# OTA Through Glass



## Marlin Guy

My new house has not OTA antenna presently, but I was thinking of adding one.
My local market to the South seems to line up well for one of my upstairs attic windows. The attic has a finished floor and tall ceilings and it would be an ideal spot to put the antenna and not have it detract from the architecture at all.

It's a standard dual pane window. How much if any signal loss would occur through something like that if the antenna was right at the window?


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## dettxw

Many folks (like me) have OTA antennas in their attics and they work just fine. One thing that can cause problems is metallic material in or under a roof that could shield the antenna from signal, but you may not have such material and you're going to be set up behind a window anyway so you should be good.
How far away are the transmit antennas? Got an idea what OTA antenna you want or need? Some stations still transmit on old upper VHF frequencies so if there are any of those in your area you'll want to make sure that your antenna can handle it.


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## Marlin Guy

The target market is 89 miles away, so I'm looking at the Orcas.


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## LI-SVT

A couple of thoughts:

Some windows have coatings on them that reduce the signal a lot. If this is the case the antenna may work better placed along the wall.

Indoor antennas can be a bit pesky to set up. Before permanently mounting the antenna in your preferred spot try it in several locations around the room. Also try different heights. You are looking for the sweet spot. Hopefully the sweet spot is not in the middle of the room, or on your favorite chair.

Good luck.


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## kenglish

At 89 miles, you need to be on a tall mast/tower, or have a house on a huge hill.
Also, signals at that distance will be extremely weak....the noise level of things in the house will likely interfere with reception, especially an VHF channels.


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## gov

Valleys on a roof frequently have a metal liner under the shingles, I never point an attic antenna through a valley.

I have one customer with a TV antenna pointed out a basement window (window is next to walk in door) and the house is on a bluff, ~200 ft above the terrain and 30 miles from 1/2 the locals, and 15 miles further on (in the same direction fortunately), the rest of the locals. The antenna is UHF only and mounted about 15 feet inside the window.

I've also mounted an antenna under a deck (and barely a foot above ground level) and shooting through plastic lattice. This house is also on a bluff, and much further (20 miles more) from the towers. The only problem with this one was that the families dog had access to under the deck and liked to chew the antenna. Not the coax, the antenna. I have replaced it twice. The dog seems none the worse for his aluminum addiction.


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