Antop Antennas!

Montrealers routinely get stations from Plattsburgh and Burlington (70 to 90 miles away). People in Vancouver BC get Seattle stations at 100 miles. 85 miles is a possibility. One sees many requests for antenna types between these locations at OTA forums.

In fact it’s fascinating to read the posts of OTA DX’ers in the Great Lakes regions (especially around Lake Superior) who get stations at very long distances even without Tropo. Some of them build their own high powered antennas such as Holl_land’s stacked FF6 design (which I’ve used):

http://imageevent.com/holl_ands/stacked/verticallystackeduhf/vertstackff6doubleanglerefl

The venerable Channel Master 4251 antenna would pick up signals regularly 100 miles away (eg. Youngstown Ohio to Buffalo NY):

http://www.rocketroberts.com/cm4251/cm4251.htm

I was born and grew up in the great lakes area. It doesn’t compare to Kansas.

But why not buy a Antop At-401bv. Pretty much the 400bv with 5 miles less range.

I thought I saw on sale at Walmart for $81.

Someone asked that question at the Antop website Q&A. The Antop support person said that it wasn’t only range but beamwidth. The 400 has a wider range (20 to 30 degrees wider in scope). I’ve seen the interior of both antennas. The wider 400 has a slightly different arrangement and larger configuration of reception plates internally.

I guess that’s why in the review above the guy was able to get 85% of his stations downstairs while pointing North. Upstairs his antenna points West (where the stations are) and he gets 100% of them.

Wouldn’t you find that a strange answer. It seems they are implying the 400bv is better then the 401bv.

But their own WEB site sells the 400bv for $143 and 401bv for $162

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I don’t know whether Antop understands its own antennas. In another post a few months ago, I indicated that this antenna was designed and manufactured in China (where the real engineering takes place). One of their competitors here in North America traced the shipments of these antennas to the real source a few years ago and posted that at an OTA forum. Eaglestar, Marathon & Antop are really all the same.

One has the same phenomenon with Kodi boxes. The very good S95X Android box is identical (and manufactured by one company) but sold under ten different brand names here. The support staff at these various distributers doesn’t know one box from another when on the phone…

Checking with First Officer Spock, will get back to you shortly on that one.

Conversely, I can pick up Vancouver BC (and Bellingham WA) stations from the Puget Sound.

How well do you pick up Vancouver stations? Is this with the Antop? That’s approximately 100 miles, right?

When you put up the Antop, were you hoping to receive Bellingham and Vancouver stations or thinking strictly Seattle channels? What were your expectations?

You might have a Bellingham transmitter at 2,624 feet above terrain and the contour map showing the signal reaching Seattle.

In some areas you only have a transmitter 1,000 above terrain.

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When I installed it, I had no idea what I’d be pulling in, didn’t know how many stations there were or anything else. I was hoping to pick up the main three networks (for local weather, etc), and figured I’d probably pick up five or ten altogether. Had no idea that I’d be getting over fifty channels, most of which I’d never heard of before.

Is your Antop pointed in the northerly direction towards Bellingham & Vancouver? Is pointing at the Seattle stations the same direction as pointing at Bellingham & Vancouver? Which may not be relevant since the Antop can receive both frontwards and backwards…

Anything from Tacoma?

Looking at the spread of Seattle stations, they appear to be in 3 or 4 different directions! I can understand why one of your Antops is omnidirectional (guest house). The Antop being “multidirectional” with a wide sweep would be needed in an area like Seattle.

BTW there is an active Seattle OTA reception community at AVS Forum (it is up to 350 pages of posts - since 2003):

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/45-local-hdtv-info-reception/254620-seattle-wa-ota.html

You’re right about it picking up stations from both directions. I also pick up stations from as far as Chehalis (to the south), though they are duplicates and the signal is not as strong.

I’m only in Seattle about half the time (about six months or so out of the year). About half of that time is spent in Bainbridge Island and Portland. Thanks for the heads up on the OTA community, I’ll check that out.

I worked for Boeing thirty years ago (but not from their Seattle location - in an another state). However I had to travel to Seattle from time to time and spent a few months in their Renton and Everett facilities (and Issaquah office). Enjoyed driving through the Cascade Mountains on weekends. Visited Mount Ranier. Drove up to Mount St. Helens a few years after its volcanic activity. It was an awesome sight! Also liked the Snoqualmie Falls. We stayed in Bellevue when working up there.

Puget Sound - maybe your neighbor Bill Gates needs an Antop :nerd_face:

Snoqualmie Falls is beautiful. Bellevue is where I work (when I’m up here), it is also a fantastic place. Your Boeing job must have been a pretty good gig.

Well I might have to get a new antenna, one of the main channels we watch (WGBH - boston/PBS) moved to VHF with the August 2, 2019 repack … ) … My current antenna is UHF only… So this might be a good time to try an ANTOP

How close are you to the VHF station? Sometimes good old fashioned rabbit ears will bring in a VHF channel which you could combine with the UHF antenna. Least expensive solution.

50 odd miles away in lightly hilly terrain between… its not flat.

Oh boy, be careful here! WGBH - Boston/PBS is moving to channel 5 - which is LO VHF (LO VHF not just VHF). I’m not sure of Antop’s LO VHF capabilities. They have an extension (comes with the antenna) that adds HI VHF.

Now they do say at Amazon “Enhanced Vhf Reception Rods For Channels 2-13.” So that accounts for LO VHF as well. The frequency range of the BV models at the official Antop website is stated as “87.5-230MHz, 470-700MHz.” Channel 5 is 76-82 MHz. The BVs begins at 87 MHz which is channel 6. Channel 5 would be just at the reception margin. The data on VHF is ambiguous for the Antops

Wonder if anyone here with LO VHF (solely channels 2 to 6) has tried Antop?

If the Antop doesn’t bring in channel 5, then you would have to try a LO VHF folded dipole antenna in the attic. A LO VHF antenna on the roof is huge (I had one in the past and trying to put one up there is a real balancing act). Not difficult to make a LO VHF folded dipole from wire and tape and string it up.

WGBH has a post repack UHF transmitter but it does not do PBS programming in HD, just SD.

There is discussion (quite heated) of WGBH’s repack move and antenna required at AVS’ Boston OTA reception forum (last few pages):

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/45-local-hdtv-info-reception/28454-boston-ma-ota.html

WGBH got $200 million to move to VHF - there’s the reason for that move that has people up in arms (why LO?)… My PBS is moving to channel 7 which is HI VHF but they are building a new transmitter with their repack money and adding power to it for easier reception. WGBH said it wants to add power to their VHF transmitter and is petitioning the FCC.

Really intrigued how an Antop would do with REAL channel 5 (not virtual). You could go to the AntopUSA website and chat with an Antop rep - ask how an Antop would do with channel 5.

If a LO VHF dipole won’t work (or an Antop), then Locast in Boston does PBS but you lose the DVR (Tablo) capability. However Locast has now gone to court so who knows how long they’ll be around. Another option would be a PBS monthly subscription for unlimited streaming.

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Oh that’s good to know … thanks I wasn’t even aware of that, I will look now more deeply into this issue…