OTA Question
 

ValveJob wrote:
On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:24:16 -0400, (JER67) wrote:

I currently own a Mits. 57732 DLP w/ comcast high def. I am considering
buying a winegard antenna to pick up high def on UHF. I live 10 miles
from 7 HDTV towers all within 3 degrees of each other.
Anybody else have a good or bad experience with using a OTA for high
def.? I have heard that with an antenna it can look better than cable
high def.

Any and all input is appreciated!

~J~

You are in luck.

At your location, all you have to do is hang a cheap bowtie antenna
off your ant input and you should get perfect HDTV reception for all
those channels.

Your only problem is figuring how to share the OTA with your box.
You may want to use a cheap splitter to combine the two or you may
have an extra jack on your TV or box. Or you may find less problems
using a switch between the two.

I am still waiting for to reply with his zip code, but
from his other reply, he lives in the Boston area. All of the major
network digital stations are currently on UHF, but they will not stay
that way. In Boston, WHDH-DT NBC 7 will be switching it's digital
channel from UHF 42 to upper VHF 7 in February, 2009 after the analog
shutdown. So at 10 miles, he can try a Silver Sensor indoor UHF antenna
for now. But if he puts up a permanent or attic antenna, it should be
one that can get upper VHF 7 to 13 stations as well.

Alan F

OTA Question
 

Alan F wrote (in part):

In Boston, WHDH-DT NBC 7 will be switching it's digital
channel from UHF 42 to upper VHF 7 in February, 2009 after the analog
shutdown. So at 10 miles, he can try a Silver Sensor indoor UHF antenna
for now. But if he puts up a permanent or attic antenna, it should be
one that can get upper VHF 7 to 13 stations as well.

I have both a Silver Sensor and a CM 4-bay bowtie. At about 10 miles
from the Albany antenna farm, both do well on the two VHF digitals,
channels 7 and 12. The bowtie is in the attic, looking through wood,
slate, the house next door and probably some trees. The SS, at a
different location, is looking through a ground-floor window with no
nearby obstructions.

When another station moves to its analog channel, 6, it may be a
different story.

Del Mibbler

OTA Question
 

You apparently live 10 miles WNW of the Needham, MA, antenna farm,
probably Sudbury.

I have a cottage 48 miles southeast of Needham, MA, (Wareham) and I
pick up all the Boston stations just fine with my Winegard VHF/UHF
antenna. (I don't watch any VHF television so I can not attest to
anything there) You will probably be able to pick up the Providence
stations as well, although they usually just duplicate the Boston
ones.

I live about 5 miles west of the Needham towers (Natick) and pick up
all the stations just fine with a Channel Master 8-bay UHF antenna in
my attic. It even picks up VHF channel 7 just fine. WHDH will be
moving its digital broadcasts to channel 7 when it shuts its analog
station down in 2009. Otherwise, all stations will be UHF.

OTA Question
 

On Jul 10, 7:24 am, (JER67) wrote:
I currently own a Mits. 57732 DLP w/ comcast high def. I am considering
buying a winegard antenna to pick up high def on UHF. I live 10 miles
from 7 HDTV towers all within 3 degrees of each other.

Anybody else have a good or bad experience with using a OTA for high
def.? I have heard that with an antenna it can look better than cable
high def.

Any and all input is appreciated!

~J~

10-yr-old antenna, hefty boom width, but with horrible SD reception
from 6 network channels (trees, telephone lines, location, I guess).
Couldn't get the two I wanted, anyway, couple weak schools. Life goes
on until one day, out of the box, hooked the HDTV to the 75ohm feed.
Bingo, everything and more. (Six school OTS/ATSC/8VSB channels, 3 sub-
carriers each, on tap to assign for single-button favorites). I'd
heard, but never seen it up until then. The sub-carriers I didn't
know existed. I'd want the Winegard if I weren't already pretty well
covered.

OTA Question
 

I want to thank everyone for their input!

Especially Alan for his direct route very descriptive email.

To answer a question asked I am in the 01701 area code (framingham).

For those in the same area as me,
(Just outside Boston, MA) I went to
"You Do It Electronics" It is what
Radio Shack should be but never will!

They recommended the Winegard SS-1000 square shooter. NON-amplified if
out doors and Amplified if I mount it in the attic.

I'm kinda torn between that model looking like a Square Satellite dish &
a conventional Antenna.

I do get a good amount of strong wind,
not sure if that would affect a normal style antenna.

~J~

OTA Question (more)
 

Here was the model that:
"You Do It Electronics" recommended
partly due to "wind"

Winegard --- SquareShooter®HDTV Antenna SS-1000 & SS-2000
Address:http://www.winegard.com/offair/squareshooter.htm

Anyone have any experience with either of these models?

As for my TV model is is the Mitsubishi
WD-57732 medalion model DLP (new)
with a built in HDTV decoder/tuner.
With (2) Antenna inputs so I could put a
VHF/UHF combo antenna and run separate quad shielded RG-6 leads into the
TV. One being for VHF & one for UHF
my TV has an easy switch between so I don't mind switching inputs...

Again any & all input is greatly appreciated!

~J~

01701 Framingham MA.

OTA Question (more)
 

On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 07:48:30 -0400, (JER67) wrote:

Here was the model that:
"You Do It Electronics" recommended
partly due to "wind"

Winegard --- SquareShooter®HDTV Antenna SS-1000 & SS-2000
Address:http://www.winegard.com/offair/squareshooter.htm

Anyone have any experience with either of these models?

As for my TV model is is the Mitsubishi
WD-57732 medalion model DLP (new)
with a built in HDTV decoder/tuner.
With (2) Antenna inputs so I could put a
VHF/UHF combo antenna and run separate quad shielded RG-6 leads into the
TV. One being for VHF & one for UHF
my TV has an easy switch between so I don't mind switching inputs...

Again any & all input is greatly appreciated!

~J~

01701 Framingham MA.

You could also get some VFH/UHF splitter/combiners, combine the VHF
from one antenna and the UHF from the other.

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=UVSJ
http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=CC7870

Not sure what the pros and cons are of doing this with either of these
units.

J.

OTA Question
 

JER67 wrote:
I want to thank everyone for their input!

Especially Alan for his direct route very descriptive email.

To answer a question asked I am in the 01701 area code (framingham).

For those in the same area as me,
(Just outside Boston, MA) I went to
"You Do It Electronics" It is what
Radio Shack should be but never will!

They recommended the Winegard SS-1000 square shooter. NON-amplified if
out doors and Amplified if I mount it in the attic.

I'm kinda torn between that model looking like a Square Satellite dish &
a conventional Antenna.

I do get a good amount of strong wind,
not sure if that would affect a normal style antenna.

~J~

At your close range to the main Boston broadcast towers, the
unamplified square shooter should work inside an attic. But the Square
Shooter is a small antenna and is not that well suited to picking up
upper VHF for more distant stations. You posted elsewhere that you could
run separate VHF and UHF into the TV - absolutely no need to make it
that complicated. If you end up with separate VHF and UHF antennas, you
get a $10 to $20 VHF/UHF combiner at the antennas.

You have a LOT of digital station options. The www.antennaweb.org
digital station results for your zip code (with an antenna height of
120' under options to compensate for the over conservative settings for
digital reception at antennaweb) a

* yellow - uhf WMFP-DT 18.1 SAH LAWRENCE MA TBD 108° 10.3 18
* yellow - uhf WFXT-DT 25.1 FOX BOSTON MA 110° 10.5 31
* yellow - uhf WGBH-DT 2.1 PBS BOSTON MA 107° 9.6 19
* yellow - uhf WGBX-DT 44.1 PBS BOSTON MA 107° 9.6 43
* yellow - uhf WUTF-DT 66.1 TFA MARLBOROUGH MA 338° 5.8 23
* yellow - uhf WUNI-DT 27.1 UNI WORCESTER MA 290° 15.0 29
* yellow - uhf WLVI-DT 56.1 CW CAMBRIDGE MA 110° 10.5 41
* yellow - uhf WSBK-DT 38.1 IND BOSTON MA 107° 9.6 39
* yellow - uhf WBPX-DT 68.1 ION BOSTON MA 108° 10.3 32
* yellow - uhf WCVB-DT 5.1 ABC BOSTON MA 107° 9.6 20
* yellow - uhf WHDH-DT 7.1 NBC BOSTON MA 107° 10.6 42
* yellow - uhf WBZ-DT 4.1 CBS BOSTON MA 107° 9.6 30
* yellow - uhf WYDN-DT 47 DAY WORCESTER MA TBD 108° 10.3 47
* red - uhf WHDN-DT 26 IND BOSTON MA TBD 96° 18.9 26
* blue - uhf WWDP-DT 52.1 SAH NORWELL MA 156° 27.0 52
* blue - uhf WZMY-DT 35.1 MNT DERRY NH 18° 29.0 35
* blue - vhf WPRI-DT 12.1 CBS PROVIDENCE RI 181° 31.3 13
* violet - uhf WJAR-DT 10.1 NBC PROVIDENCE RI 182° 32.0 51
* violet - uhf WNAC-DT 64.1 FOX PROVIDENCE RI 183° 31.5 54
* violet - uhf WMUR-DT 9.1 ABC MANCHESTER NH 5° 46.8 59

Three of the minor stations are marked with TBD which means that they
are not shown in the database as being on the air yet. One digital
station in Boston, WHDH-DT NBC 7 is switching to VHF 7 in 2009; WPRI-DT
CBS 12 in Providence, RI is currently on VHF 13.

The Boston stations should be easy to get with any number of antennas.
A $25 Silver Sensor UHF antenna (Philips PHDTV1 at Circuit City) would
likely work for most of the Boston stations.

But you can probably get the WZMY-DT My Network in NH and the
Providence stations with an antenna that can get stations over a wide
spread in azimuth. On the roof is always better, but depending on the
height and design of the house, that can be a lot of work. If you have
an attic you can use, my advice is to get a Channel Master 4221 4 Bay
bowtie (see http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/cm4221.html). It works
pretty good for VHF 11 to 13 and should get WHDH-DT NBC 7 when they
switch in 2009 at only 10 miles. I get good reception with a CM 4221 in
my attic for the Washington DC analog 7 & 9 stations at 16 miles. Aim
the CM 4221 between Boston and Providence to try to get both cities.

If the CM 4221 is too big, you could get the new Channel Master 4220 2
bay bowtie and mount that outside using a satellite dish mount. See
http://www.pctinternational.com/channelmaster/0612/ for an example.

Useful site for antenna info:
http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ISSUES/erecting_antenna.html
Advanced resource for local station reception: www.tvfool.com.

Good luck!
Alan F

OTA Question (more)
 

"JXStern" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 07:48:30 -0400, (JER67) wrote:

Here was the model that:
"You Do It Electronics" recommended
partly due to "wind"

Winegard --- SquareShooter®HDTV Antenna SS-1000 & SS-2000
Address:http://www.winegard.com/offair/squareshooter.htm

Anyone have any experience with either of these models?

As for my TV model is is the Mitsubishi
WD-57732 medalion model DLP (new)
with a built in HDTV decoder/tuner.
With (2) Antenna inputs so I could put a
VHF/UHF combo antenna and run separate quad shielded RG-6 leads into the
TV. One being for VHF & one for UHF
my TV has an easy switch between so I don't mind switching inputs...

Again any & all input is greatly appreciated!

~J~

01701 Framingham MA.

You could also get some VFH/UHF splitter/combiners, combine the VHF
from one antenna and the UHF from the other.

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=UVSJ
http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=CC7870

Not sure what the pros and cons are of doing this with either of these
units.

J.
The pros are that the two antennas do not have to be pointed in the same
direction. Also you could have a fringe antenna mated to a local antenna.
Even for two high gain antennas, stacking them one above the other is not as
obnoxious as a huge combined antenna with a 15 + foot boom., and the two
separate antennas will work better.

Tam

OTA Question
 

For you, another source of antenna might be Stark Electronic in
Worcester. - http://www.starkelectronic.com/ - It's a hole-in-the-
wall, but they have good equipment at a fair price. I purchased a
Winegard 4-bay UHF antenna there and a ChannelMaster 8-bay.

If you got to http://www.hdtvprimer.com you can get a good idea of
antennae.