Plopping an outdoor antenna into the attic

I'll look into all these things. Thanks.

Her construction is pretty much like mine, and the attic antenna is
working well for me.

She doesn't want an antenna on the roof,

Have her order cable TV or satellite TV. End of problem.

I'm glad you said that. I'll have her send the bills to the address
below.

On Mar 6, 10:40 pm, mm <NOPSAMmm2...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
Is there a problem letting an outdoor tv antenna sit on the floor
joists and insulation of an unfinished attic?   As long as the surface
is dry, does it matter what supports the antenna?

I have a friend whose tv reception is pretty bad since the digital
conversion.  Even the major network stations in Baltimore go out on
her sometimes (as they have for me).  She's taken to watching tv on
the net.

She doesn't want an antenna on the roof, and the hatch leading to her
attic is too small for me to enter.  Not because I'm fat, which I am,
but because my chest is too big, front to back, for the hatch, even
though my rib cage is not fat.  Maybe a half inch total front and back
more than it ever was.  (It's not that I'm big-chested either.  Her
hatch must be strangely small.)

So I was thinking I might be able to stand below the hatch (just a
square hole with a piece of plywood to stop the breeze), raise an
outdoor antenna into the hatch, use a 1x2, maybe with a notch cut in
the end to unfold each element after it passes the hatch, and lay the
whole thing down on the attic floor.

This sounds tricky, and I want to look at my antenna again, but I'm
not too worried about the tricky part.  (Last year, I had a broken
outside floodlight that was two high to reach with a standard 15-foot
extension ladder, but I changed it without using any ladder, from
inside the attic and from the ground outside.)

I just want to make sure that, other than losing 4 extra feet that it
could be mounted higher (if we got some lanky guy to go up there), it
will work okay on the floor, or maybe on a cardboard box on either
side of the hatch.

After my success last night, with your help, improving the sound in my
bedroom tv, I finally got around tonight to bringing my new, pretty
big, outdoor antenna into the attic, unfolding it, and connecting it.
I used to get 10 stations, and now I get 9 more plus maybe 6 more
substations.  Some are duplicate networks or in languages I don't plan
to watch, but still, I'm quite happy.   Because I haven't yet cut the
2x4 to mount my antenna higher, and out of my way, it's sitting on two
cardboard boxes, but not on the floor.

Thanks for any help you can give.

If she has aluminum siding you can just forget it. Looking at
Antennaweb.org for ZIP 21201, 5 of the channels are only 3.5 miles
away. You might be TOO close to the towers and actually be _under_ the
RF. Also, you have 2 high band VHF and 5 UHF channels 38 to 46. You
might want to check out some of the Winegard antennas on this page.

http://www.winegard.com/offair/vhfuhf-antennas.php#hd7694p

I have a SquareShooter in 90274 split 5 ways with no preamps. In my
case the VHF is filled in by an antenna in the rafters of the garage.
We are 35 miles from Mt Wilson with barely Line Of Sight so while the
signal is solid, the multipath is minimal. Multipath (BAD for DTV)
gets better with high Front to Back ratio. That HD7694P antenna is 5
ft long and 3 ft wide so wouldn't be too hard even in the restricted
access. It has quite good gain and Front to Back.

G²

On Sun, 7 Mar 2010 15:10:26 -0800 (PST), stratu...@yahoo.com wrote:
On Mar 6, 10:40 pm, mm <NOPSAMmm2...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
Is there a problem letting an outdoor tv antenna sit on the floor
joists and insulation of an unfinished attic? As long as the surface
is dry, does it matter what supports the antenna?

I have a friend whose tv reception is pretty bad since the digital
conversion. Even the major network stations in Baltimore go out on
her sometimes (as they have for me). She's taken to watching tv on
the net.

She doesn't want an antenna on the roof, and the hatch leading to her
attic is too small for me to enter. Not because I'm fat, which I am,
but because my chest is too big, front to back, for the hatch, even
though my rib cage is not fat. Maybe a half inch total front and back
more than it ever was. (It's not that I'm big-chested either. Her
hatch must be strangely small.)

So I was thinking I might be able to stand below the hatch (just a
square hole with a piece of plywood to stop the breeze), raise an
outdoor antenna into the hatch, use a 1x2, maybe with a notch cut in
the end to unfold each element after it passes the hatch, and lay the
whole thing down on the attic floor.

This sounds tricky, and I want to look at my antenna again, but I'm
not too worried about the tricky part. (Last year, I had a broken
outside floodlight that was two high to reach with a standard 15-foot
extension ladder, but I changed it without using any ladder, from
inside the attic and from the ground outside.)

I just want to make sure that, other than losing 4 extra feet that it
could be mounted higher (if we got some lanky guy to go up there), it
will work okay on the floor, or maybe on a cardboard box on either
side of the hatch.

After my success last night, with your help, improving the sound in my
bedroom tv, I finally got around tonight to bringing my new, pretty
big, outdoor antenna into the attic, unfolding it, and connecting it.
I used to get 10 stations, and now I get 9 more plus maybe 6 more
substations. Some are duplicate networks or in languages I don't plan
to watch, but still, I'm quite happy. Because I haven't yet cut the
2x4 to mount my antenna higher, and out of my way, it's sitting on two
cardboard boxes, but not on the floor.

Thanks for any help you can give.

If she has aluminum siding you can just forget it. Looking at
Antennaweb.org  for ZIP 21201, 5 of the channels are only 3.5 miles
away. You might be TOO close to the towers and actually be _under_ the
RF. Also, you have 2 high band VHF and 5 UHF channels 38 to 46. You
might want to check out some of the Winegard antennas on this page.

http://www.winegard.com/offair/vhfuhf-antennas.php#hd7694p

I have a SquareShooter in 90274 split 5 ways with no preamps. In my
case the VHF is filled in by an antenna in the rafters of the garage.
We are 35 miles from Mt Wilson with barely Line Of Sight so while the
signal is solid, the multipath is minimal. Multipath (BAD for DTV)
gets better with high Front to Back ratio. That HD7694P antenna is 5
ft long and 3 ft wide so wouldn't be too hard even in the restricted
access. It has quite good gain and Front to Back.

G

Thanks for the suggestions, and thank you Peter also.  I'll try to put
them to use.

try it below the attic first then move up