Thread: OTA with antenna possible?

I learned something about extra coax about 2 years ago.

My cable from the satellite ran from the back of the house to the east side, into the attic then back to the rear center of the house where my old 622 was located.

The signal was OK but I knew a shorter run would definitely get me a stronger signal, so I bored a hole through the brick and drywall and came right in near the living room TV.

My 25 ft if pre fab coax ended up about 10 ft too long anyway - the run is now about 15 ft instead of the previous 60, so I coiled the excess up behind the TV in the corner.

Well, to my chagrin, the signal actually was worse than before, so I started messing around with the cable and when I uncoiled the loop in the corner.

The signal jumped way up.

What I had inadvertently done with the coil of coax in the corner was create a choke coil that severly dampened the signal.

The moral is to use the correct length of coax and don't coil any up anywhere it may very well kill your signal strength.

A messt random snake of cable is better than a neat ciol in the corner.

I have to have a coil on ours for a drip coil.

One loop = no problem.
Many loops = many problems.

Thanks to how the DISH setup has to be with our OTA installation I was thinking of something this weekend: Since a preamp requires AC power to boost the signal, and since we have DISH with a diplexer to stack both tuners on one cable, would it be possible to use a flat coax cable (like what is used in apartment installs) to still be able to run the AC adapter inside our house? So it would look like this: pre-amp installed on the antenna mast. Cable runs to the preamp diplexer. Diplexer to the diplexer for our DISH install on one side, and diplexer to the flat cable which is ran into our house via a window and connected to the AC adapter. Would this work? I do have the option of running the AC adapter outside, but because our house we are renting is so old there are no outlets outside the only outlet I have is on the light fixture by our door. Running an AC adapter there would look quite funny.

I've been looking at the Antennacraft 10G212 as our antenna is an Antennacraft. Which is better: the Antennacraft 10G212 or the Channelmaster CM7777?

I've been looking at the Antennacraft 10G212 as our antenna is an Antennacraft. Which is better: the Antennacraft 10G212 or the Channelmaster CM7777?

Used channel master preamps for years but got the antennacraft 10g212 when everything started going digital.Use it with a 4bay uhf antenna and honestly it works great.It has more gain than the cm 7777 which in my case (deep fringe) certainly helped.

Is the piece that has the AC adapter on the Antennacraft preamp rated to be used outdoors?

I'm thinking of running the power cord wire under our window so that I can plug it in inside our house. The coax connectors I would mount right by the diplexer.

I do not recommend using a diplexer as they are very lossy. If needed use a flat cable to pass the cable under a window. You can use a flat cable between the pre-amp and power supply. The Pre-amp power supply should be installed inside and not outdoors.
A drip loop is fine, a coil of cable can be a problem.
I prefer the CM-7777, but have not tried the Antenna Craft amp.

Diplexers are used all the time and have very low loss since the signal is seperated into frequency bands, almost the entire desired signal is directed properly.

Is the piece that has the AC adapter on the Antennacraft preamp rated to be used outdoors?

No it's not,designed for indoor use only.That's not to say you couldn't rig something up to cover it though.As long as it stayed dry it should be fine.One of those old primestar plastic boxes would work.