Hi all,

Just wanted to know what local Hi def antennas everyone was using. What are some good ones and some bad ones? Here in South Florida I suspect that we have a lot more luck getting channels, due to the fact that it's flat and we hug the coastline. Some of you folks who live in more mountainous or more difficult geographical areas may have some tips or products that may allow us down here to get the more stubborn channels. Thanks.

-Peter

Believe it or not, I use a radio shack antenna that is round with 2 wings on it. I get all my denver high def channels and even a bleedover channel from colorado springs. I should let you know that i sit up high in elevation in comparison to south florida. est we are at 5800' and denver is at 5260'

Here in the Detroit area I will generaly use a Channel Master 4248. I'd say 75% of my installs are attic, in most situations they work great.

We usually have the best luck with the Winegard GS2200. Its a powered "batwing" style, and labelled as a "RV" antenna. It has given us the best luck pulling in all the major networks plus a few minors in the indpls market. Towers are about 5 to 10 miles away for us, and all in hte same general direction.

And make sure its SPECIFICALLY an HD antenna or it wont work.

(That was sarcasm)

And specify for color tvs, too.

Antennas are application-specific devices, and you need to find one that will work at the address you plan on using it. We serve Chicago and some far-flung suburbs, and different antennas work at different homes. We've had bad results with the RV/Terk/batwing style antennas, even when we're only a few miles from the towers. In the burbs I've used a big high gain Winegard with great results, but roof mounted and not inside the attic. Attic mounted antennas are hit & miss, and we have a specific exlusion in our contract for this.

The ones I was referring to are by Winegard, not Terk.

[Link: winegard.com]

I haven't tried that Winegard, but have tried the "pizza box" Squareshooter model, with poor results.

We have use the Winegard Square Shooter with limited luck. Recently we have installed a few Channel Master 4248 with very good luck (even in attics).

My area (west of St. Lou) is relatively flat, our major problem is signal strength. The local stations do not send out a very strong HD signal. I don't know if they think it is a fad and will go away or what. Anyway we are about 35 miles from the towers and it was very difficult to find the stations. We tried internet maps, etc. I went to my disty and he sold me a signal meter for VHF and UHF. Now every install is done by one guy (not two), and we can do it while the house is being built versus having to come back to adjust. I only wish I would have bought it a year ago.

I may be wrong, but the Square shooters and Chicagos oddball HD set up didn't work together. I remember reading something about that. I've used the SS3000 though and had good luck with that. Just not the 1000 or 2000

Part of our problem here is that CBS HD is on Ch 3 (unique to the US, I believe). When they fired that puppy up to the full 50Kw output every cable box in a one mile radius stopped sending Ch 3 to all the old Quasar tvs, and everyone complained. CBS then throttled the output back to 5Kw, and now tuning CBS HD is a bit of a trick.

That is not the entire problem here in the Second City with off-air tuning. We have multipath issues, and the transmitters are on two different buildings, the Hancock and Sears Tower. If you're in Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, etc. the aiming point is significantly different for the two buildings. Out in the burbs the aiming point narrows, but then the signal strength for CBS falls away and you have that problem. Out here people tend to dislike the big honkin' 133" Winegard on the roof (funny that), so into the attic with the old bowling shoes and mummified squirrels it goes.

We try to use the Winegard equipment. I'm also west of St. Louis, but we have to sometime aim at to locations, so we use Rotars.

If you ever need some good tech help, Winegard has always came through for me.

Mike

I am also west of St. Louis and have always used winegard a pr-4400 or pr-8800 depending on how far west.

Pr-4400s work fine as far out asO'fallon and Eureka.

I have found that the tuner is more important than the antenna. No Sh*t I stripped a piece of rg6 about 12" long and put it in the back of a new sony SXRD and the crazy thing picked all of our digital channels! I then tried the customer's rooftop wiengard plugged into a Dishnet 211 and got nothing. So much for all the stations being in the sat guide. ALWAYS try the tuner in the TV if it has one, the sat ATSC tuners SUCK!