My antennas

[Guy in WNY]

Here in WNY I have a Channel Master Quantum #1110 TV/FM antenna on the roof. It has the little amp in it with the FM switched out. I also use a Parascope 7'-0" screened UHF dish w/amp for the UHF side. It is also on the roof. Lower down, off the pool deck handrail post, there is an array of MONSTER stacked cut for channel 3, CM yagis. These are my main Es antennas and work OK most of the time. There is also a CB "Twin Trucker" setup in the crawl space below the roof for my CB radio(s), screwed to the tops of the ceiling joists.
That's pretty much it.
Guy

I've added a photo of my rooftop antennas. The dish has the 440 beam above it and the Quantum has the RS Discone above it. They are about 20' apart. I haven't set up the ch. 3 stack yet, but plan to soon.
Taken from the new upper deck part we just had added on this year, also the new back door was added. I can get to the roof from a step ladder now.
Guy 05/14/06

I've set up the stack today. Here is the photo of the stack in my backyard. I'll "tweak" it all a bit as soon as I can.
Guy 05/15/06

My rebuilt Hy-Gain CLR-2 is on the gate post for now. My back yard and roof (solar panels for the pool) are filling up fast. 06/15/06

[Mike-CT]

Here are pictures of the equipment I use today.

One is a Winegard PR-5030 VHF antenna with an Antennacraft five foot parabolic on top of it.

The FM antenna is an APS-13 from Ed Hanlon at Antennaperformance.com. I brought that one home from his house in two sections.

The other vertical antenna is a Scantenna for my scanner.

Parabolics aren't made anymore. If you can find one, consider yourself lucky.

[john-IL]

Here's a shot of my antennas. Not much, but certainly better than what I've been using (rabbit ears, stapled wires in the attic). I broke the 2nd longest element on the VU-120 when I was unfolding it on install day. If you buy one, beware... they are quite fragile!

The FM-6 is over 20 years old! It spent some time on Mom & Dad's roof when it was new, then into storage it went, until just 3 weeks ago.

The rotor is a Channel Master 9521. It came with IR remote. Having a remote controlled rotor rules! I installed 2 seperate control lines for it, one in the shack and one at the main TV upstairs. I used computer disk drive power connectors to make moving the control unit a snap.

The preamp is RS's 15-2507 (the $59.00 one). Being less than 20 miles from Chicago, it works quite well, but only for TV (all channels). I regularly see Milwaukee VHF's and South Bend UHF's with it, and no real overload issues from Chicago locals. It does produce several images on FM, however, so I don't use it there.

[rodthomp]

modeled here:
http://users.tns.net/~bb/fm-4g.htm (http://users.tns.net/%7Ebb/fm-4g.htm)

email from Brian Beezley:
SWR and mismatch loss are remarkably low
across the band for a design that uses just
two driven elements. The pattern is quite
uniform as well, falling off symmetrically at each edge.
One element partially broke on mine during
a high wind when a flying tree branch
sideswiped it. I bent the element back
straight and put heat-shrink tubing
over the broken spot. Seems to have held up.
Brian

[fredn-mcsc]

Can you count them?

Roof mounted on tripod:
FM Antenna: APS-13 at 25'
UHF Antenna/Preamp: CM 7' Partially Screened Dish at 30' AGL & Wineguard AC-4990
CDR Rotor, All RG-11 coax cable leadins.

RS Scanner Antenna mounted on 25' pole on side of house.

Long wire in foreground for AM/LW DXing.

Future Plans: Install SP9 with RS rotor in unfinished attic room over garage
for phasing/Es DXing. Let's hope for no more hurricanes for the Charleston SC area.

Fred Nordquist
Moncks Corner SC

[Guy in WNY]

Hello fredn-mcsc,
I had my 7' UHF just like yours, but over my CM 1110. There was just too much interaction between the two for me. I took the CM 1110 off and put it on it's own rotator, using 8" wall brackets thru bolted into 2x4 bracing on the inside of the crawlspace end wall. The improvement in signal levels was marked! If you get the chance, try moving the two antennas apart by a few feet. I think you would be very pleased with the results.
Guy in Lockport, NY

[Zornblad]

Here's a couple of pix of the tower I put up over the summer of 06.

I'm located south of London, Ontario and about 7 miles north of
the lake Erie shoreline

The Tower is a Delhi DMX48HD with the following antennas pictured.
Wade-Delhi VU937sr with the optional VU8PZ power zoom @ 50ft.
Next is a 10 element phased array for the 2m amateur radio band.
Next is a 4 element Yagi for the 220 MHz amateur band,
and a Diamond dual-band vertical for the 2m & 70cm amateur band.

I use a Rotel RX-855 for FM DXing and for
digital TV I use a US Digital DB-2010 set top box,
and for analog, a 27" Sony

[Guy in WNY]

Nice setup!
Here are some pix of the old VHF yagi I found at an estate sale last weekend on my 10' test pole. I have a lengthened UHF yagi at the top right now with the VHF yagi below it going to an amp. Can anybody identify this old antenna? I'm not sure I have the 300 to 75 transformer on the correct end of the phase bars!
Any help would be appreciated.
Guy in Lockport, NY

[Mike-CT]

I've been through a couple of antenna books and I see a couple that almost look like it, but aren't. I tried some of the obscure antenna manufacturers, but nothing really matches. Doesn't seem to be CM or Winegard, for sure.
Looks like these were taken around 5pm....I hate winter.

[Guy in WNY]

Yes, I got home from work at 4:15, mowed the back yard mainly to mulch up the leaves and then took the photos. Rich thought it might be a "Niagara Special" which was an "area antenna" made with elements and spacing cut for the local channels. He says the ones for this area worked OK for the locals when pointed to the Southtowns and also got the Toronto stations pretty good off the backside.
But I was interested if anyone has seen one as it looks a bit strange with the elements being longer than the boom and the little cross tees on it, etc.
Guy

[Richard Lucas]

Hey, Guy....
That's one UGLY looking thing, but how does it WORK??
Back when I first got into TV DX in the very early '60's (like 1960) a friend always preferred a company that made a "Super Helix antenna that had a familial look similar to the one that you have. Those antennas (VHF only, I might add) the little perpendicular elements and big folded detector elements. They also had a zig-zagged thingy on the front that was painted with pink-ish enamel paint. Never understood what that thing did, but he swore by those antennas. I was a Winegard man, myself. I think that yours may be Jerrold or JFD, but I wouldn't swear by that.

Rick Lucas in Rochester

[dlp85x]

Here's my antenna setup. Its a Radio Shack VU-90XR antenna. Its mounted on the slope of my roof so the front of it if a few inches higher than the roofline. I have it sort of down on the roofline (as opposed to high as possible) since I live in a townhome community and I don't want it to be a bigger eyesore than it has to be. Trees are behind my house, so nobody complains about my setup since nobody sees it! :)

I also have a similar (but much older) antenna in my attic that's been there probably longer than I've been alive. Since it is 6-10 feet away from the roof antenna, I plan on testing it for phasing pretty soon.

Just to note, the power lines in the foreground of the pic are at least 50 feet away from the antenna ... I thankfully don't get any interference from them.

[Guy in WNY]

Yep, sure is an ugly one! It seems to work pretty well, just not much directivity or gain, but that's to be expected on a "shorty" like this one.
Hey DLP85x, is the one in your attic on a rotator also? If so, then you have a pretty good setup going there.
Guy in Lockport, NY

[dlp85x]

Hey DLP85x, is the one in your attic on a rotator also? If so, then you have a pretty good setup going there.
Guy in Lockport, NY

Thanks! I actually spoke too soon; I forgot the attic antenna was taken down when my roof antenna was installed in '04. :o I'm going to put a new antenna in my attic, most likely the Radio Shack VU-75XR, which is a tad bit smaller than what I have on the roof. Yep, it will have a rotator. I just need to measure to see what will fit. I figure if I can't mount the attic antenna far enough for a perfect phase that I'll enjoy lowered signal levels that will be easily overpowered by weak tropo or Es.

[capitalgold]

Yep, sure is an ugly one! It seems to work pretty well, just not much directivity or gain, but that's to be expected on a "shorty" like this one.
Hey DLP85x, is the one in your attic on a rotator also? If so, then you have a pretty good setup going there.
Guy in Lockport, NY

Guy,
That looks very similiar to a 'market special' antenna that we had in our attic in the 70's. They were made for the Albany NY market (and i assume others) because ch 13 broadcast from Bald Mtn. north of Troy, while 6, 10 & 17 broadcast from the Helderberg Mts. in Albany County. A few antenna manufacturers (CM does come to mind) put together a special package for our area.
There was an antenna like yours for viewing the main tx site, while there was a smaller VHF-hi band antenna oriented for Ch. 13, and connected together with 300-ohm flat wire, so that a single lead went to the TV. This eliminated the constant rotor action needed when channel surfing (a royal pain for a 4 channel market) and worked well at urban/suburban distances. You can still see a few of these antenna combos here & there on houses in the area.
IIRC, they were not 'sold in stores', but only available from TV retailers & dealers. Because I was but a wee-lad back then, dont even begin to ask for a model number. I do know (as this antenna was the first I ever used for TV & FM DX) that the antenna was rated for 40 miles VHF/FM, 15 miles UHF. Not much directivity with it though. I actually watched western Nebraska on that antenna during an Es opening in the mid-80's, so it wasn't totally useless.

Maybe that might shed some light on that design...
-Andrew

[Guy in WNY]

I think that's the general consensus. Rich called it an "Area/Market Special" as well so I would say this one is set up for 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, and maybe 12. That way, you would get all the Buffalo market and 5, 9, and 12 from Canada, without a rotator.
Thank you all for your input, and I'll be keeping my eyes open at these yard sales although the season is running down.
Guy in Lockport, NY

[rseaman]

Guy,
That is an odd looking VHF antenna. I believe I have seen something like it on the Wade antenna website. It is short because it is only for local reception. The odd thing about it is that it appears to have one folded active element and one straight one, connected to each other. Usually both active elements would be either folded or straight. I've never seen them mixed on the same antenna. Bob Seaman

[Guy in WNY]

Yeah, it's an oddball. That's what caught my eye at the sale. Rich is letting me try out an amplifier for UHF channels 42-56. It's some kind of oddball thing he found from another dealer going out of business and he got about 15 of them so I'm going to test it out on my UHF yagi today. I think it will work pretty well! It's a nice solid unit.
More later,
Guy in Lockport, NY

[LogPeriodic]

I'd like to post a couple of pictures of my setup, but I don't know how to make the thumbnails everybody else has. All I know how to do is post the [img] full-size pics, which no one else seems to do. I suspect it's to keep loading times to a minimum. Can someone tell me how to post the pics as thumbnails? Would it be alright to just post the pics full-size? The pictures originate from my own website.

Thanks.

[Mike-CT]

No need to make thumbnails. Use full size .jpgs (max size is 1.5mb). They will show up as thumbnails but will go full sized when someone clicks on the thumbnail. Not sure if this really answers your question. The way most of us post pictures, we compose an email, then below the composition window is a Additional Options box. Choose "Manage Attachments". That's where I select the files from a directory on my computer and upload them.

If your files are over 1.5mb you can always re-size them down to a smaller size yourself. Irfanview is free and will do it.

You can also post them from a link on another website like JW does. Do whichever way you like better.

Mike

[LogPeriodic]

Thank you for your reply Mike-CT... this is what I meant. If it's not allowed, I'll change it promptly.


http://www.xtremed63.com/images/full/other/LogPeriodicCS8200-2.jpg

http://www.xtremed63.com/images/full/other/LogPeriodicCS8200.jpg

[John Wilke K9RZZ]

Nice setup and nice pics. :)

I took a pic of my stack with new snow yesterday ... will post when I get home. It's so beautiful ... I wish I had more time to use it! :o

[John Wilke K9RZZ]

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc54/biffbradford/MISC/antstack.jpg


There is just something about viewing aluminum tubing over a blue sky back ground ....

http://www.freedomcrowsnest.org/forum/images/smiles/excited.gif

[LogPeriodic]

I couldn't agree more, John, but the image isn't showing up. I was looking forward to seeing the set-up.

[John Wilke K9RZZ]

Sorry about that. Should be fixed now.

[LogPeriodic]

Now THAT'S a pretty sight! They look like identical antennas, and brand new at that. They also look like Winegards, but I can't be sure. What's the make/model of those two? They appear to be FM models.

[John Wilke K9RZZ]

You've got a sharp eye.

Winegard HD6065's, FM only, brand spanking new. :cool:

The spacing is a bit wide, but I'm not going on the roof with 6" of snow and ice up there. The whole story is elsewhere on this forum.

I'm very happy with them. ;)

[LogPeriodic]

I was just looking at an outdated Winegard catalog I have. It's from 1984. :( Looking at the CS-6065, I see that back then they were constructed like the rest of the CS line - with "Truss-Type Phasing". Same number of elements but they look a little different, now. :duh:

If my scanner was working, I'd take a picture of the older CS-6065 and post it for comparisons. Maybe soon.