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Post by seanmc1114 on Nov 14, 2006 8:27:17 GMT -5
Just a general topic of discussion here. I'm curious about what type of antenna/amp/rotator set-ups y'all have out there. Why did you choose what you have? What type of reception do you receive and what problems so you have? What would you change if you could?
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Post by thomash on Nov 14, 2006 18:16:38 GMT -5
I have a CM 4228 with a 7777 preamp on a 40 ft. mast. Rotator is me, walking out to the balcony to rotate it I split the output to feed my $90 RadioShack DTV receiver and my analog TV. I'm in Athens, Ga., so depending on conditions, I get channels from Atlanta, Greenville-Asheville, Augusta, and Macon. Occasionally I can DX Columbus, Charlotte, and Columbia stations as well. I rely entirely on OTA for my TV, since cable won't run a drop to my building and I don't want to pay for satellite. My setup is pretty darn powerful, despite that I live in the middle of the woods. There's one analog station in Greenville that I get in perfectly 100% of the time -- and it's 92 miles away! Alas, most Atlanta stations are on wimpy short towers though. While people say the 4228 is "okay" for high band VHF, that's only if you live within about 30 miles of the tower. Otherwise it's not very good at all. I'm about 50 miles from WGTV 8, and it always has a haze on it, and sometimes pops in the sound. And of course, it is useless for low-band VHF.
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DJ
Junior Member
Posts: 68
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Post by DJ on Nov 14, 2006 18:39:44 GMT -5
I install for DirecTV, and as you know, locals aren't available here. I was using Mediacom for the last several years for locals, and because their VoD was very nice my family was hesitant to get rid of them. After the last yearly $5 price increase, I had enough and cancelled all of their CATV services, keeping the internet only. We're using a RadioShack VU-90 mounted at 25-ft, pointed SSE. There's a 10dB amp mounted at the antenna, feeding into a 4-way splitter in the attic. We get crystal clear reception on 3, 9, 54, and 66. Channel 38 has some minor ghosting, but I can probably resolve that if I move the antenna a degree or two east. However, because we have a LOT of tall trees on the southern side of the house, UHF reception is affected when the wind is blowing. As for HD locals, I get near 100% signal on 15, 35, 47, and 49. But again, when the wind is blowing hard, the signal suffers on them all, except for 35 for some reason, which never wavers. Sometime in the near future I'll be putting up my 36-ft telescoping mast on the far end of the house, where there's a slightly clearer path to the Columbus/Cusseta towers. Hopefully then I'll be able to get interference-free reception on everything.
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Post by Mike Slade on Nov 15, 2006 15:09:54 GMT -5
Until today I had been using a CM 4221 mounted to the chimney. It performed flawlessly for all the columbus stations. Never got a rotator to see if I could get WLGA or anything else. But today I switched to Charter and no longer use the antenna.
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Post by crepehanger on Nov 15, 2006 17:18:14 GMT -5
So why did you go to Charter if OTA was working for you?
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Post by Mike Slade on Nov 15, 2006 18:27:32 GMT -5
I was getting other HD stuff through Dish. Just the 5 original channels they offered. None of the new stuff they'd added like the voom channels. I also had Knology cable for everything else. Charter offers slightly more HD (TBS and Universal) than what i had through Dish and it was at a cheaper price than the Knology/Dish together. Actually i'm a bit disappointed to disconnect the antenna but that's the way it goes with my new cable. Maybe if I ever get another HD set I'll hook up the antenna to that.
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