"Peter" wrote in message
...
On 9/3/2010 12:20 PM, Robert Green wrote:
wrote in message
...


We opted for
a fixed mast on a chimney mount with a high gain, directional,
unamplified
VHF/UHF antenna. Although the antenna is directional, we get
4,5,7,9,20,26,30,32,50 and 66 reliably without needing a rotor. Since
we
often
want to watch a DC station while recording 22, or vice versa, a rotor
would not
have been a good solution for us.

I've found it's hardly ever a good solution and it's why I'm working
with
the two aerial/two DVR system that's working fairly well. But since
we're
in a small valley, I suspect that the extra 10 or 15 feet I'd gain with
a
chimney mounted antenna would eliminate a lot of the dropouts. I am
surprised you get reception with an amp. How long is the run of cable
from
the aerial to the TV set?


I'm sorry if I gave you the impression that I have an amp in my antenna
circuit.
I thought I would need one, but I don't. I've got the high gain (but
unamplified) VHF/UHF joined with the 8 bow-tie array through a reverse
splitter
feeding a 3 way splitter that serves my master bedroom, den, and kitchen
nook.
The longest run is to the kitchen nook, probably about 75-100 feet.
Except when
the gremlins are active, almost all the stations max out the signal
strength bar
graph on the TVs or are only 1 bar less. I suspect that an amplified
splitter
might have over-driven the RF front end of the tuners.

My mistake. I meant to write "withOUT an amp." D'oh! I am still surprised
you get that strong a signal WITHOUT an amp. My location is at the base of
a hill so I suspect that's why without an amp, only get two channels (5 and
14) and even those show only half of the max signal strength. Wheaton's
much higher up and closer to the Wisconsin Av. tower complex. That's got to
help with getting a strong signal.

On the other hand, where I live, if you're riding a bicycle, you can coast
almost a mile from the top of the hill down to my house. It's not good for
TV reception and every 10 years or so, there's a rainfall that comes and
overflows all the storm drains and flows past my house and into the lowest
area around - the park behind my house. The folks who have lived here since
they were kids tell me the land behind my house was a local natural spring.
The drainage culvert at the low end of the park is several feet across and
during the real frog strangling rain we had a few months ago even it turned
out not to be wide enough to carry off all the water.

I have it better than my neighbor whose house is right at the T intersection
of the major uphill pointing road. She's gotten several feet of water in
her basement, even with an oversize sump-pump. Mother Nature can deliver a
hell of a lot more water than any sump pump likely to be found in a home.
It comes pouring up the basement floor drain (non-sanitary, thank god, so
it's only street water, not sewer water) like Old Faithful. I've put in
three sump pumps (one's a 12V emergency system) and that barely copes with
the flooding of the 100 years storms that seem to be coming every 10 years
now. )-:

I was considering putting a waterproof submarine-type hatch over the floor
drain but a knowledgeable neighbor said that could cause the entire
foundation to lift or crack. Not sure if it's true, but I am sure I don't
want to find out. Now that they've relined our storm and sanitary sewer
lines, it seems that storm drain flooding has increased. But it could
easily be that the severity of the storms and the inches per hour have
increased. Soon, I'll be checking Ebay for used mining pumps . . .

From aerials to floods. How's that for thread drift?

--
Bobby G.