tjaune

I think extending your 5y13s is preferable to combining two 5y13s together. If you combine two identical antennas, the theoretical gain is double the signal (3 dB) but in reality, it is more like 2.5 dB. By extending your existing 5y13s, you can add more than 3dB by adding sufficient directors in front of it provided that you have enough room for it and if it is convenient to do so.

Don't be to obsessive too much about the spacings of the elements, my personnal experimental observations indicated that there is quite some room to play with the distances (remember, I built 2 yagis in addition to my real 10y13s). By the way, the real 10y13s, the spacing inter-director is constant, I think 25 cm if I remember right. The lengths of the directors are important though.

I just get the antenna down last night and already pop out the small black plastic cover at the tip. Because the rivet of the first element blocking at 1 inch, I Will probably just slide in a flat wood stick to extend the boom, I don't want yet to drill any hole. Additional elements will be attached at 5.5 inch interval.

For the enthousiast, here are some details of the 5y13s. The boom is a 1 inch square. Each element tube length is 11 3/4 inch (director length is 13 3/4 inch and dipole is 12 1/2). They are electrical connected to the boom (except the dipole feed point). Distance from the director to the dipole is 11 inch center to center then 5.5 inch spacing for elements.

Since I will attach metal thread rod to wood, it will depend on the wvny result I will see if they need to be wire together. Hope I can test this week-end.

Thanks hungt.

tijaune, how many more directors can you add to the antenna

the idea is to elevate the antenna as high as you can in the attic but at the same time, make the whole antenna longer, not easy to compromise!

you noticed that each director is slightly shorter than the previous one right?

At it current location, only 1 more and I will hit the roof board but if I move back the antenna along the axis of wvny direction (160 degrees from my location), I estimated 5 can be added to be like the 10y13s. Maybe more if space still permitted (is there any diminishing return!?).

I also thought that elements at the tip seem shorter than one near the dipole kind of a slight arrow but my tape measure show them all 11 3/4 inch (each side so * 2 for the full length). That why I will cut the rods at 23.5 inch.

I'm thinking of putting some plywood across the area near the antenna installation on the attic to ease out testing :)

Alas must go to work tomorrow :)
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Hi everyone,

I have been a long time lurker and I am getting ready to install my OTA setup.

I'm in Saint-Lazare, that's about 10 minutes from Hudson in Quebec. I want to get a Winegard 8800 with a rotor CH 9521A. On the side of my roof, there is a J mount where an unused Bell Express VU is perched. I am wondering if I can remove the dish and mount the Winegard there. The wiring is all done with RG6 cable from the old dish.

What you guys think?



Maerhyl, you might want to check the WEIGHT limit on that dish mount. 8 bay antenna might be too big and unsafe to put on such a SMALL mount.

Just to show what I meant by the NM being so sensitive to antenna height:

At my location (Beloeil) on TV Fool, even if you put a height of 200 ft, the noise margin does not really change, it is always -5 db.

even if you put a height of 200 ft, the noise margin does not really change, it is always -5 db.Yes, that's a good point for people in deep to deepest fringe areas - at a certain point the curvature of the earth and the sheer distance from the transmitter make the receiving antenna's height difference almost unimportant above 10 feet.

Yes, that's a good point for people in deep to deepest fringe areas

To start with, WVNY-DT only throws 440 W towards Beloeil. According to TVFool, it's 75 miles away with a single edge diffraction -- probably obscured by nearby Mont Ste. Hilaire. And further east of Mont Ste. Hilaire, all the Mt Mansfield stations are obscured by the peak of Mt Mansfield itself, which is higher than the top of the new transmitting towers, and throws a wedge-shaped TV shadow due north of Mt Mansfield into Quebec.
It's not the 75 miles, it's these obstructions that cause the received power to be immune to height near Beloeil.

I'm several miles West of Mont Saint-Hilaire so it is not that.

Mont Saint-Gregoire is more the problem, right in the LOS of Mt. Mansfield.

But that is for an other thread.

Intravino

I have a cottage 30 miles futher north of St-Jérôme.
Ch. 3 analogue is coming well, the picture is almost clear
but no digital channel so far, none from VT or NY, neither Montreal, except in tropos DX times
I'll try to change the location of my antenna ( Radio Shack UHF-VHF combo )
in the coming weeks ( when the snow melt ! )
I'm in the middle of tall trees and hills....

Will post the results....

I just took the CM4228 6 feet higher up the tower. Just adding to the elevation made a lot of difference. I'm also testing the DB-4 from addison for the kid's tv

I life on Montreal island, west of the mountain, roughly 125 km north of the Mt. Mansfield transmitters in Vermont. With my home made coat-hanger bowtie antenna, mounted in my living room, I consistently get WPTZ. WCAX, WCFE and WETK are quite a big harder to get. At some point I even managed to pull in WFFF.

I have read a lot about SBGH and DBGH antennas, but I still haven't figured out all the details on how to build one myself (esp. sourcing all required material is not easy). In the interim, I want to buy a commercial OTA antenna. Version 5.1 of the antenna comparison chart on this website suggests the Antennas Direct DB-8 as my best choice (given that the original CM 4228 is no longer available). However, when comparing the net gain of this antenna with the Winegard PR-8800 (http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/comparing.html), I notice that the latter is superior in terms of net gain all the way up to channel 35. Wouldn't the Wineguard therefore be the better choice, esp. if I also want to get WVNY (channel 13)? Does anybody here get WVNY consistently?

Wouldn't the Wineguard therefore be the better choice, esp. if I also want to get WVNY (channel 13)? Does anybody here get WVNY consistently?

The Winegard would be better for WPTZ, WCAX, and WETK. But you need the extra gain for WFFF on ch 43. (WPTZ and WCAX are quite high power, so you shouldn't actually need the extra gain for them).

You need a directional VHF antenna (and some luck) for WVNY on ch 13.

Just assembled a brand new AntennasDirect DB-8. Temporarily mounted to a lamp pole in my living room, I get WPTZ, WCAX, WCFE and WETK. I am surprised there is no trace of WFFF since the DB-8 should have over 15 dBi gain at channel 44. I'll mount it to the roof soon and compare.

Good gain is only one part of the OTA solution, schoenbe, so once you've got it outdoors it will be easier to tell what your reception will be like as other factors come into effect.

I have been having a hard time receiving FOX 44 on physical channel 43 in the last 2 weeks, last night CBS was at 86 %, PBS 33 at 75 %, NBC 5 at 74%, PBS 57 at 80 % and FOX 44 at around 57 % with pixels , FOX used to be about 5 % point below NBC. Did they decrease their power ?

I have been having a hard time receiving FOX 44 on physical channel 43 in the last 2 weeks
I don't know what happended but your not alone. (i.e.) It's not your setup.

I nearly gave up on stupid Fox...it hasn't been coming in for over a week.

I then decided, why not...what the heck, buy a PCT amp (Channel Master):

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/5215/ampe.jpg

BA ZING! Fox came back, now I also have TQS, SRC, er...that OTHER PBS station (57-1)! LOL! I should had done this a year ago!

Using the built in LNA on my TV was great for "strongish" stations, but for stations with really low signals it didn't work well at all.

I've got Fox back with 3 out of 10 bars and it's "watchable", although SRC (2-1) isn't really working well, barely 2 bars out of 10, sometimes 1. Although my antenna is pointed at Mount Mansfield, so no surprise there, wish I had CBC 6-1 though for hockey (hurry up and move to Mount Royal darn it next year).

Yuprules: how does that PCT amp differ from regular distribution amps ?, if I recall it is only 12dB increase in gain, what is the noise ratio in that thing ?

Edt,

check pg. 6

http://www.pctinternational.com/_products/catalog/pdfs/Catalog_PCT_Amplifiers_20080803_rev.pdf

Noise= 2.7 db avg.
gain=15 db