Cross State Antenna Spotting and Stats

[EscapeVelocity]

This Stacked VHF LO/HI Fan Dipole was in a town called Saluda, SC, just West of the state capital Columbia. Not in good shape. However I happened to spot a similar antenna on Highway 61, right off I-95, not to far from here....which was in incredible shape. I may try to acquire that one as well as the Traveling Wave.

 

[EscapeVelocity]

I traveled across state on a lazy 6 hour drive on backroads of South Carolina the other day, looking for antennas the whole way. Here are some stats...

By far more houses had DirecTV and Dish Sat Dishes. 3 old C-Banders, non of which were in use.

The VAST majority of the TV antennas, were Combo VHF Low/High + Corner Reflector UHF yagis, most of them of the Vee style VHF section. Most of them were medium to large size, about 40% or so of the smaller Vee & Corner Reflector. Most were Channel Master or Radio Shack. Though the AntennaCraft make the Radio Shack, so. Winegards were the clear minority, in fact kind of rare.

I saw only ONE, of the new VHF High + Corner Reflector UHF Yagi antenna, a Winegard 7694p.

There were about a 20 of the Round Disc what looked to be mostly Winegard MS-2000s. Quite a few.

Only Four UHF only 4-Bays, which were all vintage and rusted out and probably useless. No 8 Bays or 2 Bays. I saw one ClearStream4, with no assistance on VHF. And one what appeared to be a Winegard long Corner Reflector UHF, but dont quote me on that brand, which was connected to a VHF LOW/High yagi. Not very many seperate UHF VHF Antennas combined with a UVSJ at all, maybe 2.

There were about a dozen VHF only antennas. The CM Traveling Wave, 3 Stacked Fan Dipoles (one in attrocious shape), and a few yagis, plus one Dehli VIP model, which I didnt get a good look at, it could have been a vintage Winegard, but I doubt it. Most of them with no UHF counterpart.

No FM only or VHF High only antennas spotted.

Zero cheap Chinese Rotor antennas, though I did see one funky cheap looking gold chromed out Chinese Corner Reflector UHF yagi (with no integrated rotor), that I couldnt put a name too. Maybe it was WiFi, but I doubt it.

I saw some ham and communications rigs as well, but Im not covering them here, though there were only a couple of what were clearly homesteads that had them....most of them were on businesses or government buildings.

Most of the antennas were in good shape, about half of them newish looking. There were quite a few scraggly looking ones that had seen too many wind storms.

I didnt spot one rotor, nor mast mounted pre-amplifier, though Im sure there were probably quite a few amps. Rotors are easier to spot.

Hope you found that moderately interesting.

 

[EscapeVelocity]

What antennas are most common in your areas?

 

[EscapeVelocity]

Ooops, just remembered, one Winegard StealthAntenna.

 

[Piggie]

What I see here without a quantitative "tour" are mostly older Channel Masters probably not actually in service. Most in service are Radio Shack Antenna Crafts that are newer that are all band, even low VHF.

 

[EscapeVelocity]

Yeah, that is the same I saw. I think the Radio Shack and Channel Masters are more often locally stocked. Ive seen Channel Masters in Hardware Stores like True Value and Ace. And most of them are All Channel Combos that do VHF Low too. I think most of the ones I saw were being used, though certainly some were not.

 

[Fringe Reception]

What antennas are most common in your areas?

Radio antennas on cars and trucks. LOL! :bolt:

Within a 5 mile radius, there are a few dilapidated high-band VHF lumps, a few dilapidated high/low band VHF lumps, one fairly new high band periodic VHF/UHF corner reflector and one old-style CM-4221. Virtually everyone in my area gave up on OTA when Cable came thru the region 35+ years ago.

Jim

 

[n2rj]

There are quite a few people here with rooftop TV antennas but I don't know what they get. Given that I'm on higher ground than them and I still have to put my antenna on a tower to get UHF I don't know what they're getting. I can't imagine they're all watching only ABC, CW, PBS, TBN and Korean TV (WMBC) while giving up CBS, NBC and Fox. Then again those may have just been leftovers from the analog days when you could actually get a watchable signal with an antenna mounted even 10ft off the ground.

Most of the antennas are log periodic/corner reflector yagi combos. I've even seen a few RCA antennas like the one I had from Lowe's that doesn't pick up anything. I'll see if I could take some pics around town.

I've seen precisely TWO CM4228s and they are up on my tower, lol.

 

[EscapeVelocity]

Oops.

 

[dkreichen1968]

There is a Stacked VHF LO/HI Fan Dipole antenna like the one in your picture on a house in Palmer Lake, CO. In my neighborhood (Monument, CO) there are small Winegard LPDA VHF plus UHF Yagis (non corner reflector) that are mounted above the microwave dishes for a defunct wireless cable company. I used one when I lived in a house that had one, and it worked great for analog in one direction. In downtown (old town) Denver you see a lot of folded dipole plus a reflector VHF antennas, either as singles or stacked. I doubt that any are actually in use. There is a Winegard HD-1080 on a house 1.5 miles south of my house. We are in a strong signal area, with strong signals from both Colorado Springs and Denver.

 

[Don_M]

There's a sports bar about three miles north of here that has a whole nest of OTA antennas on the roof, including a very prominent Channel Master 4251. Must remember to fetch along the camera and snap a shot next time I go by it. I'll edit this post and add it once I have the shot...

Edit: Was going by just now, remembered to bring the camera along... but forgot to check the battery beforehand. You guessed it: Not enough juice to take a single shot. I'll try again later this week.

 

[n2rj]

They must be gunning for blacked out sports.

 

[EscapeVelocity]

That makes sense n2rj.


Cant wait to see them Don!


I just spotted another 2 Bay stacked VHF bowtie, this one just up the road from me, in like new condition!

 

[n2rj]

I saw a 3 stack of the fan dipole antennas locally. I'll remember to take a pic next time I pass by.

 

[Don_M]

They must be gunning for blacked out sports.

That's easier said than done hereabouts. The antenna is pointed at a funny azimuth for the Denver market. From their location, the best direction would be about 280˚ true; this CM 4251 appears to be looking at 325˚ or so. The only other possibilities for pointing it north-northwest would be to get both Denver and Fort Collins (not needed -- only affiliate there is a re-broadcast of Denver's Fox), or Cheyenne, WY (from which we can get the CBS affiliate on 5.1/RF 30 only; Cheyenne has another Fox affiliate on RF 27, but it's drowned by a local LP Spanish-language station, also on 27.) The only other possibility is that the bar put up a CM 4251 years ago to ensure fail-safe reception of WanTV, a "wireless cable" service offered in Denver until the company folded about a decade ago.

Colorado Springs @ 70 miles isn't possible as this location is badly shadowed by several edges to the south, one a quarter mile away. Every other market is 1) beyond 14,000-foot mountains, 2) 200 or more miles away or 3) both. For another thing, the Broncos haven't failed to sell out the home stadium in about 35 years. Football is everything here.

:becky:

See also this post earlier in the thread.

 

[dave73]

This Stacked VHF LO/HI Fan Dipole was in a town called Saluda, SC, just West of the state capital Columbia. Not in good shape. However I happened to spot a similar antenna on Highway 61, right off I-95, not to far from here....which was in incredible shape. I may try to acquire that one as well as the Traveling Wave.

I haven't seen antennas like that in many years. I wonder what brand that antenna is, and when the last time an antenna like that was made. Any homes with antennas in my area today are usually small antennas that look circular or boxed that mainly work with just UHF channels. Those with traditional antennas are UHF only (either yagi or 4 or 8 bay bowtie) because most people I see don't want the traditional antennas (especially the long element VHF antennas). I don't see as many VHF/UHF combo antennas even though the Chicago market has 2 VHF stations (even though one now uses their VHF as a translator). Then for those who do use outdoor antennas complain that they can't get WBBM-TV & WLS-TV because the outdoor antennas they're using are made for UHF, while they're on VHF (WLS-TV operates on 7 for now, but looking to vacate it once channel 44 has coverage similar to their analog channel 7).

 

[EscapeVelocity]

Thanks for sharing Dave73.

 

[Don_M]

I headn't realized...

... just how much tougher it would be to get a decent shot of an antenna atop a commercial building. Anyways, here's the antenna atop America's Bar & Grill in Aurora:

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That's as close as I could zoom. The shot is from the back and heavily cropped. (Click on each image for a larger view.) The ideal shot, it appears, would have been from the middle of the nearby arterial intersection, which has nine lanes at each approach. No, thank you...

Anyways, it's definitely not a CM 4251. While it appears to be roughly the right diameter, it has what looks like a kind of LNB in the center instead of two bowties. The reflector is made from much smaller rod stock, not the 4251's 3/8-inch-diameter aluminum tubing. Interestingly, another antenna atop a strip across the street has a very similar component in the center, but a significantly smaller reflector:

​

Both of them are pointing almost due north, or about 75 degrees off the main direction for all but one of Denver's major broadcast stations. Both reflectors also appear to be made of a similar metal. I'm pretty sure these antennas were intended for reception of the defunct WanTV service described earlier. Aside from the reflectors, they don't look like any standard UHF antenna I've ever seen.

 

[dkreichen1968]

Those are wireless cable antennas. They are the same type as the ones that are in my neighborhood for the Colorado Springs market. It is my understanding that Sprint is using those frequencies for their 4G network. Those are Winegard antennas mounted above them. OEM parts in the Springs has (or had) a bunch of surplus ones for $20. They have the low VHF elements (generally not relevant in Colorado), but I'd think they would work great for DTV. The one I used for analog gave me a great signal even with a very long run of used and abused cable. Of course my neighborhood is LOS to the Colorado Springs towers.