the southern side of the house you will be fine. Is the house wired for cable? If so, where does the cable come into the house, do you have access to any splitters, and is there an outlet near where you want your TV/TVs?

While WLS is on channel 7, it also should be on channel 44 (real channels, not virtual channels, both will map to your TV as channel 7.X).

Since WOCK is out there, on real channel 4, I'll recomend a Winegard HD7000R first and a Winegard FV HD30 second (may not get WOCK). The FV HD30 could be mounted indoors. Both antennas could be mounted outside on a J-mount (satellite dish mount) outside a window.

Also, if the house is wired for cable you can reroute it to move signals from one room (on the south) to another room (on the north).

Michael,

Dan ask...

Originally Posted by dkreichen1968

Is the house wired for cable? If so, where does the cable come into the house, do you have access to any splitters, and is there an outlet near where you want your TV/TVs?

Have you been up in the Attic to see if there is any Cable or Splitters there ?

The Attic is a GREAT place to run Cable. Even when it's a two story, a simple drilling down into a wall, and then install an Wall Plate down in the room. All the Cable is hidden.
Would this work for you ?

Also...
How is your Phone/DSL run ? Could you use those existing "holes/route" to feed the Coax in ?

Gentlemen-

Again, thanks so much for the advice. I am going to see how the Terk works out. If it is a bust, I am going to reach out to my landlord, who lives beneath us, who is much more handy than I am. Heck, he may want to get in on the free TV as well.

I will keep you posted.

Cheers,
MB

One note about the Terk HDTVa antenna is that the "Christmas tree" needs to be pointed in the direction of the stations for best reception. Personally, I never recommend amplified indoor antennas for digital reception.