I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.

You would benefit greatly by a rotator. Perhaps not so much with a
preamp. I get stations way over 60 miles away with just the antenna
on the TV. RG-6/U or RG58 or RG59 but best bet would be RG6/u.
You can always add a preamp later but I don't think you'll need one.

On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 19:19:49 -0500, (m Ransley)
wrote:

I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.

2 words..... Dish network.


Seriously, rotators, etc are a pain. No more programmer the vcr for 2 shows
unless you get a programmable rotator.

In any case, you may not need a rotator at all if all the channels are
broadcast from the same direction. Only if broadcast companies are in
different directions do you need to consider a rotator.

Don't forget to ground everything. The wire gets grounded near where it
comes into your house with a special one time use connector. And the
antenna gets its own grounding wire to the earth.


Make sure your subdivision allows antennas. Some don't.


As to who makes a good antennna, there is so little interest in them these
days, I doubt anyone knows any more. Channelmaster used to be good. I
would look at Lowes and Home Depot too. And amplifiers definitely help a
bit. Also buy the gold coax connectors at Radio shack and not the cheap
ones. They are better.... check the specs. Wire varies too in quality.

Bottom line, call Dish network and Direct TV and check their deals making
sure they have local channels in your area. The quality is worth it and
they will do all the work and wiring.



"m Ransley" wrote in message
...
I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.

Why get dishnet and pay $60.00 a year for local channels? And thats
not ALL the local channels in your area. Just the big networks. You
can get plenty more with an antenna. Also why have a satellite
receiver on just to watch local channels. Dishnet sucks.

On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 00:55:49 GMT, "Art"
wrote:

2 words..... Dish network.


Seriously, rotators, etc are a pain. No more programmer the vcr for 2 shows
unless you get a programmable rotator.

In any case, you may not need a rotator at all if all the channels are
broadcast from the same direction. Only if broadcast companies are in
different directions do you need to consider a rotator.

Don't forget to ground everything. The wire gets grounded near where it
comes into your house with a special one time use connector. And the
antenna gets its own grounding wire to the earth.


Make sure your subdivision allows antennas. Some don't.


As to who makes a good antennna, there is so little interest in them these
days, I doubt anyone knows any more. Channelmaster used to be good. I
would look at Lowes and Home Depot too. And amplifiers definitely help a
bit. Also buy the gold coax connectors at Radio shack and not the cheap
ones. They are better.... check the specs. Wire varies too in quality.

Bottom line, call Dish network and Direct TV and check their deals making
sure they have local channels in your area. The quality is worth it and
they will do all the work and wiring.



"m Ransley" wrote in message
...
I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.

By the way with HD, theoretically the picture is either perfect or you don't
get anything at all, if you are thinking of a HD antenna. And if you are
not, why bother since old fashion over the air broadcast antennas won't be
getting a signal one of these days.


"m Ransley" wrote in message
...
I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.

Radio shack is overpriced for what you get ok for quick small parts.
current antennas will and do pick up hdtv signals which will all be on
uhf frequences (make sure uhf section is top line if you get combo vhf
and uhf) the 8 bay channel master is pretty good
this link link will tell you what you need in antenna and the exact
direction and distance from your house so you can determine if you
need a rotor
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

All this stuff can be ordered over the net at good savings for DIY

For wire use rg6 or for extremely long runs rg10 Belden (not belken)
makes very high quality wire. http://www.belden.com/
check channel master here
http://www.channelmaster.com/home.htm

chanel master also makes good pre amps (make sure you get antenna
mounted pre amp not one inside your house) but uou can allways mount
it later if needed unless you are getting a 50 ft mast etc.

as noted before be sure both the antenna and the antenna lead in are
well grounded.

On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 19:19:49 -0500, (m Ransley)
wrote:

I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.

"m Ransley" wrote in message
...
I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.


60 miles east will put you in Lake Michigan. If the water is choppy you
need a special antenna.

You may get better advice from a local TV dealer or it may even pay you to
get a pro to do the job. Do you want Chicago stations or Lansing? Or South
Bend? Distance is a big factor, but so is the location of your house. If
you happen to be in a low spot, you may not get the same performance as the
guy two streets away.

I have been a professional installer for 30 years and what I have learned is
that bigger (more elements is always better) to make up for some of the VHF
radio and FM radio stations in portions of the bands that you will be trying
to receive. The pre-amplifier is a must if you want to receive some of the
other cities in the radius of your geography. This also means that the
rotator is also a must. Buy the best quality of RG-6 that you can get
your hands on. You need RG-6 especially for the uhf band (chan's 14 thru
69) RG-59 is much to lossie on the uhf band.

Radio shack is kinda sorta "mediocre" at best. I personally use a Channel
Master set-up that has been up there off my 2 story atop the chimney with
about 13ft free standing including the short 3 foot mast from above the
rotor motor and has survived the past 7 hurricanes here in eastern North
CArolina for better than a doz years where I live near Fort Bragg. Winegard
is also a great choice. Winegard should be available in your area at a good
electronic's dist or you could consider checking prices from the internet.
By the time you add the cost of a good pre-amp and rotator you would and
could buy the same products from Channel Master or Winegard for perhaps $75.
to $125.00 more for the whole package and you would be getting the benefit
of wireless remote control for your rotor and that is a nice feature that
unfortunately Radio Shack doesn't offer. A few dollars better spent now
could be insignificant in the many years that you want to enjoy the value
and cost savings of your own ant system. There are so many good and
wonderful independent stations in the regional area that neither cable nor
satellite TV can offer. They keep it down to the big five and and few
independent locals and that's it. You have the opportunity to watch dozens
of crystal clear channels and no monthly bill either. That's the nice part
also.

My complaints with Radio Shack is that the array doesn't hold up well
during high wind storms and the pre-amps they sell don't seem to make it for
the long haul, whereas the CM or Winegard seem to last forever and even
survive most lightning. Not to say that you shouldn't invest in good surge
suppression and be sure to ground your coast thru a grounding block with #6
solid copper and attached to the copper ground at your meter base or
external grounding loop that could be at your foundation/slab etc.

Oh, also check at Lowe's building suppy store if in your area. They usually
have a sale going on with Channel Master antenna products.

Good Luck and hope this helps a bit. If you have any other questions, give
me call at 910 964-2009.

Ernie Krist


"m Ransley" wrote in message
...
I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.

also read from this site
http://www.hdtvprimer.com/


On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 19:19:49 -0500, (m Ransley)
wrote:

I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.

m Ransley wrote:

I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.

That's probably their #190, a good antenna , but $99 is the normal
price, not the sale price, which is often 50% off, and some stores have
closed out antennas for $5-20 (my #210 was $10).

Mount the antenna as high as possible, but secure the mast well,
including with guy wires in addition to any tripod. Ground the mast to
earth, with a long grounding rod if your house's ground rod isn't close
by (best to bond any other rod to the house's rod0, and ground the
coaxial antenna cable shield with a grounding block. Also install a
lightning arrestor (Radio Shack doesn't have them any more) and ground
it too. Use either RG-59, RG-6, or, best of all, RG-6QS (quad shield,
blocks interference best) cable. Where the cable enters the building,
let it sag at least 6" to make any water that runs down it drip off
instead of run inside. All of this information is given in the
instructions included with every outdoor antenna, VCR, and TV, among
the precautions listed in one of the first pages.

Each kind of cable requires its own connectors, and connectors are made
in both regular and waterproof types, but black electrical tape does a
good job of waterproofing (don't stretch the last few turns or the tape
will unravel). Do not use RG-58 cable, which is 50-ohm characteristic
impedance cable and will cause ghosts with TVs, amplifiers, and
antennas, all which use 75 ohms. With a high-gain antenna you may not
need an amplifier, just a splitter. Any unused outlets of the splitter
should be terminated with 75 ohm resistors to prevent ghosting, either
at the splitter or, more conveniently, at the wall outlets (may not be
a good idea if small children are around since they can unscrew them
and swallow them). Amplifiers are either preamps that mount on the
mast (usually best) or distribution amplifiers that go indoors. With
the latter I don't like mounting powered devices inside unfinished
attics, unless they're completely enclosed in steel to block fires.

You may want to paint the plastic of the antenna white to protect it
against ultraviolet sunlight and ozone. Don't use any other colors
since they may contain metals that can short out the signal, and other
colors can make plastic get hot enough to melt or crack. Ordinary
white spray enamel or lacquer works, but you may want to try Krylon
Fusion, made especially for plastic.

jappy wrote:

RG-6/U or RG58 or RG59 but best bet would be RG6/u.

RG58 is 50 ohms and can cause ghosts with TV, which is 72-75 ohms.

First, check out antennaweb.org. You can put in your address, bldg
height, etc and it will tell you the distance and angle to the stations
in your area and give you an idea of what kind of antenna you need.
You may very well not need a rotor at all, as in many areas, all the
main transmitters are located close together.

I would also consider what someone previously pointed out. And that is
that the existing analog broadcast system is scheduled to be shut off
completely in the not too distant future. The date has been pushed out
before and probably will be again, but it is the direction we are
heading with the transition to digital broadcasting. If I were
installing an antenna and/or rotor today, I'd be looking at something
that would be capable of digital reception and at least planning on how
I might migrate to that.

Art wrote:
since old fashion over the air broadcast antennas won't be
getting a signal one of these days.


I thought that you would still be able to get HDTV using a regular
antenna? At least thats where I reads somewhere. As far as I know the
only thing different that you will need is a converter box to convert
the HDTV signal to a regular analog signal if you still have an old TV.

People claiming that there will be a "true" "digital only" tv
antenna is ludicrous.


Present day tv antennas will pick up tv signals for the next 100 years.

"People claiming that there will be a "true" "digital only" tv
antenna is ludicrous. Present day tv antennas will pick up tv signals
for the next 100 years. "

100 years? LOL

No one on this thread ever claimed that there was a "digital only"
antenna. However, most of the digital transmitters are on the UHF
band, so if one has an old VHF only antenna, they won't have to wait
100 years, they already are unable to receive most digital now.
Another issue is the location of the digital transmitters, which may
not be in the same location in every case as the analog transmitters
they are replacing, which means the antenna may need to be oriented in
a different direction.

And if you don't believe analog TV is scheduled to be turned off, just
go to the FCC website.

Art wrote:
By the way with HD, theoretically the picture is either perfect or you don't
get anything at all, if you are thinking of a HD antenna. And if you are
not, why bother since old fashion over the air broadcast antennas won't be
getting a signal one of these days.

Why not? HD uses the same channel assignments as are currently used with
the current NTSC system. The only difference is that some of the higher
UHF channels were not assigned to HD and will be reassigned to other
services when NTSC is turned off.




"m Ransley" wrote in message
...

I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.

wrote:

....
I live on a farm and the only way I can get any tv is with an antenna
(unless I want to go broke with a satellite dish). I have one of the
cheaper antennas from Radio Shack. My nearest city is 55 miles, the
next is 70, and the last is 90. However, each one of them is a
different direction. Since the antenna needs to be pointed at the
station, a rotor is a MUST. Of course my first rotor was pretty
silly. I ran the mast all the way to the ground, right outside a
window. I had a bearing in the upper mast holder and the bottom was
in a drilled hole in a timber. I left a vice grip in the mast, and
when I wanted to rotate it, I just opened the window and turned the
vice grip. This actually worked well, but was soft of inconvenient in
freezing cold weather. Plus, winds liked to rotate it for me, at
least until I used a second vice grip to lock it against a steel fence
post I drove in next to it.

I like the original rotor solution...

Your location wrt TV stations is almost identical to ours although our
three (the three networks) are all in roughly the N to NW quadrant as
opposed to the full compass directions as they could have been. There
are no repeaters in the TX panhandle to the south within 150 mi so
there's no chance in that direction.

We manage to get the two closest pretty routinely w/ one setting. The
third is the farthest distance and also in the most NE'rly direction.

Biggest issue I see w/ the setup as Dad left it (using RS parts as
that's the only source in town other than the even worse WallyWorld
stuff) is that the sorry RS coax cable is porous enough that it gets
saturated w/ water and occasionally shorts out the signal. I've
replaced it once w/ what was supposed to be better, but it has developed
same problem in only a couple of years.

I agree on the amplifier....the only thing that does is amplify the
noise as well as the signal because it's too far down the channel so
unless it's essentially a usable signal to begin with, you don't improve
signal quality.

Ransley,

The Radio Shack antennae work OK. Don't pay full price, wait for a sale.
There are various sites on the web which will help you choose the right
antenna for your location. Unfortunately the sales people at RS will not be
competent to assist you in your choice.
Get a cheap signal splitter and you can get good FM radio reception off
of your TVantenna. When you mount the antenna leave at least 6 ft of slack
in the cable and see how the reception is. Then get a rotator if you need
one (that's why you left the slack). I installed a rotator recently and it
did a great job of improving radio and TV reception.

Good luck,
Dave M.

"Like IPODs.
Why do people need those things? Radios cost less than $10 and can
play the same songs, and even have speakers. I can not stand having
earphones hanging on me. "

You're a real classic. First you bitch about TV not having the shows
you would prefer and infomercials, then you blast people who get an
iPod so they can load the commercial free music of their own choice?

" guess the older we get, the more we learn to just appreciate things
the way they are, and get real tired of being forced to spend money.
I got lots of vhs tapes, but now I am supposed to get dvd. Either one
plays a movie and the advantage to dvd is really not all that
noticable. "

No one is forcing you to do anything. You can keep right on watching
your VHS, can't you? The superiority of DVD's vs VHS is very apparent
when viewed on a good display with a progressive scan DVD player.

I don;t think much of this has anything to do with age. It's more an
issue of just falling into a rut and failing to grow.

Hi Duane,

A good, and I repeat "GOOD" low-noice, very low temperature pre-amplifer
will drop down to freq range of the useable signal and only amplify the
signal and not the noice. Unless ofcourse you go to Radio Shack and end up
with very inferior quality. Please look into getting a Winegard See:
http://www.winegard.com/offair/amplifiers.htm
that is the factory link and they show many regional distributors.

I have to bring in the signal for many hotels and motor inns that are alot
more distant to the signal tx source than you refer to in Texas. Winegard
will get the job done. Stay away from tandy/Radio Shack and you will be
very happy indeed..

Good Luck,

Ern

"Duane Bozarth" wrote in message
...
wrote:

...
I live on a farm and the only way I can get any tv is with an antenna
(unless I want to go broke with a satellite dish). I have one of the
cheaper antennas from Radio Shack. My nearest city is 55 miles, the
next is 70, and the last is 90. However, each one of them is a
different direction. Since the antenna needs to be pointed at the
station, a rotor is a MUST. Of course my first rotor was pretty
silly. I ran the mast all the way to the ground, right outside a
window. I had a bearing in the upper mast holder and the bottom was
in a drilled hole in a timber. I left a vice grip in the mast, and
when I wanted to rotate it, I just opened the window and turned the
vice grip. This actually worked well, but was soft of inconvenient in
freezing cold weather. Plus, winds liked to rotate it for me, at
least until I used a second vice grip to lock it against a steel fence
post I drove in next to it.

I like the original rotor solution...

Your location wrt TV stations is almost identical to ours although our
three (the three networks) are all in roughly the N to NW quadrant as
opposed to the full compass directions as they could have been. There
are no repeaters in the TX panhandle to the south within 150 mi so
there's no chance in that direction.

We manage to get the two closest pretty routinely w/ one setting. The
third is the farthest distance and also in the most NE'rly direction.

Biggest issue I see w/ the setup as Dad left it (using RS parts as
that's the only source in town other than the even worse WallyWorld
stuff) is that the sorry RS coax cable is porous enough that it gets
saturated w/ water and occasionally shorts out the signal. I've
replaced it once w/ what was supposed to be better, but it has developed
same problem in only a couple of years.

I agree on the amplifier....the only thing that does is amplify the
noise as well as the signal because it's too far down the channel so
unless it's essentially a usable signal to begin with, you don't improve
signal quality.

Go check with the FCC's site. over the air antennae will only get better
and expand. How do you think that Direct TV and Dish Network get the local
channels. They pick them up over the air and re transmit them to the sat
birds that they use and then down link to the home dish user. Amendments
to the US constitution protect us indefinitely to have the right to receive
broadcast signals.There are millions of us that would be the first to go to
Wash, DC and pull the plug on C-Span I or II if anyone ever tries to deny
the US Citizens of free ota tv.

TV going away: "Total BS and hogwash"

Ernie,

The more people that I meet the more that I love my Golden Retrievers.
........



"Mikepier" wrote in message
oups.com...

Art wrote:
since old fashion over the air broadcast antennas won't be
getting a signal one of these days.


I thought that you would still be able to get HDTV using a regular
antenna? At least thats where I reads somewhere. As far as I know the
only thing different that you will need is a converter box to convert
the HDTV signal to a regular analog signal if you still have an old TV.

If you read the url's in my prior post you will get all the data you
need such as why twinlead has problems, the extra signal signal loss
from rg59, why rg11 has the least signal loss. Preamps (mast or
antenna mount) are to overcome the signal loss in your coax from
antenna to tv. Look for the least distortion and best s/n you can
get. Anything over 2.5 is to much. signal strength decreases the
base noise floor increases so you get more noise with longer cable
runs without the preamp. If your cable was only 20 feet you would get
a better picture without preamnp. But every 18 feet you take a
significant signal strength loss. Also the higher the frequency the
quicker the loss.

Spend the hour or two reading the data at the urls and get scientific
fact and not openions.

My experience with antennas is from being a ham radio operater for the
last 40 years and building my own. there are ARRL manuals that cover
the simplest long wire antenna's to moon bounce installations At your
current stage only the basic novice publications would be of use to
you.
Stan


On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 19:19:49 -0500, (m Ransley)
wrote:

I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.

I am sending a test post. the past few days I have posted to some of the
questions here and my posts have not
appeared. If moderated, how do I joing or become approved, etc? Thanks,
Ernie,


----


uriah wrote in message ...
If you read the url's in my prior post you will get all the data you
need such as why twinlead has problems, the extra signal signal loss
from rg59, why rg11 has the least signal loss. Preamps (mast or
antenna mount) are to overcome the signal loss in your coax from
antenna to tv. Look for the least distortion and best s/n you can
get. Anything over 2.5 is to much. signal strength decreases the
base noise floor increases so you get more noise with longer cable
runs without the preamp. If your cable was only 20 feet you would get
a better picture without preamnp. But every 18 feet you take a
significant signal strength loss. Also the higher the frequency the
quicker the loss.

Spend the hour or two reading the data at the urls and get scientific
fact and not openions.

My experience with antennas is from being a ham radio operater for the
last 40 years and building my own. there are ARRL manuals that cover
the simplest long wire antenna's to moon bounce installations At your
current stage only the basic novice publications would be of use to
you.
Stan


On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 19:19:49 -0500, (m Ransley)
wrote:

I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.

wrote in message
oups.com...
"Like IPODs.
Why do people need those things? Radios cost less than $10 and can
play the same songs, and even have speakers. I can not stand having
earphones hanging on me. "

You're a real classic. First you bitch about TV not having the shows
you would prefer and infomercials, then you blast people who get an
iPod so they can load the commercial free music of their own choice?

" guess the older we get, the more we learn to just appreciate things
the way they are, and get real tired of being forced to spend money.
I got lots of vhs tapes, but now I am supposed to get dvd. Either one
plays a movie and the advantage to dvd is really not all that
noticable. "

No one is forcing you to do anything. You can keep right on watching
your VHS, can't you? The superiority of DVD's vs VHS is very apparent
when viewed on a good display with a progressive scan DVD player.

I don;t think much of this has anything to do with age. It's more an
issue of just falling into a rut and failing to grow.

Actually, I think there's a gene that kicks in at a certain age, which most
people don't recognize in themself. I've heard it called the COG gene, for
Crabby Old Geezer. You just have to be aware of it once it starts up, since
it pretty much discredits anything that's said or written after that time --

It is not moderated. There seems to have been a newsgroup problem a couple
of days ago and some posts weren't showing up. Also, there is a bug in
Outlook and on random days you cannot see your own posts. No one has
figured out why as far as I know. Go to www.google.com and check out the
group page and visit this group there and see if you can see your posts.


"ek" wrote in message
hlink.net...
I am sending a test post. the past few days I have posted to some of the
questions here and my posts have not
appeared. If moderated, how do I joing or become approved, etc?
Thanks,
Ernie,


----


uriah wrote in message
...
If you read the url's in my prior post you will get all the data you
need such as why twinlead has problems, the extra signal signal loss
from rg59, why rg11 has the least signal loss. Preamps (mast or
antenna mount) are to overcome the signal loss in your coax from
antenna to tv. Look for the least distortion and best s/n you can
get. Anything over 2.5 is to much. signal strength decreases the
base noise floor increases so you get more noise with longer cable
runs without the preamp. If your cable was only 20 feet you would get
a better picture without preamnp. But every 18 feet you take a
significant signal strength loss. Also the higher the frequency the
quicker the loss.

Spend the hour or two reading the data at the urls and get scientific
fact and not openions.

My experience with antennas is from being a ham radio operater for the
last 40 years and building my own. there are ARRL manuals that cover
the simplest long wire antenna's to moon bounce installations At your
current stage only the basic novice publications would be of use to
you.
Stan


On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 19:19:49 -0500, (m Ransley)
wrote:

I am 60 miles east of Chicago and looking for a very good outdoor roof
Tv antenna. Radio Shack has a 160" 57 element antenna for 99$. Would I
benefit from a rotator and amplifier. What is the best cable to use. I
know nothing about outdoor tv antennas.

Duane Bozarth wrote:
wrote:

...

I live on a farm and the only way I can get any tv is with an antenna
(unless I want to go broke with a satellite dish). I have one of the
cheaper antennas from Radio Shack. My nearest city is 55 miles, the
next is 70, and the last is 90. However, each one of them is a
different direction. Since the antenna needs to be pointed at the
station, a rotor is a MUST. Of course my first rotor was pretty
silly. I ran the mast all the way to the ground, right outside a
window. I had a bearing in the upper mast holder and the bottom was
in a drilled hole in a timber. I left a vice grip in the mast, and
when I wanted to rotate it, I just opened the window and turned the
vice grip. This actually worked well, but was soft of inconvenient in
freezing cold weather. Plus, winds liked to rotate it for me, at
least until I used a second vice grip to lock it against a steel fence
post I drove in next to it.


I like the original rotor solution...

Your location wrt TV stations is almost identical to ours although our
three (the three networks) are all in roughly the N to NW quadrant as
opposed to the full compass directions as they could have been. There
are no repeaters in the TX panhandle to the south within 150 mi so
there's no chance in that direction.

We manage to get the two closest pretty routinely w/ one setting. The
third is the farthest distance and also in the most NE'rly direction.

Biggest issue I see w/ the setup as Dad left it (using RS parts as
that's the only source in town other than the even worse WallyWorld
stuff) is that the sorry RS coax cable is porous enough that it gets
saturated w/ water and occasionally shorts out the signal. I've
replaced it once w/ what was supposed to be better, but it has developed
same problem in only a couple of years.

I agree on the amplifier....the only thing that does is amplify the
noise as well as the signal because it's too far down the channel so
unless it's essentially a usable signal to begin with, you don't improve
signal quality.

Best to use a pre-amplifier that is mounted as close to the antenna
terminals as possible, one that uses an in line power supply that would
be mounted indoors. These will amplify the signal before it picks up
much noise induced in the transmission line.

Amplifiers that are mounted down the line somewhere are generally used
to boost signal for distributing to multiple locations since each time
you split a single you atenuate the signal some.