Cable's out --- OTA, Ku, Cband is in

[glater]

My 1 year cable tv agreement finally ended, so I took the receiver & remote back and ended the service. Basic cable bill got to $70 & some change for watching about 4 channels, not counting locals. So, finally after having D*, E*, and cable over the last 6 plus years, I decided to pull the plug. No more contracts. I'm getting locals ota from San Antonio & Austin, Tx (30+) and have ordered a CM7777 preamp that is due to arrive on tuesday and hopefully will be able to lock a good signal on 4 tvs. Right now if I use a splitter, it injects too much loss, so for now I have 1 tv working. Most of the transmitters are 35 to 45 miles from me. Ku & cband will fill the void. Got all the cables & receiver in my entertainment center in the living room and I'm watching a ball game on STO as I type. So, now instead of using fta mostly to see what I can find, I'm starting to enjoy actually watching programming. Couldn't do that when I had my ku setup in the garage. My wife doesn't watch much tv and she thinks I will be looking for the next promotion on pizza or cable in the near future. I hope I can prove her wrong and also convince her that I need a hd box.

 

[Gary Z]

Hi glater

What is your location? I live in Seguin and get both San Antonio and Austin channels. I just dumped my cable on monday too much money. I have OTA and KU band and hoping to get a my 6 foot C band in operation soon.

Let me know how your CM7777 preamp works. I have been thinking about getting one.

Gary

My 1 year cable tv agreement finally ended, so I took the receiver & remote back and ended the service. Basic cable bill got to $70 & some change for watching about 4 channels, not counting locals. So, finally after having D*, E*, and cable over the last 6 plus years, I decided to pull the plug. No more contracts. I'm getting locals ota from San Antonio & Austin, Tx (30+) and have ordered a CM7777 preamp that is due to arrive on tuesday and hopefully will be able to lock a good signal on 4 tvs. Right now if I use a splitter, it injects too much loss, so for now I have 1 tv working. Most of the transmitters are 35 to 45 miles from me. Ku & cband will fill the void. Got all the cables & receiver in my entertainment center in the living room and I'm watching a ball game on STO as I type. So, now instead of using fta mostly to see what I can find, I'm starting to enjoy actually watching programming. Couldn't do that when I had my ku setup in the garage. My wife doesn't watch much tv and she thinks I will be looking for the next promotion on pizza or cable in the near future. I hope I can prove her wrong and also convince her that I need a hd box.

 

[turbosat]

Saving money is good!! Always something to watch on FTA.

 

[phlatwound]

glater & GaryZ, I am feeding 4 tvs (1 HDTV, 2 NTSC w/converter boxes and 1 NTSC w/811 DN receiver) over RG-6 with a CM7777 preamp, and it works great, you should have plenty of signal.

OTA, Ku & C-band is all a feller needs.

 

[Skyscanner]

Good for you Glater, you can buy a lot of FTA toys for the more than $800 you were paying the cable co.

 

[glater]

@Gary Z - I'm at Canyon Lake and get a stronger signal from the Austin Channels, but we moved out here from SA 13 years ago, so we mostly watch SA news. I'll let you know how the preamp works out.

@Turbosat - It's a whole lot easier to enjoy fta programming since I moved everything into the house. Got a little hot in the garage.

 

[glater]

phlatwound, thanks for the info, I'm hoping that I won't have to upgrade my old Radio Shack antenna (worked good on analog), but thought I'd start with the preamp and go from there.

skyscanner, thanks, that's my goal, to save a little to get a HD box.

 

[phlatwound]

phlatwound, thanks for the info, I'm hoping that I won't have to upgrade my old Radio Shack antenna (worked good on analog), but thought I'd start with the preamp and go from there.

skyscanner, thanks, that's my goal, to save a little to get a HD box.

I bet if your old Rat Shack antenna worked good on analog, it will be fine on digital also, especially if the transmitters are that close. If you need a new one I have one of the "old-style" CM4228 8-bay multi bow antennas and I recommend them highly, not sure if the "new-style 4228's comparable.

 

[glater]

Phlatwound, I've looked at the CM4228 and it was also recommended by a good friend. If the old antenna (on my chimney, about 25 ft) doesn't get the job done, I'll probably buy one.
I took my old motorized ku dish off the chimney (for safety reasons---mine) and only have a primestar 84e (on the ground) for ku, fixed on g28 for ABC news now. I've made a couple of attempts to motorize it, but haven't been satisfied with the results. My cband setup is solid and I'm now getting 45w to 137w. I didn't think 45w was possible because the dish is pointing at live oak tree, but I've still managed to get some channels off of it. Thanks for the input!

 

[Gary Z]

glater the only 2 channels I have a problem getting is KCWX and KPXL

I get 95 to 100 % signal strength from San Antonio and about 50 % for the Austin channels. My Antenna is aimed at the San Antonio transmitters and Austin comes in from the back side of the antenna

KCWX and KPXL come and go depending on the time of day.

@Gary Z - I'm at Canyon Lake and get a stronger signal from the Austin Channels, but we moved out here from SA 13 years ago, so we mostly watch SA news. I'll let you know how the preamp works out.

 

[Gary Z]

phlatwood

I have 2 channels that come and go depending on the time of day. According to TV fool I'm in the purple colored area. Do you think the CM7777 would help?

I'm feeding 2 TV's 1 HDTV and one SD TV.

glater & GaryZ, I am feeding 4 tvs (1 HDTV, 2 NTSC w/converter boxes and 1 NTSC w/811 DN receiver) over RG-6 with a CM7777 preamp, and it works great, you should have plenty of signal.

OTA, Ku & C-band is all a feller needs.

 

[Blindowl1234]

Glater,
I've got Ku/C band as well. I put up an old style CM4228 with the 7778 amp and get reliable signals from 50-60 miles away. When the skip stuff comes in late night or early morning 80-100 miles is possible. I get mail seems like every other day from the pizza/cable guys with their latest offer...this fish ain't biting so to speak...Blind

 

[phlatwound]

phlatwood

I have 2 channels that come and go depending on the time of day. According to TV fool I'm in the purple colored area. Do you think the CM7777 would help?

I'm feeding 2 TV's 1 HDTV and one SD TV.

Are you using splitters now to divide the signal to your 3 tvs?

I would think the CM7777 would help as long as you have decent signal to your antenna.

Have you tried running the signal to just one tv direct (no splitters) and seeing if you still had the dropouts?

You might try presenting this question on the Digital OTA forum here, there's some guys over there that have forgotten more than I will ever know about that stuff.

 

[dashaund]

If you're losing too much with a normal splitter, trying getting a 1-in 4-out distribution amplifier. That's what we use for OTA. They cost about $30-$40, you can pick them up at Lowe's, Channel Master makes them. I actually pick up some gain off of using mine, instead of losing signal.

 

[1captain]

Glater, antennas don't last forever, an in my area here you are real luck to get 8 years from 1. reason is the salt air down in Fla. an what starts the attenuation process is oxidation where their connections are for the tuning of a antenna. now never have been a big fan of Rat Shack antenna's. they use to use Antenna Craft which is a copy cat co, an now the got Thompson to build them for RS.

now you're CM-7777 is a great pre amp an very well built. but any pre amp, should not be a subsitute for a weak or poor performing old antenna. but I can see you're point about it being 25-ft up on the chimney. also with 35 to 45 miles from the transmitter site, just antenna alone should be more than enough signal to run 4 tv's with out a pre amp with a good working antenna system, providing they are low power PBS station.

now I have worked with several types of OTA antenns an 2 company's that I have liked are Channel Master, an Winegaurd, they also have been around the longest too. now here in Fla, VHF is still hot an active for you're digital OTA, don't know about Tx, but it is here. an if you plan on doing a OTA dxing I would stop an consider VHF & UHF, or if you don't plan on dxing an you're stations are just UHF, that CM Bow Tie antenna is hard to beat for the price. for a V&U antenna I like the Platium line from Winegaurd, those are about the best built for residental use, an they hold up very well with great gain.

I for 1 have never been on cable or small dish people either. have always relied on a OTA an satellite, but now with the 4dtv things are looking a little dim light at the end of the tunnel. but time will tell. if I ever go with 1 of those provider I will be gritting my teeth.

 

[glater]

Thanks everyone for the info & replies.
@Gary Z, I get kcwx ok, but don't get kpxl at all.
@1captain, my radio shack antenna is 13 years old. It's was set up in the attic until 2 yrs ago, so it's in good shape. But, it's one of the cheaper ones, so I'm pretty sure that I'll be needing a better one soon. I won't be DXing, just trying to get the stuff within 50 miles. FTA for everything else.
What I have found since I canned cable, is I'm enjoying fta even more than before. I've had motorized ku for the past 3 years, so I know what I'll want to watch on ku, but I've only had a working cband setup for only a couple of months. Having both systems in the living room is also a big plus.

 

[Shawn95GT]

I ditched cable a couple months back too.

It's all OTA now with 6 Tuners on 3 Tivos sponging as much OTA as they can.

I need to get my FTA rig going again. I get sad seeing that QPF sitting on a dish on the ground next to the shed.

 

[Tron]

Nice to see you back on the forum, Shawn... FTA is still up there, although we're about to lose most of what was on G-10R (now G-18) due to the Equity bankruptcy. Lots more to see, though...

 

[Shawn95GT]

Nice to see you back on the forum, Shawn... FTA is still up there, although we're about to lose most of what was on G-10R (now G-18) due to the Equity bankruptcy. Lots more to see, though...

I fired up the Coolsat yesterday and I had a couple fixed dishes that were humming along on 119 for NASA and Galaxy 19 for Doc Scott / Russia Today. It worked as good as the day I unplugged it.

Tonight I took the 97W dish down and put the motorized dish with the QPF back up. The motor was acting up in the past but it was diplexed with a line to my cable modem which was causing issues with the cable modem. This is pretty much why I took the FTA system down.

I bench tested the motor and it seems fine. We'll see how it goes. I'm going to get it trued up on TS and dialed in tomorrow.

To the OP, I'm using a cheap Rat-Shack UHF antenna with a RF disribution amp that was supplied by the cable company when I had digital cable. At night I'm able to tune digital from Tucson which is over 120 miles from me. Only one station comes through but I was amazed when I figured out how far my antenna was reaching.

 

[Anole]

good work:

I just glanced over the thread, and I think 1captain touched on this, but ....
....double check the stations you are trying to receive.
If any are VHF, those little UHF-only antennas won't do you much good.

It's a whole lot easier to enjoy fta programming since I moved everything into the house.
Got a little hot in the garage.

Well, it was either that or air condition the garage! - - :up