Social Feed

Rorshach85
Last reply · posted in Over the Air Television By RabbitEars.Info
Okay I'm a tech for dish and was doing an install for a lady today who was just moving into a house. She had a large antenna outside and I asked her what she was gonna do with it and she told me I could have it. I'm new to OTA and it's something I'm wanting to get into so I don't know very much about antennas at all. She said it was prolly twenty years old or so and it was pretty tall so I couldn't see any brand name on it or anything. I took some pics and there not the best but could anyone tell me if it would be worth my time to get this antenna?

image-3365881171.jpg



image-2689138238.jpg



image-4181214743.jpg
18 Replies · 4420 views
Rorshach85
mikeineburg said:
You can get a fairly nice new antenna for $100. How long will it take you to get this one down safely ? Do you get the mast also (which may be more valuable than antenna)? Dies this setup fit your "environment"?
VHF low is off-air RF channels 2 thru 6 which are rarely used these days. Note that the broadcaster may still be NBC 4 or similar, their actual broadcast RF is likely in the UHF (14 thru 50-something) range. So, unless you're in a market that has a VHF low broadcaster, this isn't the type of antenna that you'd buy if buying new. Not to say that it won't work - it will simply capture a wider range of the RF spectrum than you need.
Start with tvfool.com and out in your address. It will tell you what broadcasters you can expect to receive.
Good luck

When you say that it will capture a wider range of spectrum than I need what exactly does that mean?
M
When you say that it will capture a wider range of spectrum than I need what exactly does that mean?

old antennas covered channels 2-83 then 2-69 when the FCC got rid of channels 70-83 for cell phones

When the digital conversion happened in 2009 (analog went bye bye) most channels settled between 7-51 (52-69 again the FCC grabbed). 2-6 in most cases is not used (there are some spots where it is but they are rare) because of too much interference. The really long elements on the antenna was for 2-6.

Here is an antenna that is designed just for 7-51. Note on the right hand side the VHF (7-13) elements are not as long as the one on your antenna. Your antenna will get more (stations) if they are broadcasting in your area which according to your tvfool they dont
Rorshach85
Iceberg thanks for the help. That's why I love this site.
mike123abc
It looks like the mast I have. There are a series of bolts/elbow like screws that you loosen to drop each section into the one below it. The mast probably costs more than the antenna.
M
I've been doing OTA installations and service for 15 years and I see no need for you to use that antenna. The only functional portion of that today, for the most part, is the part in front of the 'corner reflector' (in front of the V). Maybe some FM could come off the VHF portion of the back but im not sure if you are interested in that. If you are only interested in UHF reception for television I like Channel Master antennas 4221 if closer to transmitters or 4228 if further away. All of these, including the antenna you posted pictures of are directional so needs to be aimed with a meter
DRCars
I noticed 1 channel on the OP's TVFool report on RF 7 (WDAM-TV = NBC) so the part behind the V may be necessary to get that channel. However, I agree that the Channel Master 4228 HD is a good choice since it does rather well on high VHF (7-13) even though it is sold as a UHF antenna. I don't know about the 4221. Perhaps it will pick up 7-13 also?

DRCars
Scott Greczkowski
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne


Get it?


An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68657 Replies · 2680161 views
  • Like
Reactions: c-spand
sdfntx
I Care About Detroit - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
dishstaller
I Wanna Talk About Me - Toby Keith
Bobby
98.6 - Keith
harshness
I'm Easy - Keith Carridine
gms49ers
It's Easy - Boston
R
Last reply · posted in Computers and Gadgets
Lately my eight year old Dell laptop has been shutting off even when I have a full battery. I have had to keep it plugged up all the time to keep this from happening. Any idea what is causing this? I replaced the battery about three years ago.
2 Replies · 39 views
arlo
A recalibration might be needed. Even if it shows full, the individual cells may have become unbalaced. And the BMS chip in the battery reports false information to the pc.
Try this. Start it up in the bios/uefi and leave it there until the battery dies and it shuts off.
It might just keep running longer than in Windows. Or run for a short while and shut off.
If it's the first case. Probably just needs a balancing. If the latter, the pack might just be dead.
Not throwing stones but perhaps just a cheaply constructed battery with substandard cells. Could be.

Patience. Keep restarting it in bios/uefi until it won't fire up anymore.
Then plug the charger in and let it complete a full charge. And see what happens. If it's better.
Do the same thing one more time. Run it until it dies dead-dead. Then just let it charge, pc shut off.
When charged, it might be better. It might not be.

There are bench jigs that read the actual BMS and override it to let a tech manually monitor and charge the separate packs. They can also reset any "time bombs" in it that cause an otherwise good pack to show bad.
Maybe Santa will be good to me some year.

You might just need a new battery. Maybe the PC power management chip is going. A Dell common thing.
Leaving a laptop plugged in with a full battery is known to reduce the life. Asus for one recommends that you don't leave the charger plugged in all of the time even when shut down. And setting Windows to charge the battery to 85% instead of 100% increases life.
That's all I got.
dishstaller
That's all I got.
That was quite enough....I definitely learned something from your post. Thanks
TRG
TRG
Pub Member / Supporter
Last reply · posted in Computers and Gadgets
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
5 Replies · 278 views
b4pjoe
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
If you can't get into the router to reserve an IP address just don't use DHCP on the device that needs connected and assign it to a specific IP address in the network settings.
  • Like
Reactions: harshness
HipKat
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
They are not. Your best bet is to set up a third-party router, attached to the Starlink for your server, that you can get into, like a Linksys, etc
  • Like
Reactions: Foxbat
Foxbat
…it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
The Starlink V5 Install Kit I just got comes with the Mini Router. It is pretty limited in what it can do. For example, it can provide only one IP subnet at a time, no Guest Network, but it does support the pass-thru to a third-party Router. You can also split the Wi-Fi into separate 5 GHz & 2.4 GHz SSIDs to help some IoT devices that don't support 5 GHz bands to work.

The larger Starlink Router that still comes with the V4 Kit does support a Guest Network with separate IPv4 Subnet, but it's $120 from Starlink. And it still won't do DHCP Reservations.
harshness
If you can restrict the DHCP address space to assign addresses to one end of the subnet (i.e. x.x.x.50+), you can manually assign the IP address on pretty much any operating system. This is a default behavior on several popular routers. As the Router Mini only supports 235 devices, I expect that's already done.

Another option is to use a router that supports PoE to power the antenna. This article discusses that option (under PoE Power heading):

  • Like
Reactions: Foxbat
Foxbat
Now that I've had the v5 kit with the Mini Router, it's not as bad as I first thought. Yes, no DHCP reservations, but you can set up multiple SSIDs that have separate IPv4 subnets, and like the big brother, you can select from 192.168.x.0/24 or 10.x.0.0/16 (where "x" is 1-4).

You can also split a subnet and have different SSIDs for the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz channels to handle some IoT devices. I haven't discovered what subnet the 2nd NIC on the router assigns, I'm guessing it's the first subnet.
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
2 Replies · 47 views
dishstaller
Sorry for posting the wrong link. Just corrected it.
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

2 Replies · 51 views
  • Sad
Reactions: Jimbo
Jimbo
Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

They will have to look at the switching sections to determine WHY 2 trains were on the same track ... at the same time.
dishstaller
Thought this article might be of interest to some of you who might travel via train.