I did see a setup using two rotor's, one mounted horizontally, along with an offset arm, it gave the antenna several degrees of movement in the horizontal plane.
I shall see if I can find the pic and post it.

Hi everybody, I'm looking to install my 4 bay Winegard antenna higher on the roof (currently it's on the wall) and considering what's the best option - tripod, wall brackets with long mast or J mount like this on the picture. Did anybody thy this for antenna installation? It says in the description that it's
good for sat dishes and not heavy antennas.
http://www.warrenelectronics.com/Satellite/dish_mts.htm

How high would you like to go with it? That J mast will support your 4-bay Winegard down close by the roof. A tripod works fine for putting it up in the 10 foot range, as you can see in the Pimp My Gear thread photos, but if you need to go higher you're looking at a tower. At that point you are then choosing between a guy-wired or a self supporting tower. Its all up to you, so let us know which way you're leaning. What's your location so we can help assess a good height?

Thanks for reply.
I like it to be just a little higher than the roof, to clear houses across the street. My location is pretty high - about 190 (ft ot m?) above the sea level - Richmond Hill, ON North of Hw 7 and Dufferin.

Hi gg I remembering speaking to you.

Yes you can buy and use a J mount on certain conditions.

First all of it will not support a free standing antenna with a pole inserted in it more than 4 to 5 feet.

You need to be higher than your eves. You need a clear view south. Where ever your antenna will be mounted if it does not have a clear view south then your Buffalo stations will be limited in reception.

You can buy a pole from home depot it's 1 1/4" ID that will fit perfectly inside the J mount.

Then you would need at least one wall bracket to clamp under your eves so that the antenna can be extended above your roof line.

If you use one clamp and the J mount you should be able to use a 7 or 8' pole free standing.

If your eves is more than 8 to 12" deep then that J mount will not clear.

I did the same setup at my parents house with a Dss mount and sticked a 10' pole inside it with one wall bracket near the top of ther pole on the chimney.

The eves was only 6" a older house so the dss mount worked.

Good luck.

Yes Yaamon,
that's after our phone conversation I decided to use your advise and mount my antenna higher to get Buffalo stations more stable.
This J mount is longer than usual DSS mount - it's 34" long and should be enough for my Winegard antenna - I probably will not require additional
pipe. What I'm conserned about, unlike trupod, this J mount has just one
point when it attaches to the roof (that's where I want to use it, not the wall) so I'm not sure it can withstand winds. Although Wingard aluminum
PR-4400 antenna it not much heavier that sat dish.

If I understand you are going to screw the J mount into your roof and mount the antenna to it ?

Then yes that work fine.

You could even extend the pole a few feet if you need.

Just screw in 3 at the top of the mount and 3 at the bottom. Remember ti use roof sealing tar not silcone around the base and the threads of the screw.

unlike trupod, this J mount has just one
point when it attaches to the roof.

Be sure you use long wood lag bolts and that you bolt right into the roofing joist not just the plywood. Use a hammer and tap on the roof... you can tell from how firm it is when you're on top of the rafter joist. Drill a small pilot hole 2 inches deep and stick a coat hanger wire down in it just to make sure your in the joist. If not seal the hole with roof tar and move over to a harder sounding spot and drill again.

Is Rochester reception a "nice to have" or a "need to have"?

If you want to go with a combo antenna again go for a Wade-Delhi VU935SR. If you step up to the bigger VU936SR it might start to overpower your receiver on the local VHFs when you rotate it their way but you'd stand a better chance at the Rochester VHF stations. The gargantuan VU937SR is overkill for anything but deepest fringe VHF. I believe the UHF corner reflectors on those Wade-Delhi models are the same unit (I might be wrong) so there shouldn't be any benefit of one model over the other in the UHF band (maybe ask Wade if the patterns are in any way different but I don't see why they would be).

If you're not concerned about the VHF stations then go with a CM4228 bowtie reflector UHF on a rotor and you'll do fine for locals/Buffalo and maybe get Rochester but probably not consistently from what I've read. A stacked CM4228 pair would add about 3dB of gain and maybe lower the threshold for a lock on Rochester DTVs, but again you'd start to overpower the receivers on the locals when you rotate them that way.

Thanks again for the awesome info Stampeder. The Rochester channels would be a "nice to have" thing. The Buffalo channels are definitely good to have and carry almost, if not all, network programming. I get this itch, the itch of wanting more. That why I would like them.

Would it be worth while to replace the existing combination antenna now, when I change the rotor? Or should I wait to see which Canadian channels come up to get a better idea what is needed? At this point and time I am receiving all available OTA digital channels that one would get in the GTA. I am very content with that. Rochester locals are nice to have for syndicated shows for more variety.

Taking down old antennas is one of the least pleasant aspects of OTA, and doing so atop a 50 foot tower makes it even worse (sore shoulders, crap in your eyes, lowering it down safely, etc. etc.). I say since you're happy with your present reception let sleeping dogs lie. ;) In the summer keep an eye on the DXing threads here and you should have some good finds from Rochester and other places on occasion.

BTW, that "itch" of wanting more is what makes a lot of us DHC OTA fans tick! :)

Taking down old antennas is one of the least pleasant aspects of OTA, and doing so atop a 50 foot tower makes it even worse (sore shoulders, crap in your eyes, lowering it down safely, etc. etc.).I know, would an installer even both with replace just the rotor driver only?Are there any installers that frequent this forum that could do the work? Yaamon do you do this kind of work? I see that you have a store of some sort. BTW, that "itch" of wanting more is what makes a lot of us DHC OTA fans tick! :)I know what you mean! I was watching Rochester often in the early 90's with my old VHF antenna. It was huge! I made a mistake by getting rid of it.:( It was great for DXing.

Mark Iam sorry Iam in the process of moving my office down to 300 Steelcase Road West, unit 20 so I dont have time for any installs in next month.

When did that installer change your rotor and mention about corrosion ? Do you remember what condition was your antenna back then. If there is no rust on the joints then it would be safe to use back your current antenna if you were pulling in all the Buffalo stations properly.

On the Rochester I can only really get them when the weather is warmer above 50'F with the rotor. Now I do not get any signals so dont look forward to HD signals from Rochester other than spring to fall.

Mark2074 I seriously doubt you will be able to receive Rochester digitals reliably as the Rochester towers are much lower,1/3 height of Buffalo South towers.

No worries Yaamon. I was just exploring. I am not sure if I will even bother with this change until the spring. The rotor seems to respond most of the time it just doesn't go the full 360 for some reason.

The installer was A MacDonald Antenna Tower Service. I asked him to replace my old seperated VHF & UHF antenna system with a combo. He replaced it with a channel Master 3678. This was back in 1995. The antenna is about ten years old. He said that over time the joints would corrode and I would lose signal effeciency. See, that was the reason why I replaced the old system.
Also, He give me a used rotor (I have since forgotten what brand) that was already 5 years old. After a year or two it started to give me problems in cold weather. It just wouldn't turn. I would have to giggle the control unit alot to finally make it turn. By doing this I eventually ruined the control unit. I bought the new Channel Master 9537 to replace it.

The other small problem I have is I am not pulling NBC Buffalo too well. I get 5 of 10 bars, where as, with CBS, ABC, FOX & PBS come it at 7 bars. This is with a Samsung SIR-T351 STB.

Well, I've seen your set-up and I have much more height than you do. With about 50' I should be able to get something from Rochester. Or maybe not.

I think at 10 years your antenna should be still good. :)

How long is your cable run as you should get a stronger signal from Buffalo. On my Samsung receivers with a CM7775 preamp I get 10 out of 10 on the Buffalo channels.

I might try in the spring the Winegard preamp the AP4700 that has 19db vs 26db for the channel master. The reason is that on one of my Hd receiver the Dish 811 I had to add several splitter as I had too much signal/gain on Pbs. I had to add about 19db of signal loss to the dish rec to get Pbs properly.

I connected a two way splitter out of the Cm power supply and one feed went to the family room the rec loop out into another Samsung in the basement and the loop out into a HD Ati card in my study.

The other feed from the orignal two way splitter went into a 3 way splitter on the 7db output one went to the LG4200a and then the other 7db into 3 more 2 way splitters then into the dish rec. All other unused ends was terminated. With this the Dish 811 rec is able to pull in all channles properly. Pbs was over driven pixelates. At times Cfto and Cbc would lose audio and on the rec signal would fluctuate between 74 and 89%. Now most of the channels comes in properly at a steady 87 to 91% except Nbc at 74 to 84%.

I know when the weather was warmer and after I installed the rotor in October and swinged the antenna to about 140 to 145' I was able to pull in Rochester at 10 bars on Pbs, Fox, Nbc. No Cbs or Abc even thought Abc is the strongest station.

During the hot and humid summer I did pull in with the twin antenna setup Cbs and Abc so with the rotor setup I dont see why I would not be able to pull them in better when its gets to summer time.

Even though you have a 50' tower with Rochester being further away and most channels being low power the signal might be hard to receive during the winter months.

The analog station are able to travel much further because of the lover frequency.

Ps: Just make sure that you antenna is pointing towards Buffalo Nbc before it gets any colder and you can't move your antenna.

I had a problem with my orginal rotor it was not moving when the temp got cold below freezing. I replace the drive unit outside and everything is ok now.

How long is your cable run as you should get a stronger signal from Buffalo. On my Samsung receivers with a CM7775 preamp I get 10 out of 10 on the Buffalo channels..

Most channels I get 8 out of 10. Just NBC seems to teater around 5 or 6.

The cable run is about roughly about 60'-70'. From at the top of the tower to the receiver. Now, there is a "coxial female-female joiner" just before the RG-6comes in the house. Could I be loosing signal strength there? I bought new F gold connectors, but that hasn't help much. Is there a way of properly joining the cables without having to remove the run on the tower?

I might try in the spring the Winegard preamp the AP4700 that has 19db vs 26db for the channel master. The reason is that on one of my Hd receiver the Dish 811 I had to add several splitter as I had too much signal/gain on Pbs. I had to add about 19db of signal loss to the dish rec to get Pbs properly.

I see, but if you rotate the rotor in another direction the signal overload would be lessen right? I am not sure if a preamp would help me out as well.

I know when the weather was warmer and after I installed the rotor in October and swinged the antenna to about 140 to 145' I was able to pull in Rochester at 10 bars on Pbs, Fox, Nbc. No Cbs or Abc even thought Abc is the strongest station.

During the hot and humid summer I did pull in with the twin antenna setup Cbs and Abc so with the rotor setup I dont see why I would not be able to pull them in better when its gets to summer time.

Now you got me thinking, if I have 2 Televes DAT-75s stacked, it would pull in the buffalo channels good and strong and I could increase my chances of getting Rochester channels in the summer. If I do get overload on the locals I could just rotate the antennas away from the local source, hence reducing the signal load.

...if I have 2 Televes DAT-75s stacked, it would pull in the buffalo channels good and strong and I could increase my chances of getting Rochester channels in the summer. If I do get overload on the locals I could just rotate the antennas away from the local source, hence reducing the signal load.I don't think you should risk having any overload conditions in play. Its too chancey and your luck could easily run out before you can get to the rotor control or turn the antennas. I'd hate to see a perfectly good tuner ruined. On a hot summer night a blast of tropo signal could wipe out your gear. Have I warned you enough? ;) Also, about stacking 2 DAT-75s, have you read anyone's results anywhere about doing that on a rotor instead of a fixed mount? I'd like to read about it if you have since the resulting extremely tight directionality of the pair might make rotor aiming a really sloppy exercise.

Yes you are correct. I learned the hard way that the problems that I am having with CBC & SUN TV was because of overload. I just couldn't believe that my antenna would take in that much signal or maybe it is ghosting, who knows. A week ago CBC was fine when pointed towards Buffalo. Then I got drop-offs. I thought it was their end. I posted in this forum to check if this is so. It was not. So, yes over doing it on the antenna will give me alot of trouble, I see that now:rolleyes:

That being said I contacted Hosick Television Co. in Toronto to have the rotor replaced as soon as they can. They said they will do it but will wait for a sightly warmer today to come and do it. Knowing the problems that I have with the locals make it more imparitive to have the antenna rotate in all weather to optimize the signal lock.

If you are reading this, you might be like I was, obsessed with getting free HD OTA but (a) concerned that an indoor antenna might not work well enough or at all, (b) already spent the money on an indoor antenna and was disappointed by the results and/or (c) didn't know how to put up an outdoor antenna. Been there, done that ;)

http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showpost.php?p=308871&postcount=249

From here onward, proceed at your own risk :D This explains how I did it and what was required.

So you have an HD tuner, a view from your balcony in the general direction of the signal sources, are not on very low floor (the lower you are, the more the antenna's visibility to others may be a problem) and have determined other people in your general location are getting HD. Living in a high rise adds complications such as; can't attach anything to the balcony, and (sometimes) can't put anything on your balcony which detracts from the appearance of the building. The following assumes the latter IS a problem.

I used a Channel Master 4221 which is 3 feet high and 1 foot wide, and has a 1 1/4" pole in the middle to slide into a like sized hole in something. As a second mounting option, it has two brackets top and bottom for U-bolt attachment to another vertical pole.

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/cm4221.html

You want to get it high enough for line of sight above the balcony railing. I got 3 small concrete blocks from Home Depot and bolted them together at their long sides. It isn't going to move in any weather, isn't attached to your balcony, and you just shift the position of the concrete blocks to aim the antenna. Buy a 1 1/4" square wood pole (make sure its straight!), treated wood preferred (very cheap at Home Depot). Now you need to attach it to something which in turn attaches to the concrete block. One idea is to bolt several angle brackets to the bottom of the wood pole, then bolt the brackets to the top concrete block, taking care with the bolt positions that the pole is vertical. Use a level. Now attach the 4221 to the pole using the square u-bolts provided with the antenna through the two gold coloured brackets and around the wood pole. Tighten the brackets snug and then use a level to check vertical positioning again.

Next, you might need to make it unobtrusive. Move it as far back on the balcony as possible. I used a small can of Armor Coat "Court Grey" rust paint from CTC, and brush painted the centre pole of the 4221 and its two gold coloured brackets. With that its hardly noticeable from the ground. And you are in business!