Question on Antenna

[BeckyB]

We just got Dish installed at our house and our wanting to do our HD OTA so that we will have the ability to record 3 channels. I am needing advice on where and what kind of antenna to get. We would like to purchase an antenna around down this evening. We live in Kansas City, MO. Below is our antennaweb.org information. From looking around at threads on here I am figuring that Radio Shack would be our best bet but would like to get some advice before we head out to purchase. We will be putting this antenna on the roof near the satellite dish.

yellow - uhf KSHB 41 NBC KANSAS CITY MO 59° 3.5 41
yellow - uhf KSHB-DT 41.1 NBC KANSAS CITY MO 59° 3.5 42
yellow - uhf KMCI 38 IND LAWRENCE KS 59° 3.5 38
yellow - uhf KMCI-DT 38.1 IND LAWRENCE KS 59° 3.5 36
yellow - uhf KSMO 62 MNT KANSAS CITY MO 31° 11.4 62
yellow - uhf KSMO-DT 62.1 MNT KANSAS CITY MO 31° 11.4 47
yellow - uhf KPXE 50 ION KANSAS CITY MO 38° 6.2 50
yellow - uhf KPXE-DT 50.1 ION KANSAS CITY MO 39° 6.2 51
yellow - uhf KCPT 19 PBS KANSAS CITY MO 31° 10.7 19
yellow - uhf KCPT-DT 19.1 PBS KANSAS CITY MO 31° 10.7 18
yellow - vhf KCTV 5 CBS KANSAS CITY MO 0° 8.0 5
yellow - uhf KCTV-DT 5.1 CBS KANSAS CITY MO 0° 8.0 24
yellow - uhf KCWE 29 CW KANSAS CITY MO 21° 9.8 29
yellow - uhf KCWE-DT 29.1 CW KANSAS CITY MO 21° 9.8 31
yellow - vhf KMBC 9 ABC KANSAS CITY MO 21° 9.8 9
yellow - vhf KMBC-DT 9.1 ABC KANSAS CITY MO 21° 9.8 7
yellow - vhf WDAF 4 FOX KANSAS CITY MO 355° 8.1 4
green - uhf KUKC-LP 48 UNI KANSAS CITY MO 31° 10.0 48
red - uhf WDAF-DT 4.1 FOX KANSAS CITY MO 355° 8.1 34
blue - uhf KTAJ 16 TBN ST. JOSEPH MO 352° 48.3 16
violet - vhf KQTV 2 ABC ST. JOSEPH MO 346° 57.4 2

[Jim5506]

Everything of importance is within 11 miles. All your stations are in a 65-70 degree arch north and east of you.

You might get by with a 4 bay or even a two bay bowtie type antennas they are less directional than yagi's and 8 bay bowties. The Channels Master 4221 will still give you 4-6dB gain 30 degrees off axis.

Consider a Winegard Square shooter with pre-amp (SS-2000) it's not cheap, but otherwise you will need an antenna with rotator and that complicates unattended recording. It has less overall gain than the CM4221 but it has a broader sweet spot.

I'd try the 4221 first, cheaper and probably will do.

Digital TV reception is an art, not a science.

[jdspencer]

Your Digital ABC station is on ch 7 which might be a problem with the UHF only antenna.
yellow - vhf KMBC-DT 9.1 ABC KANSAS CITY MO 21° 9.8 7

[dot]

I have tried a number of antennas for my area and had very poor success. I have tried a couple of bowtie variants, the silver-whatever that everyone raves about, and a couple of higher priced Terk antennas.

I experienced bad drops to the point of being almost unwatchable. I live pretty far from town so it was all to be expected. Or so I thought. I bought a new Onkyo receiver that had a simple unshielded piece of wire with a BNC connection to serve as an FM antenna. I'm not a big FM radio fan so I hooked it to my TV just to see as I'd already returned all my antennas. HOLY COW! It was working better than EVERYTHING I bought.

Don't get me wrong; it's not perfect. I still get some digital artifacts, but I can watch the shows without missing much. It didn't receive VHF broadcasts from the one local channel using VHF for their HD OTA, but I was pretty happy. Then it hit me ... if a single unshielded piece of wire can get good reception I could probably make it better. I wound the wire around a paper towel roll (cardboard insert, not the whole role) at about 1" of separation. This left about 2' of wire hanging from the bottom with a 6-8" lead to connect to the receiver. Ever since doing that I've been watching my HD OTA broadcasts without signal drop. I even pickup broadcasts for the 1 VHF station now though very poorly and with a lot of drops.

I'm considering forming a bowtie shape on a small piece of flat cardboard with the remaining piece of dangling wire to see if that helps.

Who'd a thunk it ...

dot