[mythtv-users] HDTV antenna quandry

Mark fairlane at springcom.com
Wed Apr 25 02:40:17 UTC 2007


Hmm.  Did find some info on this on the net, seems like a black art.  
Have you ever heard of
channel specific yagi's combined on a single line to give each desired 
channel?  I know it'd be ugly,
but with uhf yagi's being small, at least I wouldn't have 50 lbs on my 
tower...  I used to have an old
channel 32 yagi sitting around from the old ON-TV service from the 80's, 
so I know they are available...


Brad Templeton wrote:

>On Tue, Apr 24, 2007 at 06:51:10PM -0700, Brad DerManouelian wrote:
>  
>
>>On Apr 24, 2007, at 6:40 PM, Mark wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Maybe one of you guys has run into this before...
>>>
>>>I'm planning on moving to HDHOMERUN boxes in the near future, but I  
>>>have
>>>a dilemma.  I have multiple stations nearby, Lansing 30 miles to  
>>>the north,
>>>Kalamazoo 45 miles west, and Detroit 60 miles East.  I need higher  
>>>gain
>>>antennas pointed in multiple directions.  I could do it with a rotor,
>>>but then I might miss
>>>a show on a channel where the antenna isn't pointed.  Best bet is
>>>separate antennas.  Can antenna feeds for digital broadcasts be  
>>>combined
>>>with a splitter/combiner?
>>>Or should I run each antenna feed to a separate hdhomerun and play  
>>>with
>>>channel/input  priorities until it works right? Currently this is my
>>>only avenue for recording HD.
>>>Cable and Sat don't carry what I want.
>>>
>>>Thoughts?
>>>      
>>>
>>I use two antennae pointing in opposite directions going to a  
>>combiner into my pcHDTV-5500 and can now get all the channels I want  
>>in my area. This might be luck of the draw, though. Since you will  
>>have two tuners, you might give this a shot by combining the signals,  
>>then splitting again into each tuner to see if both tuners can get  
>>all channels. If it doesn't work out, just get some channels on one,  
>>the rest on the other and be thankful you have two tuners. :)
>>
>>    
>>
>
>My understanding is it's going to vary a lot based on your situation.
>If you combine multiple antennas you will add to your multipath problems.
>Digital TV won't ghost but you can get dropouts.
>
>The ideal way to do this is to both tune your antennas for the channels
>they are receiving, and to put filters on the lines notching out the
>strong/ghosting channels they are _not_ receiving. 
>
>Almost all digital TV is in UHF, but there are some exceptions (NBC
>in SFBA is on channel 12, but you can receive that with a UHF antenna
>decently well, so I have just a UHF antenna.)
>
>Many antennas will also receive decently from behind them as well as
>directly in front.
>
>UHF signals are short, just 18 to 30 cm for a half-wave antenna.
>Makes it harder to tune though.
>
>As noted, one trick would be to try to find filters which block
>out the channels you don't want from the antenna, but I don't know
>where to buy those.   If you have a VHF digital station it should not
>be too hard to find a filter to block either the UHF or VHF, and in
>general you should not get too much interference there anyway as you
>typically have 2 different antennas for that as it is.
>
>Many antennas come with a large set of vanes of different lengths.  VHF
>tend to come with one vane for each channel, I think you can just
>break off the vanes for the channels you don't want.    UHF not so
>easy.
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