I'm about 38 miles away from Sutro Tower in San Francisco, and I had
been using a small indoor UHF antenna which worked quite well:
Philips PHDTV1 Silver Sensor UHF/HDTV Digital Indoor TV Antenna
But it couldn't bring in ABC or NBC, which are both on the high-VHF band.
I tried some indoor VHF rabbit ears, but still no go.
So I bought this FV-HD30 and mounted it outside on my patio, attached
to a 5-foot Radio Shack antenna mast. I have a clear line-of-sight to Sutro.
I also got the Winegard AP-8700 pre-amp, because of a 40-foot cable
run, which is then split and routed to 3 TV Tuners:
Winegard AP-8700 Preamplifier High Gain Low Noise 19 dB UHF 17 dB VHF for HDTV Antennas
The TV tuners are HDHomeRun's, which work great with Windows 7:
SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDHR-US Dual Networked High Definition Digital Television (White)
Well the antenna + preamp solved the problem, ABC and NBC now come in
strongly, and all the UHF channels are fine too. Highly recommended!
When you are assembling the HD-FV30 antenna, a deep (1.5" to 2") 7/16" socket is helpful.
I made my own cabling, using Belden 7915A Tri-Shield RG6 cable, and Thomas&Betts
Snap-N-Seal compression connectors. Winegard FV-HD30 FreeVision HDTV Antenna
**The Bottom Line
For my situation this antenna works as advertised - pulls in signals for UHF and high-VHF channels. What exceeded my expectations was its ability to pull in a pretty weak signal in the high-VHF range (NBC on channel 12). This antenna is great, it's small and light and works pretty well for me. There may be other alternatives out there but I liked that I didn't have to get 2 antennas specific for either UHF or VHF frequencies.
**The Details
For a year I've been happy watching OTA DTV using an Insignia-DXA1-APT set top box, 20 feet of cable and a DIY DB4 UHF antenna mounted outside our apartment. It worked pretty well (could get 29 channels) but I got no signal from NBC. All other channels are really strong. According to [...], KNTV-DT NBC (Channel 12) is on the high-VHF band and is transmitted from a tower about 6 miles away and should come in with a noise margin of 37.2 dB. There are hills in the way of a clean line to the San Bruno tower so it is no wonder I couldn't get it. I tried a bunch of antennas indoors and outdoors including my DIY DB4, rabbit ears and an amplified indoor RCA antenna (ANT1650) and never got a signal from NBC. With a strong desire to watch the Winter Olympics, I had to try to get NBC in my lounge room but I really thought it was unlikely. I bought the Winegard FV-HD30 based on what I read on the Winegard website. I had no idea what to expect as there were no useful reviews and no specs listed by the manufacturer about gain for specific frequencies. I swapped my DIY DB4 antenna out for the FV-HD30, and voila, 32 channels! NBC is one of them. The Winegard FV-HD30 works and I'm very happy with the result.
I mounted this small lightweight antenna on the side of our deck. It's about 16 feet above the surrounding ground but still has to pull the signal through quite a few medium size maple trees. The signal is great right now, I hope it does as well when the leaves come out. We get excellent reception of all twelve of our local channels(3-21)which are about 27 miles away. As specified by [...] I pointed the antenna to 321 degrees and got instant great reception on our 46 inch Samsung. I ordered this from Winegard Direct and am very happy with the packaging and speed of shipping(which was free).
WINEGARD Model FV-HD30 HDTV Antenna - This antenna is working fine for my location. In use now for about 3-months. It is the best of a variety of antennas that I've tried in the $10 to $100 range. Just about everyone's location/conditions vary in such a manner that one person's situation cannot be of absolute value to another. Antenna elements are made of aluminum mounted in a plastic housing. The only drawback about this antenna is that it is not of adequate quality for long-term outdoor installation as some reviews, photos and web sites might lead you to believe. Inadequate outdoor quality due to some components made of steel with minimal to possibly no corrosion protection. Probably ok if you live in a desert climate with very very low humidity. Most vulnerable part (and probably very difficult to find a proper fitting replacement) is the transformer that converts the 300 ohms (spade connectors) to the 75 ohms coax cable. Both the spades and threaded cable connections are either raw steel or at best zinc plated. All Fasteners are also minimally protected steel. You could play with silicon caulk to seal some of these parts after assemble but this is not always a for sure solution. In my opinion it would be best to install indoors or in similarly controlled environment. - Tv Antenna - Indoor Antenna - Winegard - Hd Antenna'
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