Antenna Suggestions

[fishy]

Hi!

I live in the city of Chicago. About 4 miles from the broadcasting antenna. Live in a garden unit (so like half above, half under ground).

Have a pretty simple amplified antenna sitting down here with me. 96% of the time it is a super picture, totally perfect. However, 50 feet from my house is a "El" track (above ground train). Every time it runs by (ever 4 minutes), I get a 10-12 second blur of my signal.

There are two ways I can think of to get around this. Some kind of directional antenna pointed under the tracks, or sneak up on the roof (3rd floor) and put up something that would go over the tracks.

Anyone have an experience with a weird situation like this? How do I deal with the train? I would like to avoid a roof mount if possible, but it seems like it might be my only option

[gjvrieze]

Originally Posted by fishy

Hi!

I live in the city of Chicago. About 4 miles from the broadcasting antenna. Live in a garden unit (so like half above, half under ground).

Have a pretty simple amplified antenna sitting down here with me. 96% of the time it is a super picture, totally perfect. However, 50 feet from my house is a "El" track (above ground train). Every time it runs by (ever 4 minutes), I get a 10-12 second blur of my signal.

There are two ways I can think of to get around this. Some kind of directional antenna pointed under the tracks, or sneak up on the roof (3rd floor) and put up something that would go over the tracks.

Anyone have an experience with a weird situation like this? How do I deal with the train? I would like to avoid a roof mount if possible, but it seems like it might be my only option

What happens is either the train completely blocks signal (not likely 4 miles from the Sears Tower) or the tuner gets overwhelmed by multipath signals. (signals that arrive out of order at the tuner and when there is not enough error correction left over, you get the dropouts and tearing that you have listed)
Try under the train first, if that is doable. The best would be up high, as always. I would get non amp'ed antenna and hook it up straight the splitters and onto the tuners.
If you need help with antenna selection, just reply back and I will figure out a good solution. WLS is probably the weakest digital, that you will have issues (just guessing) They are VHF-HI and at pretty low power compared to their analog counterpart was.

[fishy]

I could use some attena reccos

[SWKerr]

I have a bad multi-path problem as well. It is difficult to deal with if there is not a consistent signal that is causing the issue. With a directional antenna you can actually point it away from the source sometimes and get better results. Some antennas are better than others for multi-path. I never used this one since I am too far from the source stations but I read a lot of posts saying it worked well when I was researching my problem. SHARPSHOOTER MODEL SS-3000

Some tuners are better with Multi-path than others. I found the HDHR to be the best and I tried quite a few.

[fishy]

I have a HDHR. helps over analog, but still there

[jasonl]

Winegard HD7694P. Probably a bit overkill that close to the towers, but it's got great directionality on VHF, which is something small antennas like the SS-3000 can't claim.

[fishy]

I got the SHARPSHOOTER MODEL SS-3000

love love love love it so far. Point it out my back window AWAY from the towers (and the train). Am getting everything very well except for CBS. Not too worried about it, but may think about how to get CBS later.

Sharpshooter + hdhomerun + sage is nice... now just to make my remote work ;P

[gjvrieze]

Originally Posted by fishy

I got the SHARPSHOOTER MODEL SS-3000

love love love love it so far. Point it out my back window AWAY from the towers (and the train). Am getting everything very well except for CBS. Not too worried about it, but may think about how to get CBS later.

Sharpshooter + hdhomerun + sage is nice... now just to make my remote work ;P

WBBM is not running as much power as WLS. Both stations are VHF-HI, not UHF like the others, so they are a bit harder to get with a UHF only antenna. (but at distance, it should not be a problem)

They came to VHF-HI a bit late and given the height of their antenna on the Sears Tower mast, the FCC did not give them much power on channel 12.