This has worked well for me

[Link: store.gomohu.com]

Thanks y'all!

My company has been installing TV antennas since 1978. We still install two or three hundred antennas each year. There is good money in installing TV antennas if you can do a good job and are willing to go up on roofs. Our installs start at $450.00 and with a signal booster and a few outlets the total can reach up to $700.00. Seems like a lot of money but when many people are paying out over $100 then they can payoff the antenna in around 6 months.

By far the best antenna on the market is Winegard. Get either the HD-7694 if you are close in or the HD-7697 if you are far out.

Keep in mind that what determines the quality of your reception is the location of the antenna and the direction that you point it.

If you are going to sell and install antennas you need a signal meter to know where to place the antenna and the direction to point it. You can pick up a used Sadelco digital signal meter for $100-200 on Ebay.

PM me if you want to know more about antennas.

Choose your antenna by the channels you wish to receive and the distance you are from the channel's transmitters.

Before the digital change over, our local channels broadcast all of the HD services on UHF band frequencies, while the SD channels were broadcast at their identifier frequencies. We could get by with as little as a winegard square shooter.

Once the change over occurred, all but one station reverted to their respective identifier frequency for HD. Therefore channel 5 which was broadcast on 51 returned to 5, ending any ability for the UHF square shooter to receive VHF 5 at almost all locations further than 5 miles from the transmitter. Even then signal was low, of course, because the antenna was not designed for it.

Our difficulty is we need the low band VHF channel 5 with the high band VHF 8, 11, and 13, and UHF band 17,19,23, and 39. Gets very tricky at 25+ miles to pick them all up.

Without a meter, it is a crap shoot at best to pick up all of the channels on one antenna if even possible.

I have found the Winegard 7082 works for the most part for all channels for us, as all but one of our transmitters are located 20 miles south within a couple degrees in my town. The other is almost due West but is much closer at around 8 miles depending on the location in town.

Roof mounting is by far the best. Attics will work, but asphalt shingles attenuate the signal a bit. This can be a big problem when trying to distribute to multiple TVs. If you already have a couple -5dBish signals to go with +8 to +10dBish signals, then amp and split, you have to take into account the frequency of each channel and its signal strength vs the others to level out the spectrum.

It is not abnormal in my experience to have marginal -10dB signals coupled with +20dB signals at the TVs.

Long story short, there is no perfect single antenna for any given situation. You need to round up the info, do some math and testing and implement the best situation for the customer.

Or do like I do at home and deal with the missing channel or two.

As one of Mr. Stanley's suppliers I can assure he never calls with such questions, rather he poses them here. And then he still doesn't call.

Any other smarmy commentary you wish to make?

I've done a lot of antennas, and some large antenna systems. The info here is good, especially tvfool and antennaweb.

If you did antennas in the analog days, remember your stuff. RF is the same now as in analog days. Older analog antennas work fine for digital. One of my favorite stories is Winegard's "introduction" of a digital antenna by replacing CS (Color Series) with HD (High Definition) in several antenna models. I even saw a carton with an HD sticker over the printed HD.

It's harder to see digital signal level signal on an analog signal meter, but just like measuring speaker impedance with an ohmmeter, if you have enough experience to understand exactly how your equipment is lying to you, the equipment can be very useful.

There's also a forum for antenna help, [Link: remotecentral.com]. It used to be really busy, but has quieted down considerably since the change to HD, mostly, I think, because of the large percentage of members here who use cable or satellite instead of TV antennas. You guys ought to wander over there and liven things up. You'll get a lot of help!

Agreed but much better than a set top antenna.

I use a larger channel master [Link: channelmasterstore.com] with a rotor [Link: channelmasterstore.com] with great results. I originally did this for FM reception as I have always lived in fringe areas.

Current home dead center between to radio stations but can't get either by conventional antennas.

Great FM/HD Radio and DTV reception from both directions. This application is outside roof mount.

Another living situation was same situation but indoor second story attic instalation. Loved that attic, I could spin that thing 360 degrees in there.
I got great reception in three states,(not trying to glorify, on the border of the other two, but 30 miles one direction and 45 the other) where I had zero reception prior.

Both situations I had zero reception with set top antennas.

Love OTA picture quality!

Great back up if your provider goes down.

Bruce

You might need something that rotates or a really good omni directional, quite a spread.

[Link: antennapoint.com]