[yarzy]

Guys,


I wanted to thank everyone upfront for helping me. I have some questions that I hope people can answer for me.


1. I am dumping cable finally. I have made a 4 bow tie antenna that works very well for my UHF channels. I was planning on getting some rabbit ears to see if I can get the 1 channel (ch. 6 in the Philadelphia area) to come in. I am roughly 17 miles away, so I have no idea if it will work, but if it does, what sort of combo splitter will I need in order to run the one feed to a house splitter that will then broadcast out to the other tv's in the house?

2. Will I need a preamp, etc?

3. Is there anything else I should know about doing this? All my channels are in the same direction, so I think I am good there, but I am just planning on what else I will need to order to complete this project.


THANK YOU!!!!

 

[ProjectSHO89]



Quote:
Originally Posted by yarzy /forum/post/18188369


Guys,


I wanted to thank everyone upfront for helping me. I have some questions that I hope people can answer for me.


1. I am dumping cable finally. I have made a 4 bow tie antenna that works very well for my UHF channels. I was planning on getting some rabbit ears to see if I can get the 1 channel (ch. 6 in the Philadelphia area) to come in. I am roughly 17 miles away, so I have no idea if it will work, but if it does, what sort of combo splitter will I need in order to run the one feed to a house splitter that will then broadcast out to the other tv's in the house?

2. Will I need a preamp, etc?

3. Is there anything else I should know about doing this? All my channels are in the same direction, so I think I am good there, but I am just planning on what else I will need to order to complete this project.


THANK YOU!!!!

1) You will need the device commonly referred to as an HLSJ to combine a channel 6 antenna with an antenna that receives channel 7 and up. Solid Signal carries them.


2) Unless your initial cable run is particularly long, you could probably do better with a distribution amp rather than a pre-amp. Much depends on your specific layout as to which might be preferable. In many cases, it's "dealer's choice" because it could be done either way.


3) A dipole (rabbit ears) for channel 6 needs to be about 5.5 - 6.0 feet tip-to-tip to be naturally resonant and most efficient. Position it so the elements are horizontal and perpendicular to the direction of your signal tower.

 

[yarzy]

Thank you very much for getting back to me. So, my antennas will be in the attic of a 3rd story home. I plan to run cable outside of the attic, down the side of the home, and into the basement to a splitter. For this layout, what would you recommend, a distribution amp? Also, do I need a special type of splitter or will the one that Verizon gave me for FiOS work?

 

[arxaw]

A 300 ohm flat wire "T" antenna, like the kind often used for FM antennas, except 6' long tip to tip should work. If installing in the attic, attach it to the roof rafters facing the station transmitter tower. Substitute a 300-75ohm balun in place of the bottom piece of flat wire http://i46.tinypic.com/10ykmjp.png


Another option is two 3' long (each) heavy gauge wires, screwed to a 300-75 ohm balun on a small block of wood or plastic.


Combine the Lowband VHF antenna to your 4bay, using a HI/LO Signal Joiner: http://www.techcab.com/proddetail.php?prod=HLSJ

Connect the lowband VHF antenna to the VHF-Low port and the 4-bay UHF antenna to the VHF-HI port.


First, try connecting your unamplified antenna to all your TVs and see if it works. If signal strength is too weak, use a distribution amp or high input preamp , installed close to the antennas.

 

[yarzy]

Thank you so much for that diagram! Now, 1 question. Am I correct, after looking at that .png file, that I need a wire 72 inches long across? How about the length of the other part of the T? What type of wire can I use? Speaker wire, coat hanger, etc? What do I use to make the connection to the coax part?


Thanks again!!!

 

[arxaw]



Quote:
Originally Posted by yarzy /forum/post/18189323


Thank you so much for that diagram! Now, 1 question. Am I correct, after looking at that .png file, that I need a wire 72 inches long across? How about the length of the other part of the T? What type of wire can I use? Speaker wire, coat hanger, etc? What do I use to make the connection to the coax part?

You can buy 300 ohm flat wire at RadioShack or many hardware stores. Do not use speaker wire.


Cut it to a length of 74" which is 72" plus an extra inch on each end for stripping and twisting together.

Cut one side of it in the middle and then 1.5" each direction (3" total). See diagram.

Use a 300/75 ohm balun, instead of the vertical downlead wire (red arrow):

Connect the balun to the Low side of the HLSJ with RG6 coax.


The other option is just two 72" long pieces of very stiff wire. Stiff enough to support their own weight.

Anchor them to a small block of wood or plastic, using screws & washers. For an attic install, simply place this VHF antenna on a cardboard box off the attic floor and aim toward the VHF tower.

Connect a 300/75ohm balun under the washers and connect the balun to the HLSJ, using a short piece of RG6 coax.


Your 4bay should connect to the high side of the HLSJ in the same manner.

The 3rd leg of the HLSJ connects to your TVs or an amp/preamp with RG6 coax.


If building this is too much trouble, you might want to just try this inexpensive antenna on the low side of the HLSJ. Leave the loop off and use your 4bay for UHF, on the high side of the HLSJ.

Or, just try this little loop/rabbit ear antenna by itself. If it gets all of your UHFs without dropouts, and the VHF channel, you can omit the HLSJ and the 4bay. You still may need a high input preamp for multiple TVs.

 

[yarzy]

Thank you once again. Just so I am clear, it is not really a "T" that I am making, but just long wires (72 inches) connected to a balun in the middle. For the example, am I actually cutting out 3 inches (total) on the bottom wire, and then striping the protective coat back so the balun can connect to the wire?


Also, for the 2nd option, could I mount the board (with the two wires attached) on top of my bowtie antenna or should be the far apart from each other?

 

[rabbit73]

 www.wfu.edu/~matthews/misc/dipole.html

 

[arxaw]



Quote:
Originally Posted by yarzy /forum/post/18190494


Thank you once again. Just so I am clear, it is not really a "T" that I am making, but just long wires (72 inches) connected to a balun in the middle. For the example, am I actually cutting out 3 inches (total) on the bottom wire, and then striping the protective coat back so the balun can connect to the wire?

You make a cut in the center of the "bottom side" wire, slit it 1.5" in each direction and strip back around 3/4" insulation on each slit. Connect the balun wires to these.

Quote:
Also, for the 2nd option, could I mount the board (with the two wires attached) on top of my bowtie antenna or should be the far apart from each other?

I would keep them at least 4' apart to lessen the chance of interference.