A little report on the
Winegard HD7694P. After 6 months of relying on OTA, using a small leaf antenna, I decided it was time to upgrade and get rid of my drop outs. Time to go up in the attic with a yagi.
So as I last reported, I was surprised by the box size. It looks like the box is made to also fit their next size up antenna. This HD7694P is still large, about 5' x 3'. Despite that, it is very light, about 5 lbs. There was no assembly required except to swing out and lock all the elements.
In the end, there is no substitute for square inches. So large isn't bad, unless you can't fit it where you want it.
I'm opting for an attic mount to start. I'd rather not go outside. There will be attenuation in the attic, so it goes. It is still worth a shot. For mounting, I used a scrap piece of chain link top fence rail and drilled two holes in it, and inserted lag bolts through those holes right to the rafter. LBYM, use what I had laying around. The antenna mounted easily on this fence rail. I used RG6 to attach to the antenna and snaked it down through my air gaps to the knee wall the storey below. From here I have a wall plate into the room where I have my Tablo. My wall plate was done years ago when I snaked cat5 and RG59 from the basement to the 2nd floor. I just reused the old plate. The cat5 is useful for the Tablo connecting to my router.
Direction matters! Before I permanently mounted everything, I snaked the cable through the attic scuttle and tried it out. My aiming was done by using the
AntennaWeb.org site. I could zoom in on the map and actually get proper orientation to my house for the two main transmitter sites. They are within 2 degrees of each other, so I split the difference. At first, I was 5 degrees off (handyman error) and reception was suboptimal. Getting proper direction was essential.
So how does it work? Great! I've gotten rid of 99% of stutters and pixelizations on the main channels. Very rarely I see a slight image hang on two affiliates. These are both VHF stations. I'm not getting audio drop outs which is good. The UHF stations are rock solid. Finally, my PBS affiliate still pixelizes every now and then with occasional audio drop outs. This is all better than the leaf antenna.
I'm not bothered by the PBS situation because my house is in a "2-Edge" zone for them. PBS has been a problem since day 1 where I live. It is 100 degrees out of sync from the other transmitters. They added a repeater in the same orientation, but it is half way up the tower compared to the other stations. That matters! I only watch Nova on PBS and it comes in good enough for now.
BTW, I find that
rabbitears.info is a great resource. The old TV Fool site is out of date and not so good. It takes a little touring around this site to understand it. Once you click the right icons (tower distance, and antenna symbol) you are treated to topographic maps that show your situation. Because I live in the rolling Piedmont, the reception in my neighborhood differs greatly house to house. Topography matters. All my stations are "good" except PBS which is "fair" on this report.
Next steps: I'm going to enjoy it and see how well it works through the spring and summer. Should things deteriorate (trees?), I'll first add the pre-amp mentioned in another post above. Next step would be to move to the other side of the attic to receive through the wall only, instead of obliquely through the rafters. Only desperation would get me to move it outside.
Attached below is my installation and a 2-edge report from rabbitears.info for the pesky PBS station. Gotta buy a house on higher ground next time! So close.