kevinw

Now that many locations across the country have OTA HD available I would like to hear about real life experiences and the equipment you use.

I use:
Radio Shack VU-160 VHF/UHF antenna with a 35db antenna mounted amp. It is mounted to my chimney about 60 ft above ground. My home is on a hill. I use the Pioneer SH-D505 STB. All my signals are 80% or better. I rarely have any dropouts or pixelation unless the weather is extreme...WINDY.
I then get multipath/channel lock error caused by pinetrees. Any other problems are station related. I am about 45 miles from the broadcast towers.

__________________
www.harmonygrovegrille.com

LeeS

11/6 I have an old Channel Master VHF/UHF antenna thats been in my attic a long time. Don't know the model but its about 7-8 feet long. The house is two stories. Two nights ago hooked it up to a Tosh DST3000 I bought just for the OTA receiver ($400). We are about 25 miles from the tower(s) and don't use an amplifier. According to ANTENNAWEB.ORG all the stations are on the same bearing from our house. The transmitting tower(s) are on a hill behind Portland. We get 100% on the 6 stations that are broadcasting HD.

I don't think I'm having any problems that are not station related. I've only been watching OTA for two nights. The DST3000 was easy to setup and seems to be working very well. I subscribe to DISH and therefore don't use the SAT part of the DST3000. Its a whole lot easier to find HD receivers for Direct TV than DISH.

11/8 One thing that really surprises me is how good the HD reception is on the old antenna. The VHF reception is/was not very good, the reason we went to cable long ago. Dropped cable for DISH a few years back.

Lee

wward

I have an RCA F38310 YX5 (using internal ATSC receiver) conected to a Radio Shack high gain amp Catalog Number: 15-1109 which is connected to a Zenith Silver Sensor indoor antenna via Monster Cable RG6. On a second input I also have a Terk TV42 sat dish clip on antenna attached to my DirecTv dish

I am located about 50 miles south from the Empire State Building and 60 miles from Roxbough antenna farm in Philadelphis. With the Terk 42 setup I receive

WNJT 43-3, 43-4 PBS 60% signal meter reading great picture quality even with bad weather.
NJN Digital 80-3 PBS 60% signal meter reading great picture quality even with bad weather.
KYW3 26-1 CBS 40% signal meter reading good picture can only lock on the signal at night with slight drop outs. No siganl in very cloudy or bad weather.

The Silver Sensor setup
WCBS 56-1 CBS 42% signal meter reading great picture steady lock on signal.
WNWY 44-2 FOX 46% siganl meter reading good picture occasional drop outs.
WWOR 44-3 UPN 46% signal meter reading good picture steady lock on siganl.
WNJT 43-3, 43-4 PBS 70% siganl meter reading great picture quality even with bad weather.
NJN Digital 80-3 PBS 70% signal meter reading great picture quality even with bad weather.
KYW3 26-1 CBS 45% signal meter reading good picture some drop outs in very cloudy or bad weather.
WPSG 32-1 UPN 40% signal meter reading decent picture a number of drop outs during the day. I understand that that this station is not at full power.

Cucumber1949

Twenty years ago, I mounted a Radio Shack VHF-UHF antenna (don't know the model - but it's a directional about 8 feet wide) in the attic above a two-story home. Ran standard coax (don't believe it was RG-6) from that antenna down to the first floor - all done when the house was being built and all buried behind the wall now. Used it a for the first few years or so with only moderate reception quality. Upgraded to cable and forgot about the antenna up there.

Recently got my HD set, and hooked up a Zenith 520 receiver to this antenna/coax setup and was able to pull in 4 out of 5 of our local HD OTA channels without problem. I was pleasantly surprised. They are all on the same bearing, about 15 miles due east. The only channel I couldn't receive reliably was the local ABC channel. The output from the receiver to the Toshiba is DVI in native mode - very nice picture and no glitches with the DVI setup so far.

I installed a RS mast-mounted amplifier on the antenna last week and more precisely aligned the antenna and that cleaned up the ABC reception problem (just in time for the Super Bowl). Had to fiddle a little with the gain. However, one of the other channels is now doing the same thing the ABC channel was doing. Will have to perform a few tweaks yet, but this channel is one I seldom watch anyway, however they do broadcast a few Indian's games here in Cleveland. I don't believe at this moment that the reception problem with the one channel is an antenna issue - before I mounted the amplifier, I found this antenna laying on it's side in the attic, not really 'pointing' at anything and was still able to pull in four stations.

Do not have a dish yet. Waiting to see what cable offers in the way of HD before I commit to a sat contract. Cable viewed on the Toshiba is very good, however running the same cable signal through the 520 and then to the Toshiba is noticably degraded. Too bad - wanted to use the 520's tuner for everything. Might have to look into that to see if anything can be done. The setup isn't perfect yet but at least it's good enough to not feel any pressure to do anything immediately. Have been thinking about a better audio receiver.

jdozier

I currently have a Channel Master 4228 8 Bay UHF only antenna connected to a 30db Radio Shack Pre-Amp. The antenna is mounted on a mast 25-30 feet high. I have a Hughes E86 DirecTV High Definition STB. I live 62-66 miles from the transponders in a hilly (not mountainies) region. I live in an area with a lot of trees. I get the following:

ABC - 51 to 58 - Great picture with little or no dropout.

CBS - 65 to 72 - Get more dropouts than ABC but still watchable.

UPN - 65 to 72 - No dropouts.

NBC - 12 to 21 - NO PICTURE AT ALL

FOX - 0 - Broadcast from Memphis with a great 1.2 Kw. Do not care because they do not broadcast in HDTV!

PAX - 27 to 31 - Not watchable.

I have ordered a Channel Master 7777 Pre-Amp. I hope this will get me no dropouts at all on ABC and CBS. They are the two main stations I am worried about OTA. I have heard that the Radio Shack Pre-Amp I have may have as much noise as 8db, but the Channel Master is rated at 2db.

__________________
You only live life once. The person who dies with the most toys, wins.

reverg

I Live in Simi Valley, CA and I am using a $20 Radio Shack UHF antenna with a Dish 6000 receiver. I receive all of the local HD stations. The antenna is mounted on a 10' boom on a single story house. I am about 60Mi away from most of the HD station transmitters.