Over-the-Air Antenna Help

jjones88 · Aug 13, 2014

So I decided to cut off cable and go OTA, but I'm having problems picking up NBC and CBS (11 and 13 respectively).

Living in an apartment limits my capability to get an outdoor antenna, but according to TV Fool, I'm well above the 35 dB threshold to pull in the channels I want (less than 20 miles from tower).

According to TV Fool: ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CW all come in from ~98 deg from my location. In theory, I should be able to point my antenna in that direction and pick up those channels. I get them all but NBC and CBS.

More research has shown that ABC is VHF-low, NBC & CBS are VHF-High, and Fox / CW are UHF.

I've attempted the following three antennae, which claim to be VHF / UHF:
Moho Leaf 50
RCA CANT1650F
GE Flat Panel Amplified Antenna (useless piece of junk this one was)

Anyone in Carroll actually pick up 11 & 13? If so what antenna are you using?

Mike4Maryland · Aug 13, 2014

I use standard rabbit ears. Reception is OK, but sometimes when it is cold outside I have trouble keeping the rabbit still. :rolleyes:

Half-cocked · Aug 13, 2014

I use a directional VHF/UHF antenna (Radio Shack) up in my attic space, which I'm guessing you don't have access to?

I get all Baltimore and most DC stations perfectly, even though its pointed about 45 degrees away from DC.

rob · Aug 13, 2014

Ummmm....

http://www.tvantennaplans.com/

Go here and build this HDTV Antenna for OTA HDTV. This is better then almost any store bought antenna. I am in Mt Airy and I get a boat load of channels I stuck 5 of these up in my attic for up to 5 separate TVs.

Rob

Engine4 · Aug 13, 2014

Am I wrong, but I thought you needed a special digital antenna now if not using cable?

lowoncash · Aug 13, 2014

There are plans on Youtube to build a fractal(sp?) digital TV antenna. Looks easy, uses wire like coat hangers. Heard it was very effective. Never got around to building one myself.

jwh2000 · Aug 13, 2014

I built the one Rob showed above, I get 14 channels in my home in Delaware. The antenna is only five feet from the tv.

jjsat · Aug 13, 2014

I'm in the antenna business and OTA reception can really be tricky indoors.
1)Try a Omni directional amplified antenna
2) Try extending the cable so you can move the antenna further from the tv up,down, left, and right.
3) Try getting the antenna closer to a window
4) If the window location looks better then google search antennas online and find one that can be mounted outside the window and comes with a flat piece of cable so you can still close the window.
The best reception is usually outside and at least 20ft off the ground.
Good luck!

rob · Aug 13, 2014

jwh2000 said:
I built the one Rob showed above, I get 14 channels in my home in Delaware. The antenna is only five feet from the tv.

Yup. I get about 40 HDTV channels local to Balt, Wash and Hagerstown. ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS plus the formerly UHF channels plus a whole bunch of other stuff like RT, Aljazera, and stuff in various foreign languages.

I didn't do any careful aiming, I just checked whether it was better parallel to the wall or perpendicular.

Best of all, since it is OTA, the digital signal is not compressed/screwed with by a cable company to maximize their bandwidth. As a result, the picture is much better then you would get with cable. Second best of all, no stupid-ass cable box or remote to deal with. :bannana:

Rob

XCheckR · Aug 13, 2014

rob said:
Ummmm....

http://www.tvantennaplans.com/

Go here and build this HDTV Antenna for OTA HDTV. This is better then almost any store bought antenna. I am in Mt Airy and I get a boat load of channels I stuck 5 of these up in my attic for up to 5 separate TVs.

Rob

This is way cool....i may have to try it.

gamer_jim · Aug 13, 2014

jjones88 said:
Anyone in Carroll actually pick up 11 & 13? If so what antenna are you using?

Me. We don't have any cable (no fiber or Comcast) down our street so DirecTv was our only option. We got tired of the same 3 channels we watched so I cut them and we upped our netflix DVDs.

I'm not seeing the antenna on Radio Shack's website that I bought but this one comes closest:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...594&filterName=Brand&filterValue=Antennacraft

The one I bought did not advertise any VHF stations but we pick up channel 2.

VHF runs from channel 2 through 11 or so. About 4 years ago I paid $60 for it at Radio Shack.

We live in northern Carroll County. I have it pointed half way between Baltimore and York. I usually pick up stations from both. The stations I need form York are UHF so I want to point my antenna to Baltimore and then get a second UHF and point it at York.

What will increase the reception more than anything is height. Get it up above the hills and tree line if possible. I had an old DirecTv Dish mast bolted to the top of my roof. I removed the dish but kept the mast and put the new antenna on it.

The other thing I did was set up a MythTv box. It is a Linux-based DVR solution. I had to buy a capture board for that computer and set up the software. The antenna runs to the capture board, the software does it's thing and then I have HDMI out to the TV.

This plus the Netflix DVDs is what keeps us sane. DirecTv was only $70/ month but with my new setup I only pay $15/month. Netflix is $13 and I pay 2/month for the TV scheduling service that MythTv uses.

My only advice is to pay as much as you can for an antenna. The larger the antenna the better. Height is more important though. Get it as high as you can. Point it towards the city you want, Baltimore I presume.

there are devices that can combine signals so you could have one pointed towards York and another towards Baltimore but that is not ideal. My solution that I ultimately want to go with involves 2 capture cards, 1 for the Baltimore pointed antenna and getting a cheaper antenna pointed towards York.

Good luck!

swinokur · Aug 13, 2014

www.antennaweb.com

jjones88 · Aug 13, 2014

jjsat said:
I'm in the antenna business and OTA reception can really be tricky indoors.
1)Try a Omni directional amplified antenna
2) Try extending the cable so you can move the antenna further from the tv up,down, left, and right.
3) Try getting the antenna closer to a window
4) If the window location looks better then google search antennas online and find one that can be mounted outside the window and comes with a flat piece of cable so you can still close the window.
The best reception is usually outside and at least 20ft off the ground.
Good luck!

I've tried two omni's and one directional. I'm thinking that the pattern just isn't made for VHF-High?

I was able to pull NBC finally after going as far from the TV as possible, but unfortunately that takes me away from my closest window!

How does flat co-ax work? Wouldn't I have zero shielding therefore be effected by noise?

rob said:
Ummmm....

http://www.tvantennaplans.com/

Go here and build this HDTV Antenna for OTA HDTV. This is better then almost any store bought antenna. I am in Mt Airy and I get a boat load of channels I stuck 5 of these up in my attic for up to 5 separate TVs.

Rob

That looks perfect if I could find a place to put it. Not sure I'd get any signal if it were on the floor.

gamer_jim said:
Me. We don't have any cable (no fiber or Comcast) down our street so DirecTv was our only option. We got tired of the same 3 channels we watched so I cut them and we upped our netflix DVDs.

I'm not seeing the antenna on Radio Shack's website that I bought but this one comes closest:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...594&filterName=Brand&filterValue=Antennacraft

The one I bought did not advertise any VHF stations but we pick up channel 2.

VHF runs from channel 2 through 11 or so. About 4 years ago I paid $60 for it at Radio Shack.

We live in northern Carroll County. I have it pointed half way between Baltimore and York. I usually pick up stations from both. The stations I need form York are UHF so I want to point my antenna to Baltimore and then get a second UHF and point it at York.

What will increase the reception more than anything is height. Get it up above the hills and tree line if possible. I had an old DirecTv Dish mast bolted to the top of my roof. I removed the dish but kept the mast and put the new antenna on it.

The other thing I did was set up a MythTv box. It is a Linux-based DVR solution. I had to buy a capture board for that computer and set up the software. The antenna runs to the capture board, the software does it's thing and then I have HDMI out to the TV.

This plus the Netflix DVDs is what keeps us sane. DirecTv was only $70/ month but with my new setup I only pay $15/month. Netflix is $13 and I pay 2/month for the TV scheduling service that MythTv uses.

My only advice is to pay as much as you can for an antenna. The larger the antenna the better. Height is more important though. Get it as high as you can. Point it towards the city you want, Baltimore I presume.

there are devices that can combine signals so you could have one pointed towards York and another towards Baltimore but that is not ideal. My solution that I ultimately want to go with involves 2 capture cards, 1 for the Baltimore pointed antenna and getting a cheaper antenna pointed towards York.

Good luck!

Height's my biggest issue. I'm stuck on a second floor of a brick building with zero roof access. I'm trying to defeat height by just blasting a strong signal.

jjsat, any way to get the noise floor down more than the cheap LNA's that most antennas come with?

SKIP · Aug 13, 2014

I currently have a 30 year old roto antenna described on the below link but I have to move the antenna for Baltimore station and another direction for DC.

Recently, I have not been able to pull in channel 7 and 9. Channel 4 and 5 have strong signals.

gamer_jim said:
Me. We don't have any cable (no fiber or Comcast) down our street so DirecTv was our only option. We got tired of the same 3 channels we watched so I cut them and we upped our netflix DVDs.

I'm not seeing the antenna on Radio Shack's website that I bought but this one comes closest:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...594&filterName=Brand&filterValue=Antennacraft

The one I bought did not advertise any VHF stations but we pick up channel 2.

VHF runs from channel 2 through 11 or so. About 4 years ago I paid $60 for it at Radio Shack.

We live in northern Carroll County. I have it pointed half way between Baltimore and York. I usually pick up stations from both. The stations I need form York are UHF so I want to point my antenna to Baltimore and then get a second UHF and point it at York.

What will increase the reception more than anything is height. Get it up above the hills and tree line if possible. I had an old DirecTv Dish mast bolted to the top of my roof. I removed the dish but kept the mast and put the new antenna on it.

The other thing I did was set up a MythTv box. It is a Linux-based DVR solution. I had to buy a capture board for that computer and set up the software. The antenna runs to the capture board, the software does it's thing and then I have HDMI out to the TV.

This plus the Netflix DVDs is what keeps us sane. DirecTv was only $70/ month but with my new setup I only pay $15/month. Netflix is $13 and I pay 2/month for the TV scheduling service that MythTv uses.

My only advice is to pay as much as you can for an antenna. The larger the antenna the better. Height is more important though. Get it as high as you can. Point it towards the city you want, Baltimore I presume.

there are devices that can combine signals so you could have one pointed towards York and another towards Baltimore but that is not ideal. My solution that I ultimately want to go with involves 2 capture cards, 1 for the Baltimore pointed antenna and getting a cheaper antenna pointed towards York.

Good luck!

Independence · Aug 14, 2014

What TV do you have?

jjones88 · Aug 15, 2014

Independence said:
What TV do you have?

Working with a newer Sony with the DTV tuner inside the tv.

An update... after drawing a map of my place and finally getting NBC to register within the tv lineup:

I walked around the apartment (as far as my current 16' cord allows me to) I finally got NBC, ABC, Fox to come in HD and steady. The antenna is pointing in the absolute wrong direction but I'm at least getting 3 of the 4 now. This means I'm up to 7 out of 8 from the tower in Baltimore. Still no CBS.... From my research pulling VHF-Hi is very difficult with these flat Omni anntennas.

Going to try my hand at building the DB-4, the other half is furious because it isn't "cute" but if it saves me ~$50 a month it's worth it!

TheBert · Aug 15, 2014

You can also take a 30 foot section of coax, connect it to the back of your TV, drop the cable out of your window and scan for channels.

chale127 · Aug 15, 2014

Engine4 said:
Am I wrong, but I thought you needed a special digital antenna now if not using cable?

Nope, an antenna (Any antenna) has no idea of the mode of transmission it receives; i.e. digital/analog/AM/FM/SSB etc. it just receives signals in a given frequency range, which hasn't changed, you do not have to have a "digital" antenna as retailers would lead you to believe

FWIW...the TV has more to do with the signals received and decoded than anything, i had several antennas, including beam antennas i tested along with several amplifiers, there were a couple channels i could never get (i can see TV hill from my roof in Brooklyn Park and I'm on TOP of the hill here) whereas a good friend of mine in a low lying area of Glen Burnie could get 10 more channels than I.... I have an older Insignia, one of the first with the built in digital decoders, and he has a brand new Sony...brought his TV to my house, hooked up my parabolic beam pointing due North and amplifier and we were watching WGAL Channel 8 in Harrisburg like it was channel 11(WBAL)....only thing that changed was the TV

Klunatic · Aug 15, 2014

https://www.antennasdirect.com/ makes great antennas. Go to www.antennaweb.org they have great tools to figure out what antenna to use for your location in relation to the towers.

awptickes · Aug 27, 2014

Did you get this resolved? If not, PM me, I may be able to help.

Over-the-Air Antenna Help

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