Hello, I am new to posting here but I have been reading this forum for a week now just soaking up all the great information and tips!

I just purchased the el cheapo radioshack U-75R. I put it together, layed it in my attic and ran RG6 down to my samsung LN-T4042H with built in ATSC tuner. I was not expecting much because I am located in zip 60545 (Plano IL) and antennaweb.org has most the channels listed in the red zone. To my suprise I get everything except channel 2 (which is a very common problem even for people in downtown chicago)..

Now I would like to find out if its possible for me to somehow wire this antenna in to my existing satellite setup. I have attached an illustration of how my house is currently setup.. it was much easier to draw than try to explain with words..



Just an FYI I have an eagle aspen S-2180-CE+ (3x8 multiswitch) just laying around if anyone thinks it could come in handy for what im doing?

oh and the diplexers being used in this setup are Holland DPD2 Satellite UHF/VHF Diplexers

#1 - the Eagle aspen is useless with a Dish 500 using DPP Twin. If you had a 101 only DirectTv satellite (or a 119 only Dish setup using Legacy Dual LNBs) - then you could use it. But not with what you have.


#2 - to Get Chicago's channel 2 (3 digital), you'll need a VHF antenna inaddition to your Radio Shack U-75R. Or replace that Radio shack antenna with an antenna that can do both UHf and VHF.

#3 - You're going to need seperate runs from the OTA source to each TV , in a home run setup. I HIGHLY suggest that you leave the Dish cables alone (since they are working). You could get by using a simple 2-way splitter from the antenna (one run to each Dish receiver), then use some splitters / combiners to get OTA and the TV2 signal to the remote TVs. This will work only if your modulated channels are spaced with at least 1 channel away both up and down from broadcast channels. If you don't have that kind of spacing available (and you might not - you said you're in Chicago), your only option for OTA to the remote TVs is antenna to TV off of a 4-way splitter / distribution amp.

Well here is what I ended up doing..
I figured out that it would be impossible to fish another coax cable through to the Living Room outlet, since its ran across the finished ceiling. And since I am in a town house with a very strict HOA, I can not run it outside.

If you look at my tv setup attachment in my first post, you can follow along..

I moved the master bedroom/2nd bedroom to one diplexer
And I then added the OTA antenna into the first diplexer VHF/UHF.. This means no tv for me on the loft computer, but I hardly watch it there anyway. This also means no dual tuner DVR, since I am now diplexing the OTA antenna down to the Living Room, there is no way for me to plug in to the DVR box's TV2 jack.

At least I have all my locals in HD at 85-90 percent signal (except channel 2), and a working DVR on my main TV.

Im still open to suggestions!
Thanks