Over The Air Antenna Richmond MN

We are new to Richmond area just west of St Cloud and am trying to aim the OTA to get the most channels I can get for the area which is E or SE. All I get are the 6 41 and 42 channels. Only one of them is a twin cities channel. Does anyone know how I can get more (like 11? 4? 9?) channels up here? The new HUGE antenna I bought isn’t doing any better than the little one on our motorhome. Plus the huge antenna is above the trees and the little one is below trees and in a valley. I thought about an amplifier but have used them before with little success we may end up going by way of internet but would rather do OTA in case weather causes internet to go out.

A couple of thoughts….

Have you tried pointing the big antenna around in different directions? Hills and buildings can refract the signal, so the best direction might not necessarily be the same as the true beam heading.

What kind of feedline are you using? A high antenna up in the clear should
work much better than a smaller lower antenna. However the higher antenna is farther away which means it needs a longer cable which will have more loss than a shorter cable. TV signals are all up in the UHF band now, making good cable even more important.

In the summer, the sap runs up into the trees and they’re covered with leaves. All that green stuff attenuates TV signals. I can see channel 41 just fine during the winter, but right now there no signal there at all (I’m in South St. Paul).

S.R.

There are a few trees but also hard to tell in the distance what’s in the way. Also I’m using RG6 outdoor cable but I’m 100’ from antenna so I’m sure there is some loss. And I have tried turning it to different directions but it works best pointing it south east to east. Maybe I have to erect a tower to get it up higher? But then I might as well get internet tv or Directv now if I’m putting that much money into it?

You did rescan the tv? Sorry but I just had to ask.

Nope totally a good question to ask and yes i did. Actually every time you readjust it you should rescan. I used to install home theater systems for Best Buy and I have rescanned hundreds of tvs. In the cities it was a no brainer. Here? Not so much. I even drove the neighborhood to see how the neighbors had their antennas pointed and they are the same direction. But some have tall towers. We are strongly thinking of going internet tv like Directv now and if it goes out it goes out ????????‍♂️

Nope totally a good question to ask and yes i did. Actually every time you readjust it you should rescan. I used to install home theater systems for Best Buy and I have rescanned hundreds of tvs. In the cities it was a no brainer. Here? Not so much. I even drove the neighborhood to see how the neighbors had their antennas pointed and they are the same direction. But some have tall towers. We are strongly thinking of going internet tv like Directv now and if it goes out it goes out ????????‍♂️

Before spending money on a tower, etc. maybe talk to a couple neighbors to see what they’re getting for stations and what their setup is. That should help you to decide what path to take for the programing you want.

One other thought is if your setup includes any “extra” hardware like a splitter, surge protector, etc. try hooking the antenna cable directly to a TV to see if there could be signal loss from other components.

Bassn Dan wrote:

Before spending money on a tower, etc. maybe talk to a couple neighbors to see what they’re getting for stations and what their setup is. That should help you to decide what path to take for the programing you want.

One other thought is if your setup includes any “extra” hardware like a splitter, surge protector, etc. try hooking the antenna cable directly to a TV to see if there could be signal loss from other components.

X2

If you re using 100 feet of cable you definitely need a powered signal booster that is up at the antenna. If I unplug my signal booster I hardly get any channels. I run 2 100 inch fringe antennas so I could get rid of my rotor since we have multiple TV`s. Living in the country the closest city is 38 miles away and I get 24 channels with this set up if I count the sub channels of 8,10, 13, 18, 19, 25, 31, and 45,

mnfish wrote:

We are new to Richmond area just west of St Cloud and am trying to aim the OTA to get the most channels I can get for the area which is E or SE. All I get are the 6 41 and 42 channels. Only one of them is a twin cities channel. Does anyone know how I can get more (like 11? 4? 9?) channels up here? The new HUGE antenna I bought isn’t doing any better than the little one on our motorhome. Plus the huge antenna is above the trees and the little one is below trees and in a valley. I thought about an amplifier but have used them before with little success we may end up going by way of internet but would rather do OTA in case weather causes internet to go out.

Richmond huh! That’s my hometown. Live 5 miles east in cold spring.

Sorry don’t know crap about antennas

I’ll try the amplifier!

glenn57 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mnfish wrote:</div>
We are new to Richmond area just west of St Cloud and am trying to aim the OTA to get the most channels I can get for the area which is E or SE. All I get are the 6 41 and 42 channels. Only one of them is a twin cities channel. Does anyone know how I can get more (like 11? 4? 9?) channels up here? The new HUGE antenna I bought isn’t doing any better than the little one on our motorhome. Plus the huge antenna is above the trees and the little one is below trees and in a valley. I thought about an amplifier but have used them before with little success we may end up going by way of internet but would rather do OTA in case weather causes internet to go out.

Richmond huh! That’s my hometown. Live 5 miles east in cold spring.

Sorry don’t know crap about antennas

Do you know anything about the Horseshoe chain? How to fish it? I’m such a novice I know nothing of the chain of lakes and could use some pointers

Sorry not much, the family always headed north. I grew up just on the other side of the okd railroad tracks from Casey’s.

I’ve spent some time on the ice out there but the lake sure has changed since I was a kid fishing.

glenn57 wrote:

I grew up just on the other side of the okd railroad tracks from Casey’s.

WOW! You are old!!

Denny O wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>glenn57 wrote:</div>
I grew up just on the other side of the okd railroad tracks from Casey’s.

WOW! You are old!!

hey now!!!!!!!!! i’m a spry 61 years experienced!!!!!!

If you get into St. Cloud area I would stop by Minnesota Electronics in Sauk Rapids and talk to them about where you live and what you need for equipment. If you do not have a pre-amp on your antenna I would suggest buying on of theirs. I have an antenna and pre-amp from them after buying a Best Buy antenna and pre-amp. We are getting more channels and a much clearer picture with the new set up.

If you get into St. Cloud area I would stop by Minnesota Electronics in Sauk Rapids and talk to them about where you live and what you need for equipment. If you do not have a pre-amp on your antenna I would suggest buying one of theirs. I have an antenna and pre-amp from them after buying a Best Buy antenna and pre-amp. We are getting more channels and a much clearer picture with the new set up.

Thanks I’ll stop in there!

There are no fish in the chain…. literally aim the antenna toward the Twin Cities…. are you on the chain ?

big_g wrote:

There are no fish in the chain…. literally aim the antenna toward the Twin Cities…. are you on the chain ?

I have tried many different west to south to east antenna positions and still can’t get the cities channels

And yes we are on the very north end of east lake by the channel going to the marina

I grew up on the Cold Spring end of the Chain and my parents have had a large steel pole antenna structure for at least 30 years. It has been around long enough I don’t know the equipment in the system but know it has two amplifiers and still works just fine when the satellite service drops. I’m guessing the pole is about 40 – 50’ in height as they live on a relatively wooded lot.

mnfish wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>big_g wrote:</div>
There are no fish in the chain…. literally aim the antenna toward the Twin Cities…. are you on the chain ?

I have tried many different west to south to east antenna positions and still can’t get the cities channels

And yes we are on the very north end of east lake by the channel going to the marina

you have to be close to Brinkmans cabin right on that little pennesula.

glenn57 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mnfish wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>big_g wrote:</div>
There are no fish in the chain…. literally aim the antenna toward the Twin Cities…. are you on the chain ?

I have tried many different west to south to east antenna positions and still can’t get the cities channels

And yes we are on the very north end of east lake by the channel going to the marina

you have to be close to Brinkmans cabin right on that little pennesula.

Yup if you look across the channel from his house…that property that looks like a park (20 acres with the two islands connected by a bridge) … we own that now

Go to this site to see where the actual broadcast towers are:
https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

It also gives you signal strength and what channels to may or may not recieve in your location.

Very useful site. I have used it many times.

Very cool!! That’s what I was looking for! What would be a nice addition to this site is a compass along with a line pointing toward the tower so when you’re turning it you know you’re right on. Or I could get signal meter too and that should tell me the best direction to turn it

There is a app you can use I can’t remember what it was called it will tell which direction and a line towards the towers. I used this last fall in Arizona when I put up my anntenna and it worked good.

MNFish,

If you put your street address into the linked website, it will locate you on the map.
Then mouse click on the listed stations call letters, it will give you the degrees and distance from your location and plot them on the map.

Cool website, your tax dollars at work…fish on…

mnfish wrote:

We are new to Richmond area just west of St Cloud and am trying to aim the OTA to get the most channels I can get for the area which is E or SE. All I get are the 6 41 and 42 channels. Only one of them is a twin cities channel. Does anyone know how I can get more (like 11? 4? 9?) channels up here? The new HUGE antenna I bought isn’t doing any better than the little one on our motorhome. Plus the huge antenna is above the trees and the little one is below trees and in a valley. I thought about an amplifier but have used them before with little success we may end up going by way of internet but would rather do OTA in case weather causes internet to go out.

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