Here’s my location report
TV Fool
I am in the east valley, Phoenix AZ on the “other” side of the mountains with the TV transmitters on South Mountain 29 miles away. Channel 12 has been a problem child for me. When fully deployed I have a Winegard HD7698P Antenna on a 40’ tower (part of it buried) with a 30 foot retractable mast. It’s about 58’ AGL. Currently it’s around 32’ because I have the retractable part down. I’ve been meaning to replace the guy wires and with the monsoon season in play, now is a good time to have it down to do that. It will be put backup for football season at the end of the month.
At 32’ I get all the stations in the 226º direction except for Ch 12 and Ch 3 (24). at 58’ I get all the stations. The mast has gotten blown over several times over the years for various reasons. After the last time (3 years ago, roofers undid a guy wire and a storm suddenly blew in) I put it back up to around 54’. That lost Ch 12. I thought it had to do with the antenna or wire or something. Took me about a year to remember that I hadn’t put it up to the full height. I don’t rely on OTA for my local viewing, I have Dish. Once I put it up to the full 58’ I got Ch 12 back on the main TV. Secondary’s are Visio TV’s which seems to need a stronger signal for their tuner than LG so channel 12 is a no show on the Visio’s. Main TV is a LG 4K, I love to watch live sports via OTA vs Dish because the up convert to 4K is dramatically better. Regular TV shows are watched via the Hooper to skip commercials so OTA is only for live sports at the moment.
There is a house that is just up the street / hill that is blocking Ch 12. When it was a vacant lot I got everything from South Mountain with 2 or 3 (can’t remember) good old Radio Shack 10’ antenna masts mounted with an eves mount on the side of the house. Now it has to be 58’ to clear the neighbors house. A head scratcher is that at the 32’ height I’m not picking up Ch 3 (24) which is 29 miles away in the direction the antenna is pointed but channel scans are picking up Ch 4 (23) which is 58 miles at 112º (Tucson, opposite direction). It doesn’t come in very well, but it will occasionally drift in where as 3 (24) does not scan in.
I am assuming that the frequency of Ch 12 is susceptible to things like houses blocking it. I would like to get a stronger more reliable signal on Ch 12. I have just stated experimenting with the Plex DVR (SiliconDust HDHomerun Extended with commercial skipping) and since Dish has started charging extra for locals I’d love to tell them where they can put their locals.
In the early days, pre tower, I had a preamp on the antenna which actually degraded the signal because of the signal overload on most of the channels. I don’t think a preamp is an option. The cable run from antenna to the home distribution amp (Channel Plus DA-506BID) isn’t excessive and back when I was trying to get Ch 12 back at the 54' height I replaced the cable as a home-run RU6 vs the splices that were in the old one. Seems like it’s in the neighborhood of 50’.
Channels I want to receive are 3 (24) Ind, 5 (17) CBS, 8 PBS, 10 Fox, 12 NBC, 15 ABC, & 61 CW. Of these channels, 3 (24) is the least important. Is there a higher gain VHF antenna besides the Winegard HD7698P that could improve the Ch 12 signal strength? I was looking at the Denny’s HD Stacker Antenna, is this a technology that might boost the VHF gain? Not sure of the science involved, it costs about as much as another Winegard HD7698P, could I stack 2 Winegard HD7698P for maybe more gain then the Denny’s HD Stacker or is there more involved than just putting 2 antennas on top of each other?
I’m trying to tune my installation up while it’s down to a workable height and would love to reduce my Dish bill by $12 a month while getting better picture quality. I’m looking for suggestion on how to achieve this goal.
Thanks for reading this.
TV Fool
I am in the east valley, Phoenix AZ on the “other” side of the mountains with the TV transmitters on South Mountain 29 miles away. Channel 12 has been a problem child for me. When fully deployed I have a Winegard HD7698P Antenna on a 40’ tower (part of it buried) with a 30 foot retractable mast. It’s about 58’ AGL. Currently it’s around 32’ because I have the retractable part down. I’ve been meaning to replace the guy wires and with the monsoon season in play, now is a good time to have it down to do that. It will be put backup for football season at the end of the month.
At 32’ I get all the stations in the 226º direction except for Ch 12 and Ch 3 (24). at 58’ I get all the stations. The mast has gotten blown over several times over the years for various reasons. After the last time (3 years ago, roofers undid a guy wire and a storm suddenly blew in) I put it back up to around 54’. That lost Ch 12. I thought it had to do with the antenna or wire or something. Took me about a year to remember that I hadn’t put it up to the full height. I don’t rely on OTA for my local viewing, I have Dish. Once I put it up to the full 58’ I got Ch 12 back on the main TV. Secondary’s are Visio TV’s which seems to need a stronger signal for their tuner than LG so channel 12 is a no show on the Visio’s. Main TV is a LG 4K, I love to watch live sports via OTA vs Dish because the up convert to 4K is dramatically better. Regular TV shows are watched via the Hooper to skip commercials so OTA is only for live sports at the moment.
There is a house that is just up the street / hill that is blocking Ch 12. When it was a vacant lot I got everything from South Mountain with 2 or 3 (can’t remember) good old Radio Shack 10’ antenna masts mounted with an eves mount on the side of the house. Now it has to be 58’ to clear the neighbors house. A head scratcher is that at the 32’ height I’m not picking up Ch 3 (24) which is 29 miles away in the direction the antenna is pointed but channel scans are picking up Ch 4 (23) which is 58 miles at 112º (Tucson, opposite direction). It doesn’t come in very well, but it will occasionally drift in where as 3 (24) does not scan in.
I am assuming that the frequency of Ch 12 is susceptible to things like houses blocking it. I would like to get a stronger more reliable signal on Ch 12. I have just stated experimenting with the Plex DVR (SiliconDust HDHomerun Extended with commercial skipping) and since Dish has started charging extra for locals I’d love to tell them where they can put their locals.
In the early days, pre tower, I had a preamp on the antenna which actually degraded the signal because of the signal overload on most of the channels. I don’t think a preamp is an option. The cable run from antenna to the home distribution amp (Channel Plus DA-506BID) isn’t excessive and back when I was trying to get Ch 12 back at the 54' height I replaced the cable as a home-run RU6 vs the splices that were in the old one. Seems like it’s in the neighborhood of 50’.
Channels I want to receive are 3 (24) Ind, 5 (17) CBS, 8 PBS, 10 Fox, 12 NBC, 15 ABC, & 61 CW. Of these channels, 3 (24) is the least important. Is there a higher gain VHF antenna besides the Winegard HD7698P that could improve the Ch 12 signal strength? I was looking at the Denny’s HD Stacker Antenna, is this a technology that might boost the VHF gain? Not sure of the science involved, it costs about as much as another Winegard HD7698P, could I stack 2 Winegard HD7698P for maybe more gain then the Denny’s HD Stacker or is there more involved than just putting 2 antennas on top of each other?
I’m trying to tune my installation up while it’s down to a workable height and would love to reduce my Dish bill by $12 a month while getting better picture quality. I’m looking for suggestion on how to achieve this goal.
Thanks for reading this.
Probably won't get the benefit of any advise from them. Thank you for your input.
