Need Hepl On Roof Antenna

[Mike0616]

Hi Mike, I picked up the Shack amp yesterday. It only has a max. output of 10 DB so I feel good about that. The Mgr. tried to talk me into a 30 DB gain amp, but I think that would be overkill in this situation. Of course I can always bring this amp back if it does not meet expectations. This is the same line amp I had 20 yrs. ago in CT. It had to be replaced annually, but it worked great. The Shack sells a 2 yr. warranty for $10 & I will go back & buy it if the amp works out. I installed two 25' cables the other day when I took the ant. & pole down for maint. and height adj. on the UHF ant. Now I can reach the UHF ant. w/out going on the roof. My pole goes into the ground & clamps to the house. I simply loosen the 4 bracket nuts and I can turn the whole thing for fine tuning.

I used the longer cables as they are from cable with nice ends. Today I will shorten them, hook up to the combiner, and then to the main attic cable. The only thing I don't like is the builder used RG-59 cables in the house & I have no access to where the TV is to run an RG-6 cable. After I do this I'll recheck the sig. on all the dig. chs. At that point if I'm still getting 2 weaker sigs. I will install the line amp and recheck the new sig. readings.

I'll let you know what the sigs. are when I'm done.

Dan

Dan,

You are going the same road as I would have. That 10db RS amp ought to work just fine, and getting the extended warranty sounds like a winner to me. Best part is that you can get it repalced locally, if need be.

As to the RG-59, unless you have LONG runs of it, that should not be a problem, either. Although most RG-6 is better for most applications, its not THAT much better that I would tear open walls or something to use it.

Hopefully, you have got things in hand now and as soon as you get a chance to put it all together, I feel very sure your setup will work just fine for you.

Was looking at my setup yesterday and am going to have to add 2 more sets to my antenna in near future for HDTVs I am putting in the home. I picked up a preamp that will feed up to 4 sets (since will only be using 3, will terminate the 4th feed), each at 8 db gain. That should be more than ample to make up for the 3.5 db loss of signal associated with each splitter and the additional cables I will be adding into the circuits. After I add the RG-6 to the circuits, insert the preamp into the circuit, all the locations should be just fine, no reason to get a 500db gain preamp.

Let me know how you fare!
-Mike

 

[Mike0616]

Mike, This morning's sig. readings with amp in place: 5- 93, 12- 74, 25- 100, 29- 81, & 34 is off the air. I can't get a sig. reading until it's broadcasting. I called the station and they told me the head end is being worked on. So far I see a slight increase in the signals, but I'm not sure yet. I have 30 days to return the amp if need be. The weather changes the sigs. as well. I really need to see a signal on 34 before I can evaluate things as 34 is the weakest UHF ch.

Sounds pretty good to me. My TV's receiver and HR-20 will lock onto signals in that range (70+ seems to work for me), so it sounds like you are getting there. It looks (per antennaweb.org) that 34 and 25 are in same general area and at same ~ distance, so it looks like you are almost there. Since 12 and 29 are close to each other, you will want to tweak the antenna's direction if 34 comes in @ ~100 like 25 is to improve their signals. This is the fine tuning stage, a place where you have a good compass and a LOT of patience or drop a chunk of change on a signal strength meter. I like the challenge more of fine tuning by hand, although I do have to admit that, at times, I have been tempted to buy a meter. hehehehe

Good Luck!
-Mike

 

[Walker1]

Sounds pretty good to me. My TV's receiver and HR-20 will lock onto signals in that range (70+ seems to work for me), so it sounds like you are getting there. It looks (per antennaweb.org) that 34 and 25 are in same general area and at same ~ distance, so it looks like you are almost there. Since 12 and 29 are close to each other, you will want to tweak the antenna's direction if 34 comes in @ ~100 like 25 is to improve their signals. This is the fine tuning stage, a place where you have a good compass and a LOT of patience or drop a chunk of change on a signal strength meter. I like the challenge more of fine tuning by hand, although I do have to admit that, at times, I have been tempted to buy a meter. hehehehe

Good Luck!
-Mike

Mike, I was able to finally get all 5 locals tuned in. Today's signals: 5- NBC- 88, 12-CBS- 88, 25-ABC- 100, 29- Fox- 78, and 34- The new CW- 77. It's worth noting that all 5 chs. are in HD & have exc. PQ. There's no doubt in my mind that the amp helps to keep the sig. steady. I did rotate my UHF ant. to around 246 degrees & Fox & CW came in strong. 25 was never aproblem @ 100 and 5 & 12 were always strong. The BEST part is all 5 have extremely good PQ that I didn't expect. You have shown me that old antennas are not necessarily NG.

I can't wait until tomorrow night to watch the Premier ep. of Prison Break in HD off of my ant. I am very pleased @ this time! Thanks again for your feedback. Dan

 

[Mike0616]

Congrats

Mike, I was able to finally get all 5 locals tuned in. Today's signals: 5- NBC- 88, 12-CBS- 88, 25-ABC- 100, 29- Fox- 78, and 34- The new CW- 77. It's worth noting that all 5 chs. are in HD & have exc. PQ. There's no doubt in my mind that the amp helps to keep the sig. steady. I did rotate my UHF ant. to around 246 degrees & Fox & CW came in strong. 25 was never aproblem @ 100 and 5 & 12 were always strong. The BEST part is all 5 have extremely good PQ that I didn't expect. You have shown me that old antennas are not necessarily NG.

I can't wait until tomorrow night to watch the Premier ep. of Prison Break in HD off of my ant. I am very pleased @ this time! Thanks again for your feedback. Dan

Glad you got things working! OTA HDTV is much better than anything you get over cable, satellite, IPTV, et.al. AND you can get all the sub-channels, to boot!

Now you can scan the OTA questions like I do and try to help people who are thinking of trashing their antennas as they have been told by a dealer that will cure their ills, when in fact, old antennas work just as well as new ones, in most cases. Its not that hard, but when you haven't been through it yourself, it seems like a formidable task to get excellent PQ, but its not really all that difficult, just kind of frustrating, at times.

Glad you are getting to see your shows now and look for things to improve even more. As Feb 2009 approaches, the digital OTA stations are fine tuning their setups and some will be going full-power, improving things even more (they are at a lesser power now, due to technical problems, as a couple here are.)

-Mike

 

[Walker1]

Glad you got things working! OTA HDTV is much better than anything you get over cable, satellite, IPTV, et.al. AND you can get all the sub-channels, to boot!

Now you can scan the OTA questions like I do and try to help people who are thinking of trashing their antennas as they have been told by a dealer that will cure their ills, when in fact, old antennas work just as well as new ones, in most cases. Its not that hard, but when you haven't been through it yourself, it seems like a formidable task to get excellent PQ, but its not really all that difficult, just kind of frustrating, at times.

Glad you are getting to see your shows now and look for things to improve even more. As Feb 2009 approaches, the digital OTA stations are fine tuning their setups and some will be going full-power, improving things even more (they are at a lesser power now, due to technical problems, as a couple here are.)

-Mike

Hi, I am pretty sure that the "Shack" amp helped the weaker chs. by almost 10 DB's- (Its rating) Ch. 34- CW was having all kinds of trouble with their dig. feed until yesterday morning. I must say that I never thought I'd see the day when that crummy station would ever get a decent pic. Their analog sig. bites.

I don't know if you have sat. TV or cable, but for what it's worth I have a lease with Dish and have a new VIP-722 HD/DVR. It's a super piece of equip., stores 350 hrs. of SD programming, and 50 hrs. of HD prog. I plugged my ant. directly into it's cable post and it scanned the chs. & turned them into HD. I highly recommend that Rec./DVR to anyone who doesn't have cable.

Talk to you again, Dan