Antenna Gear Recomendations

[wcorne]

We purchased a home at Lat 39.20519N, Lon 81.73479W, on the Ohio River 1.5 miles North of Hockingport OH. The home sits backed up on the West (300degrees) to a 200 ft rock wall with the river running North (30degrees) to South (210degrees) on the East side of the home. We currently have a traditional 7’ VHF /UHF outdoor antenna, 25’ off the ground & approximately 100’ above River level, with CM 7777 Pre-amp, 50’ of coax to a digital converter box then to the one TV (may add another in the future). We also have a Radio Shack 151225-B Archeroter in good working condition. The two websites for showing what we should receive are inaccurate in there predictions of what we should receive (http://www.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps/ & http://www.antennaweb.org). We actually receive 8,11,13(w/ difficulty),15,20,29(w/ difficulty),& 33 plus all they're sub channels. We can receive all these w/o moving the antenna when rotated to a heading of 195 degrees (some channels with difficulty). One thing I find interesting is that before moving in we lived for a while in our travel trailer adjacent to the home (75’ lower and 100’ closer to the waters edge). With a small outdoor batwing antenna and a pre-amp (factory installed on our Holiday Rambler Alumiscape) we received the above channels better plus additionally received 44-1-2-3. Although this was 100’ further away from the rock wall it was lower and a much smaller antenna. It’s also interesting that we can receive the 20’s at all as the transmitter is directly in the direction of the rock wall. Does this mean that we’re picking up bounced signals in the river valley? And if so does this suggest a different antenna selection, one that’s better at grabbing bounced signals as apposed to “line of site”?

Our goals;

1. We’d like to get all the channels I’ve mentioned with less drop-outs.

2. Improve WOWK-DT 13.1 CBS (usualy can't get it in the daytime). Another CBS option would be WDTV 5.1 which we did pick up a few times in the camper but only before the digital transition and very poorly.

3. Pick up more channels like WQCW-DT 17.1, WSAZ 3.2 ect….

Will you soon be selling a deep fringe antenna that is tuned specifically for channels 7-51?

Give me the benefits of installing one HD7698P verses installing HD-9032 & YA-1713 using the separate UHF and VHF inputs on the CM 7777. Which is better and by how much (I don't understand the DB, Beam width, & Front to Back numbers). If i did install the two antennas, which one on top and how far apart?

We look forward to your input.


Thanks for your help,

[winegard]

Due to all of the reflections in the river basin there is not much you can do. That is why in some cases the smaller camper antenna works in one location and the higher gain larger antenna does not perform as well in another location. So you will have to try and move your existing antenna or the HD7698P around to different locations and try raising and lowering the antenna until you can find a location that works. If it is possible you could mount the antenna on top of the 200’ hill and run a high quality RG 6/U cable with a solid copper center conductor down to your home. Using the HD7698P antenna and an AP-8275 preamplifier and the high quality cable you could run up to 400 to 500 feet with your cable.