# Thinking of using an OTA in my attic. Good or Bad?



## kdwebsol (Jan 29, 2006)

I am using an indoor Terk TV5 Amplified OTA for my Providence locals. It works ok but is not 100%. I was thinking of installing an antenna in my attic because I already have a dish1000 and a superdish on the roof. I heard that the Winegard SquareShooter is a good antenna, does anyone have this antenna in their attic? 

I am less then 5 miles (from AntennaWeb) from the locals I want to receive. Would the Winegard SquareShooter be overkill? Maybe someone could recommended a better indoor antenna I could get.

Thanks,
Ken


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## garys (Nov 4, 2005)

Usually having it indoors cuts the signal strength, but being only 5 miles from towers may be good idea. Try the Terk there first with preamp, may be enough.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

kdwebsol said:


> I am less then 5 miles (from AntennaWeb) from the locals I want to receive. Would the Winegard SquareShooter be overkill? Maybe someone could recommended a better indoor antenna I could get.


You may need an antenna that is better suited to multipath. You don't really want to use an amplifier at all at that distance. I use the non-amplified version of that antenna on my computer (it comes with the ATI HDTV Wonder) and I pick up all of my OTA stations from 50+ miles away with the antenna sitting atop the computer. Obviously, I have Line-Of-Sight.

I suspect that you're overdriving the tuner or getting horrendously high levels of multipath.

If you feel compelled to spend money on an antenna, you may want to look for an omnidirectional unless all of your locals are on the same tower. In a similar situation in college, I used a 6' chunk of coax with a connector on one end for an antenna.


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## DP1 (Sep 16, 2002)

Well and what do you mean by .. "not 100%"? Simply talking about the the receivers signal strength indicator? Or you mean because you're truly getting dropouts?

If it's the former, that doesnt matter much. Of all the ones I get, the ones in the low 70's are just as rock solid as those in the 80's and high 90's.

Kinda like with a satellite signal itself..if you're getting 95 or whatever theres no reason to put up a bigger dish just to get the needle pegged at 125.

Like harsh says, you prolly dont want anything amplified at all from that distance... thats what could cause the dropouts. Hell the $4 UHF Bowtie they sell at Rat Shack could work.


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## kdwebsol (Jan 29, 2006)

harsh said:


> You may need an antenna that is better suited to multipath. You don't really want to use an amplifier at all at that distance.


I turned off the power of the Terk TV5 antenna and all the channels still come in. Do you think turning it off will help?

All the channels I want are in the same direction. AtennaWeb info:

yellow - uhf	WJAR-DT	10.1	NBC	PROVIDENCE	RI 146°	4.3	51
yellow - uhf	WNAC-DT	64.1	FOX	PROVIDENCE	RI 146°	3.8	54
yellow - vhf	WPRI-DT	12.1	CBS	PROVIDENCE	RI 135°	4.1	13
yellow - uhf	WLNE-DT	6.1	ABC	NEW BEDFORD	MA 146°	4.3	49

I guess a directional antenna would be better because all the channels are really close.



DP1 said:


> Well and what do you mean by .. "not 100%"? Simply talking about the the receivers signal strength indicator? Or you mean because you're truly getting dropouts?


I get dropouts.


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## ChuckA (Feb 7, 2006)

I am about the same distance from the transmitters in my area. I could get all the local stations using a set top antenna except one that is on a low powered VHF channel. The others were on UHF channels.

I installed a short distance Radio Shack UHF/VHF antenna (about $35) in my attic and it works great with the 622. I get all the stations with excellent signal strength including the VHF I could not get with the set top antenna. I would not use an amp at that distance. You don't need it. And, some people say using an antenna in the attic is a bad idea, but at our distance it works great and is easier to install.


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## kdwebsol (Jan 29, 2006)

Thanks for the info. When it gets a little cooler out I am going to give the attic a try.


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

I'm in an area of Detroit where the towers are scattered out over about a 150 degree arc. I use a Terk Square antenna and get great reception (with the exception of Fox). ABC, CBS, NBC, UPN, WB and PBS come in with a 90% or higher signal strength. Fox is in the high 70's but occasionally drops out.


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## Atlas (Sep 6, 2003)

kdwebsol said:


> Thanks for the info. When it gets a little cooler out I am going to give the attic a try.


The Terk TV5 works great in the attic as well... of course you will need a power sourse but I live between Austin & Waco TX and I pick up all HD channels from both cites with the TV5 in the attic... I was concerned about the heat generated up there but after 2 years it is still plugging along... I just mounted a small peice of plywood across a couple of cross beams and set it up on that... anyway good idea to wait until it cools off... Good luck

Jk


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## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

Got anything in the attic between your antenna mounting location and the towers? I'm about 8 miles away from the major towers in Seattle and I went with a very small Blonder Tongue antenna mounted off of my second floor siding and came out with good results. OTA antenna placement can be tricky. The difference of a few feet, particularly in multipath prone areas (I'm definitely in one of those) can mean the difference between success and failure.

Good luck.

John


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## rrrios (Aug 4, 2006)

I've got a Weingard digital antenna (I won it in a Tech Forum!) in my attic and it captures all the HD OTA channels in my area (Miami) except one, which sometimes doesn't lock.


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

Here's the Terk Slim Profile Square that I'm using in case you're interested -

http://www.savinglots.com/lotprod.asp?item=HDTVS


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## ChuckA (Feb 7, 2006)

I find a Radio Shack $35.00 VHF/UHF antenna works great for me in the attic. I would certainly suggest trying a more inexpensive set up before spending what they want for the Terks. The OP was only a few miles from the transmitters.


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## beaucop (May 11, 2006)

Go to antennasdirect.com. Got my antenna from them. Great service and they focus on HD OTA antennas. You won't be disappointed.


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## kdwebsol (Jan 29, 2006)

Thank you all for the info. When it cools of a little I am going to try my TerkTV5 first. 

Thanks again,
Ken


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## motts (Apr 11, 2006)

Any antenna will work for HD signals, provided that it is adequate for your location (distance from towers.) I have a uhf antenna from radio shack (since all my stations are uhf I did not require vhf capability) set up in my attic and it picks up the stations just fine. I am about 11 miles from the towers. I have it mounted on an old camera tripod  There is no such thing as an "HD" antenna, anyone that tries to sell you one telling you it is something special is just lying.


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## beaucop (May 11, 2006)

You are correct in saying that there is no such thing as an "HD" antenna, but there are differences in design. I tried Terk and Radio Shack antennas and, while they brought in some stations in my area, they did not bring them all in nor did they have a strong signal. And I am less than 10 miles from two towers. I bought an antenna from antennasdirect.com and I get every station, even if the towers are not in the same range as the Terk/Radio Shack were unable to pick up. So there is a difference. They are not, as you say, HD antennas, but they are damn good antennas to pick up HD signals!


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

motts said:


> (since all my stations are uhf I did not require vhf capability)


Be aware that it is quite likely that your DTV stations will move down to the VHF range if the analog stations are currently there. Going out of your way to get a UHF only antenna may backfire in about 30 months as channels move down.


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## KingJerky (Jan 31, 2006)

I live in the Auburn Hills area north of Detroit and I have a tripod mounted UHF only antenna in my attic.

Warning, this thing is big so you'll need some space:

http://www.channelmaster.com/images/4228.jpg

I have the 8 bay model, but the 4 bay will work as well. I just had the room in the attic for the larger model...

I get all of the Detroit stations (UPN, WB, CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS)... Most of them are at 90+% on signal strength with the exception of the PBS channel.

I do not have this on a rotor either, this is pointing south towards Royal Oak, MI.

Depending where you are you'll have to point accordingly...

I'm VERY happy with this antenna and and don't have an ugly bird roost/ lightening rod on my house.

Good luck!

KJ


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## DoyleS (Oct 21, 2002)

Channel Master and Winegard are very good antennas. When you look at their datasheets, there is not a lot of marketing hype. They give you all of the numbers in terms of gain, front to back ratios and pickup patterns. There are other antenna manufacturers that are trying to capitalize on the move to HD. They have lots of buzz words and talk about new designs but they really don't tell you the perfomance of the antenna. They also are typically 2-3 times the price of Channel Master or Winegard. For outdoor antennas in harsh weather environments the Channel Master or Winegards are hard to beat. Here in California, Radio Shack antennas also work great but they have really trimmed down their offerings over the last couple years. I tend to think Terk antennas are high priced and look unique but their are minimal or no specs available on their performance. (my opinion) 
Antennas in the attic can have a lot of variability. I have a steel shake roof and so I know they would not work well at all for me. Same can be true if your attic or roof has a lot of foil faced insulation. At 5 miles with all of the stations in one direction, I would recommend a 2 or 4 bay bowtie antenna. Should cost less than $50 and have very good gain and excellent front to back ratio with a wide forward pickup pattern. The 2 bay bow tie should be small enough to fit in most attics and aim in any direction. 

..Doyle


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## greylar (Oct 31, 2002)

I agree with the others in this thread, go with an inexpensive one if you can. I'm using this antenna from radio shack mounted in my attic. The tower is a little more like 10 miles away and it works great. It's small and easy to mount. Best of all $24.99

http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...2&origkw=antenna&kw=antenna&parentPage=search

G


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

I caution people about chasing after UHF only antennae. Some stations will undoubtedly relocate to the VHF range to "get out better" when they shut down their analog channels. For $40, you can get into the Radio Shack VU-75 and have a full range antenna.

I use the VU-90 for VHF, UHF and FM from 50 miles away and I run without an amplifier to feed four TV tuners and two FM tuners.


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## greylar (Oct 31, 2002)

harsh said:


> I caution people about chasing after UHF only antennae...


You are probably right but for an attic installation the multi-band units are pretty big. I'm not sure the VU-75 would even fit in my attic let alone have enough room to point it.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...oductId=2103084&support=support&tab=techSpecs

The thing is like 8 feet wide 

G


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## DoyleS (Oct 21, 2002)

Harsh,

All of the information that I have seen over the past few years has been that the Goverment wants the VHF stations vacated so that they can resell to various wireless services. Essentially TV currently has too much of a limited spectrum. The lower VHF channels (2-6) have always been plagued with various signal to noise problems. The upper channels (7-13) had ideal spectrum but channel spacing requires a separation of 2 in any given area. These broadcasters aren't going to spend all of this money on new UHF broadcast transmitters and then just give it up and move back to VHF. I don't see the TV guys giving up the VHF spectrum without a fight, but all in the major markets already have their UHF gear up and running. They are running the VHF signals now because of those lagging. In KDwebsols situation, I would surmise that his UHF antenna would probably pick up the digital channel VHF signals anyway since he is only 5 miles away. I pickup the digital channel 12 VHF signal with my roof mounted UHF Yagi and I am over 40 miles away from the SFO Stations. 

..Doyle


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

VHF, especially upper VHF is here to stay. Many stations ARE moving back to VHF because the cost of running the wattage necessary for the same territorial coverage is so much greater at UHF than it is at VHF. VHF high usually runs around 315kW whereas UHF can and does run 10 times that or greater - a very large electric bill will pay for an VHF transmitter pretty fast.

The station spacing is gone with digital also. Look at El Paso Texas, 4 stations at channels 15,16,17 and 18. Digital does not have to be spread out. That is why the FCC is able to narrow the spectrum - not so many channels needed.


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## Donp (May 2, 2006)

I have a DB-4 from Antennas Direct in a room on my second floor of my home, but not in my attic as my roof is metal, new anodized steel. Fortunately all 12 of my locals that are all HD are accessed form the gable end of my home and don't get any interference from the roof as far as I can tell. Suffice to say if I put this antenna in my attic it would be too close to the roof and my reception would suffer.


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