I have the Winegard FL5500A and receive 2 stations from far away. Www.tvfool.com zipcode 78758. Channel 62 which is broadcast on channel 13.
I am only about 35 miles out in the Twin Cites area of MN and I use a ChannelMaster SMARTenna 35/50 in the attic and it is spot on.
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The Clear stream 4v does have a VHF antenna and 70 mile range.
Well, I bought 4 different antennas to try out at my nieces new place, I only tried ONE. She is on the 1st floor on an apartment complex in Fond Du Lac, WI and the towers are about 50 miles away in Green Bay, WI. There is another set of apartments across the street from her and 40 yds away directly in the direction of the towers.
Since a lot of people reported good luck with Winegard, I tried their newest antenna(See attached). I set this up INSIDE her house, connected to a TV and was able to pull 21 channels(CBS/ABC/NBC/FOX/PBS), which according to Antennaweb is all of them. I was really surprised this thing got all of them from Inside.
She didnât have her internet setup yet so I couldnât setup her Tablo. I know the Tablo will have to split the signal for the 4 tuners but I am hoping it will still pick up all these channels. If it doesnât, I am pretty sure moving this antenna outside will fix that issue.
If you are looking for a longer range antenna I would highly recommend this one. I can only imagine what it would pick up on top of the roof 20-30 feet off the ground.
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UPDATE: Looks like Channel 11 is having issues on this antenna. It is the only VHF signal though. The rest of the channels all have 6 bars and come in perfect with this antenna.
Anyone have suggestions to boost the VHF signal? Maybe add a 2nd antenna specific for VHF with a combiner? If so, any recommendations for 50 miles away (Ground Floor)?
I have a Winegard YA-1713 that works well for VHF. To combine this with my UHF antenna, I used:
Pico Digital UHF VHF Band Separator/Combiner for Antenna (UVSJ)
However, neither the antenna nor the UVSJ seems to be available anymore.
This antenna from Amazon looks good, but I havenât tried it.
And, just an ordinary 2-way splitter used backwards should be able to combine the UHF and VHF signals
If a store bought VHF antenna for the ground floor wonât work, you could try a DIY (very easy and inexpensive $10). Take a look at this one (with instructions):
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/1151463-post15.html
I use a VHF loop antenna and it is very effective since it uses 64" of wire (the VHF wavelength).
Instead of a box (as in the link above), one can stylize it this way with wood (minus the small loop and capacitor on top - these are not needed):
It can even be put in a closet on the floor (the size or diameter is 23"). Since it attracts some UHF, it would be best to join it to the UHF antenna with a UHF-VHF combiner. At 50 miles out, you might need a preamp for this antenna (would recommend the RCA TVPRAMP1Z which has a VHF input). Then the antenna would go into the VHF preamp side and a UHF-VHF combiner would not be needed - just an inverted splitter.
Thanks for the tip on the 2 way splitter. We canât use such a big antenna because we are trying to keep everything indoors since she lives in an apartment complex
@MarkKindle So is there special wire I would ask for for this? also, once you bent the wire into the loop, how do you connect the coax to it?
Forgive me I sound like an idiot, antennas are not my specialty but we already have the Winegard Flatwave Air antenna that has a pre-amp built into it (see above posts). So would just mounting this giant circle of wire with the Winegard antenna in the center draw in more VHF that would get picked up by the main antenna and improve that signal?
Or is my best bet to build this antenna, and somehow connect Coax to the wire, then connect it to the RCA TVPRAMP1Z and take the OUT of the amplifier into a combiner along with the OUT from my Winegard antenna. I donât think I can use the UHF IN of the amplifier since the Winegard already amplies the signal, right?
Thanks
In the first link above, that poster used #6 copper wire (which is about 60 cents per foot at Home Depot). I bought a coil of copper refrigeration tubing from Home Depot ($10). Either one will work fine.
For a template I drew a circle on paper (23" diameter) rough hand and bent the wire around it. Doesnât have to be a perfect circle.
A one inch gap is left in the circle. Attach a balun to it. One end of the balun goes on the left hand of the loop, the other end of the balun attaches to the right hand of the loop. I cut the spades off the balun and wrapped the stripped balun leg wires around the antenna wire (or tubing). Or one can attach the spades of the balun to the loop wire via alligator clips. Coax then inserts into the balun (or matching transformer as it is sometimes called). See the picture in the first reference as to how the attached balun and coax looks like at the antenna.
Mounting the loop antenna around the Winegard wonât do anything in terms of increasing the VHF signal gotten by the Winegard. The loop is placed separately (3 feet away from the Winegard).
You could join the Winegard with the VHF loop through a UHF\VHF combiner. Coax from Winegard to joiner. Coax from loop to joiner. Then from the joiner go into the Winegard amplifier. And onto the Tablo. Since the VHF antenna may also pick up some of the UHF frequencies that the Winegard receives (and vice versa), stations commonly picked up by both antennas may interfere with each other (coming out of phase). A UHF\VHF combiner will prevent that - isolating the UHF from the VHF frequencies from each other on a common conduit.
BTW this loop antenna is the equivalent of the Clearstream 5 (VHF antenna).
In the first link above, that boxed loop antenna has an aluminum foil reflector inside the box. The picture of the loop I provide above has no reflector. A reflector can add up to 30% more signal gain to the antenna if needed.
BTW I made one for a friend. We mounted the loop on the back of an armoire so no one could see it (the back of the armoire was facing the station). I also did one for my sister and she had the bright idea of mounting it on the back of a large painting she had in the living room! The painting was 30" by 30" so the 23" loop fit perfectly on the back. The cable coming down (white coax) was hidden by a book case and a plant.
This however is my favorite implementation of a VHF antenna (part of Venetian blinds):
Cool, The room we are setting it up in has the metal horizontal blinds but they would be in front of the antenna if I tried setting it up like this. Do you think if I put the circle antenna in front of the blinds they would work as a reflector? Otherwise I was just going to use a cardboard box and tape the antenna to the front and put tin foil on the back like done in the link you provided.
Normally a VHF reflector has to be 9 to 16 inches behind the antenna. The blinds would be too close. One could always try putting it in front of the blinds (might be an interesting test)âŚbut not behind them. The box would be the best first attempt since it can be moved easily about. Hiding the box behind a plant or piece of furniture would work.
All sorts of ideas now come to mind. Building the antenna into a circular mirror with the mirrorâs silver foil as a reflector 
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Does that 23 inch diameter circle have to be exact? I am not picking up any channels from my house 30 miles away but the circle currently is closer to 23 1/2 than 23. I figured I would rather have too much than too little since I can always cut it down.
Also, currently I only built the loop and just have it leaning against an end table with no reflector because I am impatient and wanted to test it out.
The diameter doesnât have to be exact. As long as the loop is between 60 and 66 inches.
It will work for VHF; it is weak on UHF. My loop picks up some UHF stations but very weakly. I had to move it around in my attic to find a sweet spot for VHF reception of channels 8 and 11.
At 30 miles it may need a preamp. Iâm 33 miles from the VHF transmitter and need a preamp to get above the 50% threshhold. Like any other antenna, it has to be in the direction of the transmitting tower for maximum effectiveness.
Donât combine it with a UHF antenna using a splitter. Common channels picked up by both antennas may degrade each other.
Hmm, I thought my circle was pretty close but measuring with a rope it looks to be about 72 inches. Oops. Thanks for the info.
The wavelength for the channel 11 frequency is about 60 inches. I cut my loop at 64" as a compromise between channel 8 and channel 11. 64" should be fine for your loop.
Once upon a time, a long time ago, I tried to understand this stuff. Being as how I was just reading books, I failed. So, I would like to ask a probably stupid question.
If I made the length 128" and twisted it into a spiral will I get more signal or will I end up with some sort of prototype star-trek warp coil that rips the world in two?
An alternative to the circular shape is the folded dipole using the same wire you have and length (rectangular shape). The concept is the same only the shape differs:
http://www.diytvantennas.com/dipole.php
