Proper antenna for getting WMUR up here in God's Country?

[Scott Fybush]

Bob Hale wrote:
> Hello everyone, I'm a newbie to the list here and have a question maybe 
> someone can help out. I live here in Grafton,NH about 50mi or so from 
> Manchester and 25 mi SE of Lebanon,NH and I'm trying to figure out what 
> would be a good antenna for Ch 9. I used to be able to watch Ch 9 analog 
> with a so-so picture but since they swapped to digital I lost it. I know 
> it was a stretch but tried amplified rabbit ears hoping to at least get 
> Ch. 11 translator which is on Ch 50 or channel 8's translator on 27 its 
> only 10 or so miles down the street from me with no luck.
> 
> I was looking at the AntennaDirect model xg-91 UHF antenna and wondering 
> if anyone had any expereince with it.
> 
> Hope I'm too far off topic.

Not at all.

The XG-91, while a very good antenna, isn't going to help you with 
WMUR's analog signal, since it's still on VHF and the XG-91 is UHF-only.

At 50 miles out from WMUR, you should be able to get a usable digital 
signal with a good deep-fringe VHF outdoor antenna and perhaps a 
low-noise mast-mounted preamp.

As for the amplified rabbit ears, it's my experience that they tend to 
introduce more noise to the signal, outweighing the benefit of any gain 
they provide. You're definitely in a situation where an outdoor antenna 
is a must.

Keep us posted!

s