Over-air HDTV antenna for Greeley/Weld County?

[P89DC]

I want to dump Comcast but I'm not having any luck receiving local channels over the air. Any Greeley folks have it working? What antenna are you using? Inside or outside?

Thanks for any advice,
Eric

[Dave_L]

Have you made sure you have a strong enough antenna? They are rated for different distances so you have to make sure its strong enough to get the signal from Denver. Hills, valleys, etc all play a roll in that too. I tried a 40 mile one from my house in Castle Rock and it was Ok. Used the same one at my parents in Highlands Ranch and they got like 50 channels and all came in clear. It was just about the better proximity and I live in sort of a valley.

The wife and I eventually want to do a whole house antenna and have it professionally tuned.

[P89DC]

Have you made sure you have a strong enough antenna?....

I have an indoor antenna that worked OK in Longmont but it doesn't work out here.

I've been to antennaweb.net and they have recommendations requiring six different antenna types. Before I started spending money, I was hoping someone here had a working set-up they could steer me towards.

[Irving]

What part of the house did you try your current antenna?

[P89DC]

What part of the house did you try your current antenna?

Inside, put the antenna in windows all directions, tried it at night, all I get is channel 22. Antenna worked pretty well in Longmont in a west facing window.

[fly boy]

also, there are amplified and non-amplified antennas. I live in Cheyenne and just wanted to get a couple local channels that my TV currently picks up but are fuzzy. I ordered a "35 mile range" indoor non-amplified from amazon for $11. It will be money well spent if it picks up the local channels with a clear signal.

it is very dependent on signal strength from your antenna being able to receive, and the signal it's receiving. Fox might pick up amazing, but CBS crappy in a west facing, but switch in an East facing. There is no "perfect" antenna.

[davsel]

also, there are amplified and non-amplified antennas. I live in Cheyenne and just wanted to get a couple local channels that my TV currently picks up but are fuzzy. I ordered a "35 mile range" indoor non-amplified from amazon for $11. It will be money well spent if it picks up the local channels with a clear signal.

it is very dependent on signal strength from your antenna being able to receive, and the signal it's receiving. Fox might pick up amazing, but CBS crappy in a west facing, but switch in an East facing. There is no "perfect" antenna.

Reminds me of being a kid and having to go outside to rotate the antenna pole about 40 degrees to switch between VHF and UHF reception.
I live too far into the mountains to even attempt to get line-of-sight reception now.

[P89DC]

It's amplified, flat panel, indoor antenna. If you go to antennaweb.net you can see they have specific antennas for various stations, for Greeley they are no less than 6 antennas identified as needed to get all the available channels.

I was wondering if anyone had experience outside of the metro area. My present antenna worked pretty well in Longmont, now that I'm out in the sticks it appears I need an mast mounted, outdoor antenna.

[def90]

Greeley will be an issue, I believe the channels come from several different towers in different locations vs in Denver where everything pretty much comes from Lookout Mtn..

There is also the issue of different transmitting power issues for each station and the fact that some frequencies travel better than others.

I install TVs for a living and what I typically do when a client wants an antenna is I get up on the roof with a basic flat antenna (one that isn't tuned to receive any frequencies more than others) and I use a meter to record the signal strength of each station. You might get 3db on a low VHF channel, 9db on a high VHF channel and then 12db on a UHF channel (this is a generalization because the way things are transmitted even though you tune to channel 7 it is actually broadcast at a different channel number in the UHF range). I then take those numbers and look at the different antenna specs that the manufacturers provide and I would find one that has a high boost on low VHF, a low boost on high VHF and no boost on UHF.. What you want ultimately is an even signal level across all channels as the signal hits your TV. If you put a preamp or amp on an antenna that is not tuned then you are still just going to get a shitty signal on the lower signal stations.

Without the proper equipment you kind of just have to make a guess..

This antenna has been working well for me in the Denver metro, can't say what it would do in Weld County

http://www.winegard.com/flatwave/air

Use this link to see where your towers are and what antenna they recommend based on your location

http://www.winegard.com/selector?q=offair

[NFATrustGuy]

I'm in west Windsor near I-25 and Hwy 392. I use an HD Stacker antenna in my attic. I purchased it from Denny's Antenna Service. I get all the Denver channels plus Channel 5 from Cheyenne. I also installed this antenna in my old house in west Loveland and had good results with it there, too.

I spent a chunk of money at the outset on the antenna plus some high quality splitters, signal amplifiers, distribution amplifiers, etc., but it makes me smile very month to know that I'm not paying a satellite or cable TV provider $75+ per month!

One piece of advice I'll offer is to avoid mounting your antenna directly above fluorescent lights. I did this at my prior house and I'd lose the TV signal every time I turned on the lights in the garage.

www.dennysanntennaservice.com