Antenna design and mast installation in far southern Vermont

[jlaselva]

Howdy,

If this sounds like a n00b post, that's because it is.

I have been playing around with my SDS200 and some SDRs (RTL-SDR, USRP, etc.), but am only able to pick up a few frequencies down here in far southern Vermont, smack dab between Bennington and Brattleboro. We're at about 1850' but also in a little bit of a bowl, topographically. We also can't pick up any over-the-air TV stations, our FM radio reception is spotty, and even our SiriusXM satellite radio has trouble keeping a signal through the foliage in the summertime. We've got a metal roof and low-E glass in our windows, which cuts down on indoor reception even further. The scanner, SDRs, stereo, TV, and satellite tuner all have indoor antennas.

I'd like to put up a mast with a few antennae to improve our FM, HDTV, XM, and scanner reception, and I figure it should probably be tall enough to at least peek past the peak of the house—about 35'. But, I don't have the knowledge or the equipment to do it myself and, to be honest, I'm not too interested in obtaining it. I'd rather just give someone my requirements and have them plan the mast and perform the antenna installation, deal with grounding it all properly, and get the cabling into the house in a way that's weathertight. But, I'm having a hard time finding anyone who'll do this work in southern Vermont. It may be that I just don't know where to look.

Does anyone have any advice or recommendations for a company that might do this kind of work in this area? I'd appreciate your feedback.

Thanks!

 

[DeeEx]

Find your local amateur radio club(s) and see who their members use for such things.

Or join a club/get a license, and propose a work day at your residence for club members to help you. You’d get the project done and learn a ton in the process.

Much easier to troubleshoot and repair such things in the future if you’re part of building it— trust me on this! You’ll know exactly how things are assembled and what to check.

 

[ecps92]

Howdy,

If this sounds like a n00b post, that's because it is.

I have been playing around with my SDS200 and some SDRs (RTL-SDR, USRP, etc.), but am only able to pick up a few frequencies down here in far southern Vermont, smack dab between Bennington and Brattleboro. We're at about 1850' but also in a little bit of a bowl, topographically. We also can't pick up any over-the-air TV stations, our FM radio reception is spotty, and even our SiriusXM satellite radio has trouble keeping a signal through the foliage in the summertime. We've got a metal roof and low-E glass in our windows, which cuts down on indoor reception even further. The scanner, SDRs, stereo, TV, and satellite tuner all have indoor antennas.

I'd like to put up a mast with a few antennae to improve our FM, HDTV, XM, and scanner reception, and I figure it should probably be tall enough to at least peek past the peak of the house—about 35'. But, I don't have the knowledge or the equipment to do it myself and, to be honest, I'm not too interested in obtaining it. I'd rather just give someone my requirements and have them plan the mast and perform the antenna installation, deal with grounding it all properly, and get the cabling into the house in a way that's weathertight. But, I'm having a hard time finding anyone who'll do this work in southern Vermont. It may be that I just don't know where to look.

Does anyone have any advice or recommendations for a company that might do this kind of work in this area? I'd appreciate your feedback.

Thanks!

First, How is your reception from a vehicle, in your driveway ??
How are you attempting OTA TV ? Outside Antenna ? or Back of Set ?

Sounds like a lot of experimentation first, before building a Mast that may/may not work for you..

How is your NWS reception on the SDS and SDR's

 

[jlaselva]

Much easier to troubleshoot and repair such things in the future if you’re part of building it— trust me on this! You’ll know exactly how things are assembled and what to check.

Thanks for the reply! I definitely agree that I'll need to know how to (and be physically able to) maintain the antennas post-installation. I'll see about reaching out to a local club; seems like there are clubs in Bennington, Brattleboro, and Franklin County in Massachusetts. I'm really only familiar with NoBARC in Berkshire County since I can pick up the nightly HHTN on their Mt. Greylock repeater with my current antenna.

 

[jlaselva]

First, How is your reception from a vehicle, in your driveway ??
How are you attempting OTA TV ? Outside Antenna ? or Back of Set ?

Sounds like a lot of experimentation first, before building a Mast that may/may not work for you..

How is your NWS reception on the SDS and SDR's

Thanks for the reply! FM radio in the car immediately outside the house isn't excellent, but it isn't bad. It's definitely better (in terms of quality of individual stations, and quantity of stations) than I can receive with the FM receiver indoors. I've tried receiving the OTA TV with an amplified indoor antenna (one of those mousepad-sized flat models), rabbit ears inside, and also an amplified outdoor ANTOP model, though I'm not entirely certain that that last one was ever working correctly, as it was also supposed to receive FM radio, and it picked up nothing there, either… I agree, I think I should probably retry a simpler outdoor antenna to see if my ANTOP test was no good.

As for NWS, I can't pick up any of their frequencies on my scanner or SDR. I've got an old AM loop antenna on a wire coiled around the fixed antenna of my FRS radio, though, and weather alerts work reliably on it when the loop is placed in a particular spot next to a window. I suspect the steel roof and the metal-coated windows are killing the signal inside. Cellular signal strength also goes from sometimes-one-bar outside to no-service inside, heh.

My scanner with its stock telescoping antenna can reliably pick up signals from NoBARC's Greylock repeater, VSP on Mt. Equinox and Mt. Snow and in Readsboro, and KCF415 in New Hampshire (although I may be picking that up from a tower in nearby Wilmington, VT). But, not much else.

 

[ecps92]

Thanks for the reply! FM radio in the car immediately outside the house isn't excellent, but it isn't bad. It's definitely better (in terms of quality of individual stations, and quantity of stations) than I can receive with the FM receiver indoors. I've tried receiving the OTA TV with an amplified indoor antenna (one of those mousepad-sized flat models), rabbit ears inside, and also an amplified outdoor ANTOP model, though I'm not entirely certain that that last one was ever working correctly, as it was also supposed to receive FM radio, and it picked up nothing there, either… I agree, I think I should probably retry a simpler outdoor antenna to see if my ANTOP test was no good.

As for NWS, I can't pick up any of their frequencies on my scanner or SDR. I've got an old AM loop antenna on a wire coiled around the fixed antenna of my FRS radio, though, and weather alerts work reliably on it when the loop is placed in a particular spot next to a window. I suspect the steel roof and the metal-coated windows are killing the signal inside. Cellular signal strength also goes from sometimes-one-bar outside to no-service inside, heh.

My scanner with its stock telescoping antenna can reliably pick up signals from NoBARC's Greylock repeater, VSP on Mt. Equinox and Mt. Snow and in Readsboro, and KCF415 in New Hampshire (although I may be picking that up from a tower in nearby Wilmington, VT). But, not much else.

odd you can't get the NWS, yet are hearing Amateur (Mt Greylock) and VTSP (Equinox) - who are at the same sites as those two entities.

I think you may need to experiment a little with a smaller scale external antenna and see how that helps, before going full Build.

Might I suggest, set-up your radios and even the TV outside with an antenna on piece of pipe/pole that you can raise (watching for and away from Power Lines) to see if that does cure it... being in a bowl might be an issue unto itself, before drilling holes, running cables to find out nothing works...