Huntsville Birmingham area

[dlr]

I live about 25 miles from the Huntsville, Alabama TV transmitters (channels 19, 25, 31, 48, 54) and about 60 miles from Birmingham (channels 10, 13, 40, 42, 44). Our home is pretty much in line between the two cities. We have been able to receive most of the stations, depending on weather conditions, with a rabbit ear antenna for years. We don't have an outside antenna at this time. We recently bought a dtv converter and can still receive the Huntsville stations plus 13 and 44 in Birmingham depending on which tv we have hooked up to the converter.

My question is, is there an antenna that will receive both Huntsville and Birmingham stations without rotating the antenna? Could I point a directional vhf/uhf antenna toward Birmingham and receive Huntsville on the backside?

Could something like the Antennas Direct DB8 work in both directions by facing two of the four sections in the opposite direction? If so, would the DB8 totally fail to receive the two vhf stations in Birmingham?

I know this is a bunch of questions, but this is the first place I have found to ask them.

dlr, Union Grove, Alabama

[SolidSignal_Mike]

We do carry one antenna that is Bi-Directional, picking up two opposite directions simotaniously, but it does not cover the range you listed. It's definately possible since you get near satisfactory results with just rabbit ears that this antenna would suffice. The antenna I am describing is the GS2200 from Winegard.

Yes the DB8 can be modified to have 4 bowties north and facing south, however this can cause a great deal of interference, like multipath or ghosting which on a digital set can signicantly reduce signal strength. Plus the DB8 is UHF only, and even though all digital was thought to be UHF, now we are seeing that the majority are still VHF UHF. It is also possible to receive Huntsville off the backside of a standard VHF UHF antenna.

A lot of the setups we have discussed are not a sure fire solution, your best bet is to put a large directional like the CM3679 or CM3671, and point at Birmingham and hope to get stations off the backside, and get a rotator if you dont.

-Mike

[dlr]

I appreciate the information. I may try the CM3679. With that up and running (I just bought a converter for my analog TV) I can then start figuring out how to replace my VCR tape recorder. It may be better to just go out and get a DTV system rather than cobble up something to work with our old TVs.