On Jul 14, 6:34*am, klem kedidelhopper
wrote:
I have an odd sort of an antenna installation I have to deal with. At
our camp we have an old Winegard compact amplified UHF VHF/FM antenna,
and an Alliance rotor. This particular Winegard antenna if I'm not
mistaken was available with and without and/or a small built in rotor.
Mine came off a retrofit job many years ago and is amplified and
either we never connected the internal motor or it didn't have one. I
just don't recall. I cannot find any information on this antenna
anywhere. This antenna was admittedly a compromise between signal and
directionality and popular around 1985 or so and was designed for
urban locations close to the transmitters.

Our camp is deep fringe and I would have installed something like an
8200, however I settled for this antenna at the request of the rest of
the family who did not want to see something as large as an 8200 up
there. The small antenna worked OK for several VHF stations which came
in snowy but were watchable, but it did not receive any UHF. None of
us among the three families who use the camp during different parts of
the Summer ever really minded much about this. Our family only spends
two weeks out there. The antenna was small and unobtrusive and as a
bonus we also used it for FM, which worked satisfactorily.

For those familiar with Winegard antennas, (and hopefully someone who
can help me identify this one) the body of this unit is a black
plastic case which looks like an old GA 8780 mast mounted
preamplifier, except it's just a slight bit larger. The case mounted
on top of the mast. Coming out of the black plastic case in sort of a
semi circle arrangement I believe,
( I can't see the antenna right now as the camp is remote, and my
memory isn't that good), are either four or six round radials about .
25inch diameter and 24 inches long.

Now since the digital transition we can get just two stations and
unreliably at that, and so I've finally convinced the other two
families that we need to upgrade to a bigger antenna. So what I plan
to do is remove the small antenna from the top of the mast, install
the High band VHF/UHF HD antenna in it's place and then relocate the
small antenna down the upper mast just above the rotor to preserve our
FM reception. *However, In order to do this I will need a section of
mast bent 90 degrees and welded at two points. This small section will
then be clamped or bolted to *the main upper mast. See below:

* *-------------------- New HD antenna
---------------------
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *l
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *l
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *l
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *l
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *l

l

l
small amplified antenna l

l
* * * * * * * * l * * * * * * * * *l
* * * * * * * * l............... * l
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *l * l
clamped to existing * l * l *existing mast
mast, (or bolted) * * * * * l
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *l
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Rotor
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *l
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *l
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *l lower mast section

New mast section required:

* * * * * * * *l
* * * * * * * *l................................
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *l
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *l

The horizontal length of the bent section will be about 3 feet. I
figure that I can make this out of a 5 section of pipe, (if nothing
like this is commercially available that is). The small antenna is
very light so I would prefer aluminum tubing if possible. A steel
section would add a considerable amount of unbalanced weight to the
upper mast

So can anyone please help me to identify this antenna? And also if
anyone has any experience in doing something like this, can suggest a
source for materials, or has any comments about it I would really
appreciate hearing from you. Thanks, Lenny

My advice is to leave well enough alone. Mount your big antenna where
you planned to remount your compact antenna, rather than going through
all this fabrication. Add a section of mast tubing to raise the rotor
if this spot is too low for good reception.