How accurate is antennaweb?

[vibe]

I have a small home in FLA and it's simply not feasible to have cable/satelite. I get 4 reasonably clear stations OTA with a simple indoor bowtie from about 35 mi and several 'watchable" ones from about 55 mi. On about half the nights these stations come in quite well. This will supposedly end in Feb, 2009 when analog is shut off. Maybe this will be a peripheral issue in the next Presidential election. TV should be free to those who choose OTA reception. Or am I missing something?
Antennaweb projects digital reception with a small multiple directional antenna for the 35 mi stations and even says that 60 mi plus digital reception (w/ a larger antenna) is there.
I'm skeptical because I've heard horror stories about folks who put up a monster UHF antenna and then can't get their digitals from a lot less than 35 miles. All I want is the digitals from 1 direction and don't plan to erect a VHF antenna for the CBS affiliate that broadcasts on VHF. $crew them if they can't find a UHF frequency to broadcast on; there must be enough of them to choose from.
So does anyone on the board have any experience/stories to tell etc about antennaweb and the reliability of it's infomation? Maybe provide opinions as to what UHF only antennas are best. Would a long range UHF antenna (parabolic) w/o an amplifier be better than a shorter range antenna w/ one?

 

[KE4KLS_Radio]

Vibe,

Also living in FL, I have a similiar situation but use the OTA mostly as a backup should cable be down. I am about 45-60 miles from most of the digital transmitters (living on the coast east of Orlando). I placed the antenna in the attic aimed southwest towards the antenna farms around Orlando. Also, used a low-loss RG6 coax and signal amp. I can reliably receive all of the digital signals, major netwoks, etc. in the Orlando mkt. with the exception of ION (ch. 56 in Melborne) where the signal is sometimes hit or miss.

I installed a similar setup for a relative here except the antenna was a 4 bay UHF only Channel Master antenna. The local NBC affiliate was on VHF channel 11 in digital, however, there was enough signal to capture it, along with the other UHF signals.

As long as you can get adaquate height I belive you should do fine.

Bill in E. Central FL

 

[vibe]

But was your antenna a VHF/UHF or UHF only? Do you lose some signal w/ a combo antenna?

 

[KE4KLS_Radio]

The antenna I have at my home near Daytona Beach is a combo VHF/UHF suburban by Channel Master I believe it is a CM 5646 or similar model (http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=ANCM5646). The salesman whom I bought it from told me the surburban model had a wider angle of reception (good for towers from Orange City down to south Orlando) compared to a deep fringe model with more elements. With a deep fringe model you may need to use a rotor due to the sharper nulls. However, height is key if you are > 30 miles away or the station is at reduced ERP. I have been very pleased with the performance when compared to rabbit ears, and if I were to move the antenna outside it might pick up some more signals on occasion in the Tampa or Jax markets. As for my setup I don't believe there was any significant signal loss.

Regarding the UHF antenna I installed at my in-laws, I used the Channel Master CM 3021 UHF only antenna(http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=ANC3021) which works just as well, even with WESH (channel 11 DTV). This antenna has a wide coverage so if you have transmitters with 45 degrees beam width this would be an ideal antenna. Also, if space is an issue would work well in the attic or side of home.

In both cases I used a signal amp that covered 10-20 db on UHF.

IMO a good attic or rooftop antenna is much better than rabbit ears, even those "HDTV ready" set top units that are amplified.

 

[vibe]

Thanks for the advice which was greatly needed. I was wondering if anyone on the board used antennaweb as a souce of potential stations (incl digital) to be received off the air and the "real world" results.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Thanks for the advice which was greatly needed. I was wondering if anyone on the board used antennaweb as a souce of potential stations (incl digital) to be received off the air and the "real world" results.

I'm not in FL, but here in Indiana, with a good antenna at 50' on high ground, about 70 miles is the limit for reliable HD reception. Generally speaking, if a 5000000 watt UHF analog was no more than 20% snow, the 1000000 watt HD usually comes in well. From that, it's my opinion that HD is, in general terms, "equal to or better" than analog. I wish that the HD signal was also 5000000 watts, but hey, I'll muddle on through with 1 million watt signals if that's all I can have. At 70 miles in a direction without terrain blockage, even the 15KW ERP educational HD is there 90% of the time. Of course in Florida, terrain blockage isn't much of a concern. I went to antennaweb.com & couldn't find any listing of TV signals I should see...just a bunch of ads. So I can't answer your question of how accurate antennaweb is.

 

[vibe]

Bob what kind of antenna set up do you have?

 

[dxho]

Thanks for the advice which was greatly needed. I was wondering if anyone on the board used antennaweb as a souce of potential stations (incl digital) to be received off the air and the "real world" results.

Yep. It was definitely a help, especially in turning the antenna, but the results didn't quite match my experience. They seemed pretty optimistic in what I could get, and I even have a big fringe-area combo antenna on a rotor on the roof.

They show 13 analog stations I "should" be able to receive. 7 are either spotty reception at best* to not at all.

*As in, the difference between some evidence of a station to nothing on the channel at all.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Bob what kind of antenna set up do you have?

http://www.antennasdirect.com/91XG_HDTV_antenna.html . It's not a particularly rugged antenna, but it's a star performer. Only thing better that I'm aware of is the Channel Master 7' UHF dish...which was discontinued perhaps 10 years ago.