OTA antenna index and review web site?

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

I don't think so. For indoor reception the Silver Sensor is the only
way to go for UHF reception. For outdoor antennas, they all work
pretty well as long as they are big enough and from a good company.

I would get a large outdoor VHF/UHF antenna because when analog
broadcasting comes to an end, some UHF channels will revert to lower
frequency VHF channels.

IB


phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
> Are there any web sites that index all available OTA antennas, and maybe
> even do independent reviews? I'm not interested in one that picks out an
> antenna for you based one location (so that rules out antennaweb.org).
> I'm mostly wanting to just review who is still making OTA antennas, and
> what model changes have happened since I last dealt with these (about 30
> years ago).
>
> --
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> | Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ |
> | (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ |
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

A great site that has about 20 antennas including Channel Master,
Winegard, Zenith, Radio Shach and others with gain charts (gain at
every channel not just a max or average figure) and polar diagrams (how
much gain there is at all directions compared to the gain in the pointed
direction) and lots more info is:

' http://www.hdtvprimer.com/Antennas/comparing.html'
(http://www.hdtvprimer.com/Antennas/comparing.html)


--
Lorenzo, Posted this message at http://www.SatelliteGuys.US

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

On 25 Aug 2005 11:25:02 -0700 inkyblacks@yahoo.com <inkyblacks@yahoo.com> wrote:

| I don't think so. For indoor reception the Silver Sensor is the only
| way to go for UHF reception. For outdoor antennas, they all work
| pretty well as long as they are big enough and from a good company.
|
| I would get a large outdoor VHF/UHF antenna because when analog
| broadcasting comes to an end, some UHF channels will revert to lower
| frequency VHF channels.

Based on the round one channel elections, there may be no lo-band
channels active around here. So then there would be no need for an
antenna with all those long useless elements. But where I am, the
transmitters are in a number of different directions, so I'm probably
looking at a minumum of 4 antennas, two of which would be for single
stations, and the other 2 would have only a single VHF station. So it
might make sense to have all VHF be single channel and the UHF be
UHF-only broad band.

All existing UHF stations are staying on UHF, either on their old
analog channel, or on their new digital channel. 3 VHF stations are
going to UHF. 2 VHF stations are staying on VHF. 1 VHF station has
not yet elected a channel. The hold out is current on 9 for analog and
57 for digital. Since 57 is not available for final election, and they
didn't elect 9 in the first round, I suspect they may be waiting for
round two to get an in-core UHF (14-36,38-51) dropped from round one.

Here are some channels I'm going to try for. If these are all easy,
I may try for even more beyond that (depending on location). I would
like to get a 2nd affliate of ABC, FOX, and WB.

call analog digital final
WTRF 7 32 7 CBS
WQED 13 38 13 PBS

WTOV 9 57 ?? NBC
WVTX 28 - ?? UPN

WNPA 19 - 19 UPN
KDKA 2 25 25 CBS
WNPB 24 33 33 PBS
WOUC 44 35 35 PBS
WQEX 16 26 38 Shopping
WCWB 22 42 42 WB
WPGH 53 43 43 FOX
WPXI 11 48 48 NBC
WPCB 40 50 50 Religious
WTAE 4 51 51 ABC

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ |
| (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 15:06:10 -0400 Lorenzo <Lorenzo.1uc3uz@satelliteguys.us> wrote:

| A great site that has about 20 antennas including Channel Master,
| Winegard, Zenith, Radio Shach and others with gain charts (gain at
| every channel not just a max or average figure) and polar diagrams (how
| much gain there is at all directions compared to the gain in the pointed
| direction) and lots more info is:
|
| ' http://www.hdtvprimer.com/Antennas/comparing.html'
| (http://www.hdtvprimer.com/Antennas/comparing.html)

Thanks for the link. Very nice comparison. I just wish it included
more antennas. I have previously used Sitco antennas, which I am
considering using again. Most are single channel, but they do have a
broadband log-periodic UHF model. I am also looking at using some
Blonder-Tongue antennas. The good performance of the Channel Master
8-bay has my attention, as well.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ |
| (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

I love Sitco antennas, I must have installed 500 of them for UHF
translator use in Oregon on the old channels 70 to 83 until those
channels were dropped from TV broadcasting.

Hah, never thought I'd see the day of a Sitco log-periodic as they were
always highly tuned Yagi guys.

I went to their factory in Portland once and got a great tour by their
chief engineer but I remember being most impressed by their ping pong
ball server- those were the days of the champion Chinese players about
30 years ago.

' www.simplicitytool.com/sitco_antennas.htm'
(www.simplicitytool.com/sitco_antennas.htm) is their web site for
those interested.

I think the 8 bay CM is overall about the best going these days
especially for the price although in the olden times the 7 foot Channel
Master dish would run circles around any 8 bay bowtie. An old CM catalog
I have sez they have 16 to 20 db gain although it's not specified if
it's dbi or dbd.


--
Lorenzo, Posted this message at http://www.SatelliteGuys.US

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 04:24:04 -0400 Lorenzo <Lorenzo.1uezby@satelliteguys.us> wrote:

| I love Sitco antennas, I must have installed 500 of them for UHF
| translator use in Oregon on the old channels 70 to 83 until those
| channels were dropped from TV broadcasting.

I've installed only 3. But they have always been my favorite for
single channel use.


| Hah, never thought I'd see the day of a Sitco log-periodic as they were
| always highly tuned Yagi guys.

I think the LP is just for broadband purposes.


| I think the 8 bay CM is overall about the best going these days
| especially for the price although in the olden times the 7 foot Channel
| Master dish would run circles around any 8 bay bowtie. An old CM catalog
| I have sez they have 16 to 20 db gain although it's not specified if
| it's dbi or dbd.

Finco used to have a 16 bay. It was essentially two 8 bays with
a harness to couple them together. I wonder just how "aperture
efficient" that is. Given how close they do get stacked together,
it's probably not over 100%. With some solid gain figures from the
web site, I suppose I should go do the math (on the CM version that
does exist).

I always wondered what it would be like to have a VHF version of
a 4 bay or 8 bay reflector.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ |
| (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------