How to do dual HD antennas

Steve Urbach wrote:
On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 03:08:38 GMT, Alan F wrote:

Steve, how far away are the 2 groups of stations? The CM 4228 is a
long range antenna, normally used for 30+ mile situations.
Located in Palo Alto. S.F. is 40+ miles which is one of the reasons for the
4228 (and multi -path avoidance)

I downloaded that wonderful Google Earth Antenna pattern Overlay someone did
(not signed in the comments) a while back.

San Francisco and beyond G, NW.
Fremont/Milpitas, NE

I still have my Fringe VHF/UHF (Channel Master Quantum 1163A ) on the rotor
for VHF and Salinas .

You will have
a number of digital stations on upper VHF in 2009, so you will need
upper VHF coverage.
Looks like I should put off the project un till things stabilize :-)
I can live with it as it is for a while.

The final digital channel assignments, antenna height, and power are
set for all the full power stations in San Francisco (and almost all
full power stations). So it is not an issue of things stabilizing in
terms on antenna selection. All of the digital stations in the San
Francisco and Sacramento markets will be on upper VHF and UHF, so no low
VHF stations to worry about.

Someone recently put together a neat spreadsheet organized by DMA,
listing the current analog channel, current digital channel, and final
digital channel with call sign. I have pasted the San Francisco stations
below with tab spacing. Columns are call sign, network, analog channel,
current digital, final digital channel (that they should be on by
February 18, 2009). The list is sorted by final digital channel.

KGO ABC 7 24 7
KUNO tuv 8 15 8
KNTV NBC 11 12 12
KTNC tuv 42 63 14
KBWB ind. 20 19 19
KRCB PBS 22 23 23
KTSF ind. 26 27 27
KPIX CBS 5 29 29
KQED PBS 9 30 30
KFTY ind. 50 54 32
KMTP ind. 32 33 33
KFSF telef 66 34 34
KICU ind. 36 52 36
KRON MyN 4 57 38
KCNS ind. 38 39 39
KKPX ion 65 41 41
KCSM PBS 60 43 43
KTVU FOX 2 56 44
KBCW CW 44 45 45
KTLN rlg 68 47 47
KSTS telem 48 49 49
KTEH PBS 54 50 50
KDTV uni 14 51 51

Thought this might be useful for those who live in San Francisco because
I count 6 stations moving their digital channel next year. I think the
word will be to rescan the ATSC tuner often in February of 2009.

If you have a wide angle, it may be feasible to vertically stack two
Winegard HD7695P or HD7696P upper VHF and UHF antennas, each aimed at
the different groups of stations. Not something I would want to try to
do in an small attic however.

Alan F

Steve Urbach wrote:
My problem is the HD stations in my area (South San Francisco Bay)
are spread around the compass (OK, basically 2 compass points 90
degrees apart).
I do not want to use a rotor because there is more than 1 set, PVR
(and switching is a pain when not supported on the remote/tuner).
How do I combine 2 (8 bay bow tie) and avoid cancellation effects
(tried and the signal went to cr*p)?

Thanks in advance
Steve

There are some pretty knowledgeable people in this group....

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HDTV-in-SFbay/

I had good success with a Winegaurd (can't remember the model number) when I
lived in Fremont (2nd story installation) where I could pick up most
everything except for 1 station in SJ.

L Alpert wrote:

Steve Urbach wrote:
My problem is the HD stations in my area (South San Francisco Bay)
are spread around the compass (OK, basically 2 compass points 90
degrees apart).
I do not want to use a rotor because there is more than 1 set, PVR
(and switching is a pain when not supported on the remote/tuner).
How do I combine 2 (8 bay bow tie) and avoid cancellation effects
(tried and the signal went to cr*p)?

Thanks in advance
Steve

There are some pretty knowledgeable people in this group....

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HDTV-in-SFbay/

I had good success with a Winegaurd (can't remember the model number) when I
lived in Fremont (2nd story installation) where I could pick up most
everything except for 1 station in SJ.

I have a large Radio Shack antenna I bought years ago. I do not know
the model
number but is is about 8 feet long. There is one HD station that is
about 75
miles to the north of me. My main local stations are located to the
East
(ESE to be exact) about 20 miles away. I turned the antenna half way in
between,
and I receive all channels with about 75% signal strength.

It may also possible to hook 2 antennas to your TV with each aimed in
the proper
direction. Digital TV's are supposed to be great and rejecting 'ghost'
signals.
You would just have to try this to see if it works.

-Bill

After looking through the post, after only 1 cup of coffee this am, have you
thought of a ant. switch, CB'ers and HAM's have used them for years, to
switch between beams and omni ants, and they worked pretty good, bet there
is some switching device to do that.
Antena farms also use that a lot.
"Steve Urbach" wrote in message
...

My problem is the HD stations in my area (South San Francisco Bay) are
spread
around the compass (OK, basically 2 compass points 90 degrees apart).
I do not want to use a rotor because there is more than 1 set, PVR (and
switching is a pain when not supported on the remote/tuner).
How do I combine 2 (8 bay bow tie) and avoid cancellation effects (tried
and
the signal went to cr*p)?

Thanks in advance
Steve

Naw, video games used to do it all the time with that little box on the back
of the set, remember the old "Pong" game???
"Elmo P. Shagnasty" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Craig M" wrote:

After looking through the post, after only 1 cup of coffee this am, have
you
thought of a ant. switch, CB'ers and HAM's have used them for years, to
switch between beams and omni ants, and they worked pretty good, bet
there
is some switching device to do that.

Yeah, and it's damned difficult to make that happen when you're using a
DVR.

So with all this OTA digital, now we're back to rooftop antennae with
rotators, and every time we switch the channel on the TV we rotate the
anatenna?

WHEEEEE! Boy, this digital thing is just all good, isn't it?

On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 06:27:38 -0600, "Craig M"
wrote:

After looking through the post, after only 1 cup of coffee this am, have you
thought of a ant. switch, CB'ers and HAM's have used them for years, to
switch between beams and omni ants, and they worked pretty good, bet there
is some switching device to do that.
Antena farms also use that a lot.
Switch
4 TV's
1 (single amplifier) Distribution system to most rooms.

That is why I asked how to do it WITHOUT a switch or rotor
the rotor control is by my set: evil grin but the other half just might have
something to say if I pointed the only antenna South while she was tuning her
favorite Show on a North located station.


"Steve Urbach" wrote in message
.. .

My problem is the HD stations in my area (South San Francisco Bay) are
spread
around the compass (OK, basically 2 compass points 90 degrees apart).
I do not want to use a rotor because there is more than 1 set, PVR (and
switching is a pain when not supported on the remote/tuner).
How do I combine 2 (8 bay bow tie) and avoid cancellation effects (tried
and
the signal went to cr*p)?

Thanks in advance
Steve

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" wrote in ...

In article ,
"Craig M" wrote:

After looking through the post, after only 1 cup of coffee this am, have
you
thought of a ant. switch, CB'ers and HAM's have used them for years, to
switch between beams and omni ants, and they worked pretty good, bet
there
is some switching device to do that.

Yeah, and it's damned difficult to make that happen when you're using a
DVR.

So with all this OTA digital, now we're back to rooftop antennae with
rotators, and every time we switch the channel on the TV we rotate the
anatenna?

WHEEEEE! *Boy, this digital thing is just all good, isn't it?

On Jan 29, 10:44*am, "Craig M" wrote:
Naw, video games used to do it all the time with that little box on the back
of the set, remember the old "Pong" game???

Yeah and you manually pressed the button to make the switch.
Apparently you didn't get Elmo's point about _how_ do you get that
switch to happen under computer (DVR) control?

I'm fortunate to live in a location that 1 antenna covers all the
stations so the multiple recorders are not a problem but it wasn't
always so. I always look at it from a parallel operation standpoint so
that anything could be watched or recorded with no fiddling. For some
of you that gets difficult (expensive) but rarely impossible.

GG