# OTA Antenna advice Jacksonville FL



## JAXDAVE (Jun 2, 2004)

I am getting ready to finally add an HD receiver (Dish 921) and an OTA Antenna for my locals so I am pretty new to a lot of this. I am looking for some advice on which antenna to get for my OTA signals. I am 11-12 miles from the antenna farm and the locals compass orientations vary from 5 to 10 degress. I don't have any hills or buildings in the path to worry about. I thought about using an antenna in the attic for ease of installation, but my house was built with a foil backed roofing product called tech shield. I am concerned that it may cause interference which is why I am considering an outside mounted antenna somewhere on my roof. Is this the best option? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


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## nostar (Jun 22, 2003)

At that distance from the stations I would think that an indoor antenna capable of UHF and VHF reception would do the trick. However some of your digital stations are still low power.

It all depends on which stations you want to receive. You could try indoor first and if you don't like the results put up a small UHF, VHF combination antenna on the side of the house.

I'm able to occasionally receive some Jacksonville stations from Old Town, Florida some 90 miles away. Mostly at night. HD is great!


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## JAXDAVE (Jun 2, 2004)

nostar said:


> At that distance from the stations I would think that an indoor antenna capable of UHF and VHF reception would do the trick. However some of your digital stations are still low power.
> 
> It all depends on which stations you want to receive. You could try indoor first and if you don't like the results put up a small UHF, VHF combination antenna on the side of the house.
> 
> I'm able to occasionally receive some Jacksonville stations from Old Town, Florida some 90 miles away. Mostly at night. HD is great!


I tried the indoor option, I can only get the CBS affiliate reliably. I am now going to try a larger outdoor antenna. I'll let you know how it works. Thanks.


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## JAXDAVE (Jun 2, 2004)

Had a new channelmaster antenna put up on my roof. I'm now getting signal strength on all of my Jacksonville local digital stations at 100 or above. No problems.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

nostar said:


> ...I'm able to occasionally receive some Jacksonville stations from Old Town, Florida some 90 miles away. Mostly at night. HD is great!


Nostar, your report gives me hope & courage. According to CEA, I am 63.4 miles due north of Jax broadcasters.

All I have to do now is screw up the balls to raise a 35'-40' tall tower and mount a deep-fringe hi-gain antenna w/rotor on top, and stay within the "exclusive-use" boundries of my 9'x11' apartment patio area. I believe I can conform to OTARD, but even technically 'legal', such a high rig would totally freak out my neighbors, no to mention apt. management...not that I really give a rip about that.

I already have 3 dishes hanging off my in-ground patio pole. :grin:

Now about those ubiquitous pine trees...


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## nostar (Jun 22, 2003)

http://www.2150.com/broadcast/default.asp
http://www.juggling.org/bin/un.cgi/map-find

Use these two sites to find out how far the stations really are from you, as well as lots of other important details, direction, power, etc..

My antenna is about 35' tall. I wish it was higher! I'm using a 4228 channel master 8 bay uhf fringe antenna with a channel master high gain low noise uhf/vhf mast type amplifier.

You only need the upper vhf band (7-13), as there are no low vhf (2-6) digital stations in Jax yet. I would like to try this antenna but lack the courage and the wife's approval, but you can check it out.

http://www.starkelectronic.com/wya1713.htm


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Since i'm almost on a line drawn between Jax and Sav, and about equidistant between both cities, I also considered using two 4228s mounted back-to-back to eliminate need for the rotor. The offset is just a few degrees. If I decide to try it, I'll decide about the antenna config at that time. Where did you get your tower and how did you anchor it?

Thanks for the links.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Gee, lucky me. I can get my local DMA (West Palm Beach) from approx. 36.52 miles away (FOX) and everything else about 74 miles away or I can get Orlando from 74-80 miles away. Another reason to consider moving.


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## nostar (Jun 22, 2003)

Nick said:


> Where did you get your tower and how did you anchor it?


It was a used tower that my bother was not using. Lots of people quit using their OTA antennas and opted for cable or satellite. I think that free OTA HD will bring back the TV antenna.

To anchor the tower I used four wall brackets on the side of the house. Two at the top and two at the bottom.


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