[mythtv-users] Automatic antenna aiming?

[BobW]

On 12/1/2013 10:30 PM, Don Brett wrote:
> 
> I'm not sure how many to target.  My existing antenna rotor doesn't work
> at all, so it's hard to experiment.  The farthest station is 50 miles
> away, so I'm guessing a good quality antenna will work for it.  The
> stations are located like this; it looks like I might need three or
> more, but it's  hard to tell.
> 
> http://users.zoominternet.net/~dlbrett/ScreenCapture_346.jpg
> http://users.zoominternet.net/~dlbrett/ScreenCapture_347.jpg
> 
> RF Channel 33 - 18 miles @ 109 °
> RF Channel 25 - 49 miles @ 140 °
> RF Channel 09 - 48 miles @ 180 °
> 
> RF Channel 45 - 18 miles @ 240 °
> RF Channel 23 - 50 miles @ 273 °
> RF Channel 47 - 38 miles @ 278 °
> 
> RF Channel 41 - 02 miles @ 311 °
> RF Channel 19 - 02 miles @ 312 °
> RF Channel 36 - 02 miles @ 329 °
> RF Channel 44 - 03 miles @ 336°
> RF Channel 20 - 03 miles @ 336 °
> 
> By the  way, the existing antenna cable is connected to the HDHR box. 
> Channels 36 and 41 work well most of the time, channel 20 is 50/50
> (pixalates a lot, hard to tune while raining).  I'm not sure of the
> condition of the connections at the antenna (they may be rusty or
> broken-off).
> 
> I inherited the HDHR box, and it's the single antenna model.  For the
> moment, I only have a single antenna feed to consider, but if this works
> out, adding another HDHR box is possible.  Sounds like the multi-antenna
> approach might be simpler; it seems that the popular way of interfacing
> rotor aiming with mythtv is a
> custom-script/lirc/system-event/tuner-timeout exercise; kind of a
> bolt-on, but people are reporting good success with it.
> 
> Not sure of which approach to pursue; any suggestions on how many
> antenna to use?

You might try an outdoor amplified omnidirectional antenna first. Here
is my experience using a HDHR attached to an roof-top antenna.

I am receiving a station 42 miles away (broadcasting with 200kW) using
this omnidirectional amplified antenna:

Winegard MS 2000 - 2002   "The Round Television Antenna"
http://dennysantennaservice.com/1073325.html

Antennaweb.com shows my antenna receiving "violet" stations.

I also have a station 8 miles away which has a lot of
breakups/pixelization (broadcasting at 500kW), probably due to multipath
issues.  (Antennaweb rates this station as yellow for my location.)

My best stations are in the RF channel range 12-15. Although I do get RF
channels 22 & 30 at 20-38 miles. (Antennaweb rates these stations as
blue & violet.)

There is a RF channel 14, 35 mi away from me (broadcasting at 185 kW)
which I cannot reliably receive. (violet)

You can find broadcast power and antenna height from Wikipedia by
searching the stations call letters.

Disclaimer: I am not associated with dennysantennaservice, but I did buy
mine from that site.

Bob