Tripod Question

[reels]

Anyone know how high you can extend your antenna with a 5' tripod off the roof

[Terryl]

I would not go beyond 10 feet above the top of the tripod without a guy line setup.

It all depends on how secure you mounted the tripods feet to the roof, 5/16" to 3/8" lag bolts 2-1/2" long would do nicely, (if their into roof joists) be sure to caulk the tops of the lag bolts to prevent water from getting in.

It also depends on how big of an antenna your going to use, the bigger the antenna the bigger the wind load.

[reels]

Thanks for the feedback Terryl, do you think at 10' above the tripod and with a rotor and directional antenna (forgot the name of it)
along with guy wires, would be good enough. ?

[Terryl]

If your going to guy it up then you can go higher, 20 to 30 feet at most.

10 foot above without guys would work, if you can find the antenna model number I can look up the wind loading info.

However the higher you go the more dangeious it becomes, with power lines around it can be VERY dangerous, get help if you going higher then 10 feet.

And please watch out for any power lines, we don't want any bad news.

[jvvh5897]

If you get up that high, don't forget grounding!

[reels]

Thanks again Terryl, looking down the road till this Spring to get up on the roof.The antenna I was thinking of is the Antenna Direct
91xG, but beginning to wonder its 22''H...20''W..93'' Deep it's supposally suppose to be good for long range.Am living in the Kitchener
Ont. area and would like to get the CN Tower in Toronto and hopefully pick up some Buffalo channels.Have picked up CBC from TO
depending on the weather and the odd time in the summer 3or 4 buffalo stations with a coathanger antennain the attic.

[Terryl]

OK do this, go to the link below and enter your street address, this will give you an idea on whats around you, you can play with the height of the antenna above ground level, this will give you an idea on how high you need to go to get good reception on all channels.

hXXt://www.tvfool.com

Also the 91XG antenna is a UHF only, you may need a VHF high band antenna as well, it all depends on what TVfool finds in your area, you can post the link back here (just XX out the two "t's" in the http://, like I did) This will make it a dead link, and don't worry it wont give away your address, it will allow us to look at whats going on around you.

[dishuser]

no vhf in his area

[reels]

hxxp://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3dd24322c305463 0
hope this link works

[Terryl]

Yup, it worked, and you will need a good sized antenna, say a mid to deep fringe directional, and a rotor to get the maximum channels out of what you want.

Try it with the antenna at a greater height, see what you get.

As you can see you only have 5 channels in the clear (13, 28, 36, 15 and 31), the rest are 2nd and 1st edge, this means that there is a hill or mountain(s) in the way.(click on say Ch 35, it will show you a horizontal chart of whats in the way)

Radar-Digital (2).jpg

And they are widely spaced (144 degrees between 13 an 36) so an omnidirectional would have a difficult time getting a good signal on all, and if you went with an omni (to try it) it would have to be an 8 bay or larger.

[reels]

Much thanks Terryl for your knowledge, leaves me a lot to ponder on between now and the spring.