outdoor antenna connecting questions

[rockville9]

Hi, this post may be redundant, but I'm sorry, I've already waded through posts for about 15 minutes, and haven't found a thread that deals with my problem, or if there is one, I haven't found it. So I apologize ahead of time. Also, I'm competent enough to connect coaxial cable, but as for the other tech stuff...dunno.

We turned off the cable, but still desire to watch over the air tv. I bought an "Amplified, indoor/outdoor HDTV Antenna" from radio shack. Since we used to subscribe to dish, I figured I could used the same co-ax wire to attach the antenna to the digital converter. I got up on the roof, attached the HDTV antenna, unplugged the dish wires from the pointer, and plugged one of the 2 wires to my antenna. I followed the wire down off the roof, and saw where the junction was. The 2 wires went into a 4 pronged, co-ax connector thing. One of the 4 connections went to the single co-ax wire that went into my house.

I plugged that connection into the digital stream converter, which goes into my TV. However, when I change my TV inputs to the "antenna", I get "NO SIGNAL".

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Tech Specs of the HDTV Antenna...
impedance 75ohms
Frequency range...
VHF47-230MHZ
UHF470-890MHZ
average gain of amp: 20dB
return loss 6dB
noise figure: 4dB

I have no idea what any of that stuff means.

 

[Mr Tony]

you need to remove the "4 pronged coaxial thing" which is probably a switch from dish network.

You need a straight shot cablewise from the antenna to the power inserter. Since you say its amplified and you're mounting it outdoors there is a piece that plugs into the wall. By the way what antenna did you get? Most from Rat Shack say that. Is there a model # on it or a catalog number? Something like 15-XXXX. The model number helps as we can look it up

Really I think all you need to do is remove the switch (the 4 prong thingy) that is in line. That should at least get you something

 

[elliswr]

Okay, so first off we have to know that you bought the right antenna for your location. Just so you know, there is no such thing as an HDTV antenna or a digital antenna or any of those other marketing terms they use. I live quite a ways (~50 mi) from the broadcast towers in my area and I don't have line of sight to them. I really wanted to put my antennas in my attic (not as strong a signal, but no climbing on the roof) and I was able to do this by getting the antenna that I needed for my location and what channels are available in my area.

Check out TV Fool to see what channels are available in your area. I am referring to the actual RF channels and not the Virtual channels the stations use to identify themselves. Get the radar plot from TVFool and see what direction the broadcast towers are from your house to see whether you need an omnidirectional or directional and how sensitive a directional you need. Also see what bands you want to get. For instance I needed all UHF with the exception of the one High VHF channel that is available in my area. So I ended up getting a High VHF antenna, a UHF antenna and feeding both of those into a ChannelMaster 7777 to boost the signal (read mitigate line loss between the antenna and receiver) going to the receiver.

Also give hdtvantennalabs.com a look. They have a nice map tool that color codes the channels by spectrum.

Cheers,
Wes

 

[rockville9]

sorry i haven't replied sooner to answer your questions. i thought i "checked" the box that would alert me to responses.

i don't know the model number. the box it came in has been dispensed of. the antenna itself is up on my roof, and i can't get to it at the moment.

the equipment came with a small, 3 pronged box. 1 prong for the "in from antenna", 1 for "out to tv", and one for the power chord. yes, i did plug it in.

i bought a digital converter, and sent the cable from the 3 prong into the converter, which goes to my tv.

i bought another model antenna, one that is only "indoor" and it works fine. i get cbs, nbc, abc, wgn, fox. i live in the northern suburbs of chicago. when i was a kid, before cable tv, cbs never came in well. the antenna i have gets a cbs signal, so i think i've the right idea.

if i used my own coax, from the antenna to the coax that goes from outside the house to inside, and by-passed the 4 switch thing, would that help?

appreciate your thought.

thanks, peace.

 

[DRCars]

I believe that is what Iceberg was suggesting. Bypass the 4 connection thing. You can replace it with a cable coupler (straight thru connector/union) and attach the coax coming from your antenna to one end of the cable coupler and the coax going into the house (that used to be connected to the 4 connection thing) to the other end of the cable coupler.

The cable coupler (sometimes called a barrel connector) looks like this.

F-81 Cable Coupler - RadioShack.com

DRCars

 

[Mr Tony]

the equipment came with a small, 3 pronged box. 1 prong for the "in from antenna", 1 for "out to tv", and one for the power chord. yes, i did plug it in.

I think I know which one it is. Is it a little white square type antenna?

i bought another model antenna, one that is only "indoor" and it works fine. i get cbs, nbc, abc, wgn, fox. i live in the northern suburbs of chicago. when i was a kid, before cable tv, cbs never came in well. the antenna i have gets a cbs signal, so i think i've the right idea.

CBS in analog was on channel 2 which is harder to pick up. Their digital signal is on 12 (which maps to 2)> I dont know if you knew this but in most cases the digital channel the station is using is different than what their analog channel was.

here is a list of the main channels in Chicago. The 1st number is their analog (known) channel and the 2nd is the channel they actually broadcast on (TV's and converter boxes "map" the digital channel to the known channel
CBS 2 12
NBC 5 29
ABC 7 44
WGN 9 19
PBS 11 47
PBS 20 21
THE U 26 27
METV 23 39
FOX 32 31
MYTV 50 51
WYIN PBS 56 17

It looks like CBS is the only one on the VHF (2-13) band now. So an indoor antenna with a good UHF setup (the old loop type...not rabbit ears) would work good also.

if i used my own coax, from the antenna to the coax that goes from outside the house to inside, and by-passed the 4 switch thing, would that help?

yes

 

[rockville9]

I think I know which one it is. Is it a little white square type antenna?

It's closer to rectangular, but it is white, and it is pretty small.

I thought it would be less of an eyesore than a giant metal antenna. Also, there is no way I would try to mount an outdoor, metal antenna.

I think your suggestion to by-pass the 4 prong thing, and snap my own coupler on will do the trick. I have another indoor antenna, also from radio shack. It was hooked up the tv that the new little white antenna is hooked up to, but it couldn't pick up CBS. I moved it to my upstairs tv, that faces directly south, with less structural interference, and it now picks up CBS quite well.

Thanks for your help.