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<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Hi Craig!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT><FONT
face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>>>>After my Comcast bill went up $29 in one month,
<BR>>>>I decided to start exploring alternatives.<BR>>>Don't
blame you! Did the same here.<BR>>>I have an antenna in the storage
area (attic for <BR>>>a story-and-a-half house) which goes to a 4-way
<BR>>>splitter to feed the three tuners to my <BR>>>Mythbuntu
Backend. Use a 75‡ terminating <BR>>>resistor on the unused splitter
terminal. I <BR>>>also found I needed a pre-amp to boost the
<BR>>>signal strength. Because the antenna farm is <BR>>>only
about 15 miles away I had to use a Winegard <BR>>>HDP269 to minimize
pixellation when the wind <BR>>>blows and the signal strength suddenly
<BR>>>increases/decreases. (Too much signal will <BR>>>cause
the AGC circuits to shut off.)<BR>>You need a pre-amp at 15 miles?!?
What antenna <BR>>are you using; a rusty nail? Perhaps the problem
<BR>>is that the antenna is indoors? In general, you <BR>>only get
half the signal indoors compared to <BR>>outdoors. However, a steel
roof or stucco siding <BR>>can mean that only a tiny fraction of the signal
<BR>>makes it through. (Think Faraday cage!) See <BR>>below
regarding getting the signal from the <BR>>antenna to where you want to use
it.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">No, no rusty nail, though back in the ATSC
days with the antenna farm being only a couple of miles from here that would
have worked! Found without the 10 dB pre-amp the signal levels were
insufficient to drive the 4x splitter for the Mythbuntu Backend up here and the
8x splitter in the basement for the TVs. There might be a 'dead zone' as
where I pull up the driveway I do loose many of the semi-DX FM stations I listen
to in the car.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">As for Faraday Cage, used to live in
one years ago with the aluminum siding. Regular asphalt shingles, though
the antenna is pointed through the gable. At this point I'm pretty much
stuck with using the indoor antenna due to the Other Half. OTTOMH not sure
which coax I'm using -- installed that years ago with a run along the sewer vent
from the Storage Area (attic) to the basement. Should be decent
quality.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV><FONT
face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT>
<DIV><BR><BR>>> The Mythbuntu Backend feeds the Mythbuntu Frontends
via the Ethernet network.<BR>>>I originally wanted to also use the one
antenna <BR>>>to feed the various TVs for OTA. Didn't quite
<BR>>>work! If the TVs had sufficient signal that
<BR>>>overloaded the Mythbuntu Backend; proper signal <BR>>>levels
to the Backend was insufficient for the <BR>>>TVs. I tried various
combinations of <BR>>>amplifiers, attenuators. Ended up getting a
<BR>>>second antenna to feed the TVs; that one also <BR>>>needed a
pre-amp due to the 8-way splitter. <BR>>>(Not all TVs are on the Mythbuntu
system.)<BR>>I wonder if the real problem is/was wiring. For
<BR>>example, RG-59 has higher signal loss than RG-6 <BR>>for a given
run. Lots of other little problems <BR>>can kill the signal on a
branch. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Agree. There are actually two systems
here: one antenna + amp + distribution for the Mythbuntu backend with four
tuners and a second antenna + amp + distribution for the TVs.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">The 'Mythbuntu/Computer' system uses
all new wiring, mainly because everything is on the same level (second
floor). The "TV" system does use some of the old/original distribution
system such as the coax along the vent stack and distributions from the home run
splitter. TV tuner sensitivity does make a difference: the TV in the
Family Room is 'touchy': it will drop out when others remain on. Did try a
temporary coax run to determine is the problem was with the original coax.
Same problem.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>>Following link has some does and don't:<BR><FONT
face="Palatino Linotype">></FONT><A
title="http://www.familyhandyman.com/electrical/wiring/tips-for-coaxial-cable-wiring/view-all CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="http://www.familyhandyman.com/electrical/wiring/tips-for-coaxial-cable-wiring/view-all">http://www.familyhandyman.com/electrical/wiring/tips-for-coaxial-cable-wiring/view-all</A><BR>>In
the US, AntennaWeb is a pretty good resource <BR>>for determining the
recommended antenna type, etc:<BR><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">></FONT><A
href="http://www.antennaweb.org/">http://www.antennaweb.org/</A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Yup: familiar with those. Good reviews
for the years I've been playing with electronics. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV><FONT
face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT>
<DIV><BR>>What I find funny is that homeowners in the <BR>>1960's knew all
about this kind of stuff. When I <BR>>was a kid, we had a big Yagi
antenna on a 45' <BR>>tower next the house with a rotator. Two of the
<BR>>three channels we could get were at roughly 90 <BR>>degrees to each
other and both were 50+ miles <BR>>away. Worked pretty darn
reliably.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Yes, though was this for one TV? Add
the 7 dB loss from the 4x splitter (Mythbuntu system) or the 11 dB loss
from the 8x splitter (TV system) and that of the coax itself and that's why it
was necessary for me to add the 10 dB pre-amps here.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
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