Over the air antenna

[foszoe]

Does anybody have recommendations on antennas?

A simple search for vhf/uhf antennas brings up all sorts of wacky, whiz-bang looking antennas with remote controls and rotation motors etc. But you can clearly tell the ads were written by the class scholar from Shang-Hai and he is now sitting in Hong-Kong doing crappy translations for crappy products they're hawking to the silly buyers in USA.

Can anybody recommend actual antennas, and lets just assume that we're trying to reach out there and grab a signal from a far off place so I want high quality, high gain stuff that doesn't necessarily cost an arm and a leg.

Denny's TV Antenna Source - Outdoor TV antennas

I got one from there and am very happy with the service, info and performance

 

[the only Qualk]

RG6 Quad shielded cable is what I have running throughout my house, very good stuff. Bought a 500 foot roll after taking out 950 feet of crap when I bought the house.

Previous owner had every room in the house wired except the bathrooms, I think he would have wired those if wall mounts and LCD's would have been available then.

The ClearStream 5 has a very high gain to it, double amping it would more than likely be to much amplification.

If it's a long run (over 100 feet), I imagine there would only be the need for one.

When I redo my setup, there will be a 35 foot run from the CS5 to right inside the crawl, then I'm dropping one of these in..
Amazon.com: Channel Master CM3418 8-Port Distribution Amplifier for Cable and Antenna Signals: Electronics

Then branching off to my other points, I need the amp to power the farthest parts of the house for my LG HD receiver for my projector upstairs, bedroom tv and my media PC I'm building that's going to use a Silicon Dust HD Home Run Prime triple tuner.

Ok thanks Beerman. I will have to lookup the specs of my amp. It came with the house so may be as old. I will have to save up for coax spool, crimpers, and fittings then because i know it should all be replaced.

Also link for the coax and the tuner for your media pc please. I may happen try this haha.

 

[HoughMade]

I live in Valpo. I made my own antenna which I have in the attic. Actually, it's 3 antennas and an amplifier.

I have 2 "bow tie" antennas, one with 10 inch legs and one with 7 inch legs to cover the UHF spectrum, the smaller mounted about 6 inches in front of the larger.

This is the basic design:

Bow Tie Antenna : DIY TV Antennas

I found the reflector did not help.

Also, I have a folded dipole antenna tuned for broadcast channel VHF 3 on which CBS 2 from Chicago brodcasts.

Folded Dipole Antenna : DIY TV Antennas

Finally, I have this amplifier:

RadioShack High-Gain HDTV-FM Signal Amplifier : HDTV Antennas | RadioShack.com

There's some tweeking and adjustment needed to get everything to work together, but now I get these stations, relaibly, even in bad weather:

2-1- CBS
5-1- NBC
5-2- Cozi
7-1- ABC
7-2
7-3
9-1- WGN
9-2- Antenna TV
11-1- PBS
11-2- PBS Prime
11-3- PBS DIY
11-4- PBS Spanish
16-1- NBC
16-2
20-1- PBS
20-2
20-3
26-1- "The U"
26-2- UToo
26-3- Me TV
26-4- Me Too
26-5- This
32-1- Fox
38-1- Ion
38-2- Qubo
38-3- Ion Life
44-1- Telemundo
44-2
50-1- "My"
56-1- PBS
56-2
56-3
57-1- Religious
60-1- Univision
62-1- Religious
62-2
62-3

No cable of setellite for me. I had Dish until mid 2008. I do, however, get Netflix streaming.

 

[IndyBeerman]

Ok thanks Beerman. I will have to lookup the specs of my amp. It came with the house so may be as old. I will have to save up for coax spool, crimpers, and fittings then because i know it should all be replaced.

Also link for the coax and the tuner for your media pc please. I may happen try this haha.

Posting a link for the coax is mute, what they have down hear in the Indy area may be different up there in the region.

I used a 500 foot roll of Philips RG6 Quad shielded cable, the CCI brand now sold @ Menards runs $50.00 (current price).

I also bought a RCA bundle that had 10 connectors and the crimping/slicing tool and bought a bag of connectors, don't remember how much they cost, this was 8 years ago. Make sure you get the waterproof ones, prevents water from getting in.

The tuner I currently use is a the original SiliconDust HD HomeRun single tuner. Works great and lets me view content over the network to a single computer @ a time, I'm planning on upgrading to a HD HomeRun Prime, which is capable of receiving either OTA signals, or cable using a CableCard.
SiliconDust HDHR3-CC Video Device - Newegg.com

A thing to note about the HD HomeRun, it's not a card, it is an unit and provides TRUE 1080i/p broadcast content if that channel is broadcasted that way and does not tax a system like a PCTV card does.

I plan on getting a Prime sometime this week, and doing the initial setup on my computer till I get a new system built then I'm turning this into my Media PC.