New Tampa

[videoholic]

I have an antenna I bought from Home Depot. Not sure what brand it is, but it is the roof top style with the numerous metal rods.

I have a tough time getting all of the stations in at any one time. I always have to go out and turn the thing to get different stations in. It is very annoying. Are certain roof top antennas better than others? I would really like to get a good one because this is annoying.

Anyone else in New Tampa? Bruce B Downs/County LIne Road area.

[gtodd01]

Videoholic,
I am in Odessa, which is further than where you are from the towers in Riverview for all the stations except CBS. You might be better off with a set-top antenna, if you want to go indoors. If not, Lowe's has a ChannelMaster Rotor, which will allow you to change your antenna direction with a remote control.

[Mag88]

Videoholic,

I live near you. I'm in the "Lakes" behind Target. I am using the Winegard Sensor 1000 mounted next to the D* dish on the roof...

I get 8, 10, 13, and 28 all at 93%.

Hope that helps.

[jaymer]

... and rember this as just posted by RGREENPC this weekend. Using his Dish6000U he was getting dropouts on NBC (the one VHF station we have here) - but using the Samsung 151, it was fine. So there's more than the antenna that is a variable here.

this antenna thing isn't really supposed to be this difficult.
as a rule of thumb, its one antenna towards riverview, and another to CBS. You shouldn't have to turn at all to get the non-CBS stations as they are coming from basically the same distant point.

some on AVS have reported that Radio Shack antennas have less gain than others... and a couple of things between the antenna and STB can also lose signal (the balun quality, coax type, junctions, splitters, power filter/conditioner, etc.). If enough of it adds up NEGATIVELY against you, then you're potentially SOL.

we need to find a source for the Jensen indoor rotating antenna here in town. thats supposed to work for many people.
outside of that, i'd go with my tried and trusty Channelmaster YAGI 4248 - about $60.

jaymer...

[OccamMD]

You really should try to get the antenna outside and up above the roofline by about 10 feet. Jaymer is correct, I love near nw tampa and you should have 2 antenna. One VHF/UHF pointing to riverview and another UHF pointing to CBS in Tarpon/Holiday. I really frown on combining the signals though, the pickup of from both antennas may interfere within the cable. I have two separate coax jacks into my MyHD card which makes it perfect for our setup. You could go with a jointenna, but I don't know where to get it. I returned the RS outdoors for the ChannelMaster from Lowe's much better.

If you only have one coax in, then get a rotator, kind of a hassle, but worth it for signal clarity.

[videoholic]

Mag88, where did you get your Winegard Sensor 1000?

The idea of putting two antennas is not so cool for my setup. I already have 3 lines from the DSS coming into the wall, now this would make 5 lines if I added another antenna.

If it weren't for wtsp I would be in a happy place. Either that or I need to move to riverview.

[Bschneider]

... and rember this as just posted by RGREENPC this weekend. Using his Dish6000U he was getting dropouts on NBC (the one VHF station we have here) - but using the Samsung 151, it was fine. So there's more than the antenna that is a variable here.

...

Just to clarify.. we have 2 VHF stations here. NBC (ch 7) and FOX (ch 12).

[Mag88]

Videoholic,

I am doing the new D* lease deal. That was the antenna that the D* installer provided...