OK I'm bit by the diy antenna bug

[99thwondah]

Ok so I'm hooked on building antenna's and thus doing that magical scan. So I'm thinking of going rooftop to see the results as it sits now I have 33 at most which is great with minimum problems. I did buy an amp to see what it would do, helped stabilize my signals.

So which designs would you experts suggest to boost my channel supply? Goal will be 50 ish...

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3dd2430c4998c9f5

 

[Rickideemus]

:welcome: 99thW,

If you go rooftop you shouldn't need an amp to get get 30 some channels. 50 is right near the limit.

Actually, the first thing an antenna bug should learn is that channels mean nothing. It's all about the stations. If you get one channel from a station you are about 99+% guaranteed to get all the subchannels. Listing the stations you get by their call letters, or their Real channel numbers (they're listed as "Real" in the Fool report) instead of the phoney numbers that show up on the TV, tells us about 1,000 times more about your situation.

But I'll hazard a guess... to get ~50 channels (= maybe 20 stations) you'll need more than one antenna pointed in more than one direction. An amp might help with some of those squeakers down below NM=0, but bugs don't like amps.

Rick

 

[99thwondah]

I forget I have to speak in the great ones lingo...yes i mean stations. Just would like to pick up other station versions of the majors as they carry different sub channels that I would like...Right now I have all stations that are closer to me to me trying to pull signal farther away.

As of now I have
WRAL
WTVD
WNCN
WLFL
WRDC

 

[99thwondah]

Selected this model for good front and back gain. Good Omni-directionals hoverman for my tv fool situation.

Alright so I constructed a double gray hoverman. Mounted antenna on the back corner of the house probably 20ft in the air. Been able to pull stations form over a 100 miles now sometimes with strong signals, I'm using a rca preamp which does decent job or will I need a channel master 7777 that i keep seeing most people have? Managed to pick up WVBT FOX on channel 43 142 miles away this thing rocks.....So any other hoverman people have any tips to stabilize those signals? Picked up some -20 plus signals....About to move antenna placement for further tests.

 

[Rickideemus]

Good Omni-directionals hoverman

No such thing as an Omni-directionals hoverman. Contradiction in terms. Stick with the RCA TVPRAMP1R.

 

[RF Steve]

The Gray Hoverman with no reflector is a bi-directional antenna. The Hoverman Type 1 Twisted Quasi-Omni-Directional has been modeled. If you ask me the results are a strange mess that could be useful in some locations.
Hoverman Type 1 Quasi-Omni-Directional.
The new Channel Master 7777 is well know to have overload problems in the presence of strong signals. Here is the warning in the words from the manufacturer. An ideal scenario for the Titan 2 High Gain Preamplifier is an application where ALL broadcast towers are 80+ miles from the antenna location and a splitter is used to distribute to multiple televisions. A single high-power signal from closer proximity may cause over-amplification resulting in signal loss. Your best bet to stabilize some distant signals would be to build a very directional high gain antenna. Some distant signals will never be stable others can be reliable and predictable enough to be of some use. You might find this thread interesting.
http://www.dtvusaforum.com/antenna-r-d/59724-incredible-reception-story.html
Steve

 

[99thwondah]

Cool story RF Steve. Was thinking omni due to my channel clusters, antenna is pointed toward my strongest cluster which is 250-ish degrees. Story is quite possible as at night WTKR from Virginia comes in normally. Surprised me since it skipped stronger signals and picked up others from the bottom of my list.
Stations it locks are...
WRIC
WSKY
WFXB
few others but unwatchable

So pretty much channels on the backside of antenna are coming in just like radar plot shows with a little aiming I see anything may be possible. Has to be a sweet spot to counter my strongest clusters, trees are everywhere near my house so could explain North and North East stations coming in from back of antenna as it has an opening.

So tons of signals near me just fun to see that range and experiment to see the results! I will stay away from channel master as of now a few signals hit at 97 without amp.

I did use a model with one Narod in the middle of both hoverman and tophats. Larger radar plot is on the backside so actually gonna point antenna at 0 north see what it covers, I think it will be quite much. Will post back results.

 

[Fringe Reception]

... "I will stay away from channel master (amp) as of now a few signals hit at 97 without amp".

99,

Congratulations and keep building and testing. :thumb:

I hope you understand the '97' your meter shows, is not related to signal strength. It is a signal quality report and some tuners can decipher and assemble images and audio with signal quality down to '5' or '10' ... but there is no standard between tuners. In other words, you can receive an incredibly clean and virtually perfect waveform --- with almost no signal strength. That's the miracle of digital TV.

Jim

 

[99thwondah]

Thanks for that note, I have a pretty good feel for my tuner as it cant display anything with an on screen signal below 25%. I did experience overload with the amp for those signals near me once. For a bit I was like what was the problem and then I realized it and removed amp everything went back to normal. So I'm trying to stay away from easy cluster sweet spot and get balance 50% on screen would be great for those. Lovely huge tree right behind my house is where I suspect my all in one spot is.

 

[99thwondah]

Ok after some more fooling around with the hoverman and its buddy dbgh( yes I made both) I was able to pull in 39 channels. As the great ones here told me perhaps 2 antennas, one for each cluster. So one was placed at 250-ish other at 153, surprisingly the one at 153 picks up all the signals from 250 degrees probably since I'm so close to those signals all pretty strong. So I'm going to gang the antennas, hooked both up to a 3 way an then into amp with good results disconnect one antenna only the channels present from that one goes away and doesn't effect each other. Signals shared showed a lil boast on screen.

Would like to know any tips on ganging and also the rca amp (10db) is making to much noise I believe signals would be better with the channel master 7778. Sure someone here has a review of that amp. All the signals I want are in my area have locked on to them, just with varying results so a better amp will surely help.

4 rooms split with highest run from antenna all rooms are in close proximity, have directtv to thank for quality cabling, 8 way sucks though didn't use it.

 

[RF Steve]

When you combine two antennas pointed different directions the first thing that happens is a loss of signal in both directions from combiner loss, re-radiation, and multi-path. Even with that such an arrangement has worked well for some. By far the best way to use 2 antennas pointed different directions is to build a switched system using a coax switch or 2 tuners. Another scheme is to use 2 separate amplifiers ahead of the combiner, powering both amplifiers can become a problem. There are splitter/combiners built that will pass power on both ports finding one could be a problem. Multi-path problems could still be a problem in any combined antenna system.
The RCA TVPRAMP1R is not a bad choice.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1S9WXDZM4EH0Y/ref=cm_aya_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B003P92D9Y#wasThisHelpful
On the amazon page scroll up read the whole page.
Unless there is something wrong with your RCA I don't think you will see any improvement by using a CM 7778.
Steve

 

[99thwondah]

Thanks RF Steve as you have pointed me in the right direction. What I was calling an amp is indeed one but not inline with what you linked to, its something I found at lowes.

It indeed does allow me to pickup additional signals but "not" a real amp. So a real one should give me a boost hopefully.
Total noob to this stuff learning is fun, hopefully I can get all signals on the dbgh since it nearly hit 40 with stations from both groups on my tv fool with the proper equipment now. I also learned android compass apps are garbage. Trying to find a good one.