I've heard people talking about Digital TV and saying they are getting many
channels with good quality... So I'm considering getting an antenna to
receive local broadcasts and save $5/month from the satellite bill plus get
more local channels.

Anyway, the broadcast stations for this area are pretty much in 2 directions
from my house, St Louis is West and there are other local stations to the
South. I was wondering if instead of using a rotor, could I use 2 antennas
and some sort of signal combiner? Anybody here doing this?

RogerN

On Nov 15, 10:24*am, "RogerN" wrote:
I've heard people talking about Digital TV and saying they are getting many
channels with good quality... So I'm considering getting an antenna to
receive local broadcasts and save $5/month from the satellite bill plus get
more local channels.

Anyway, the broadcast stations for this area are pretty much in 2 directions
from my house, St Louis is West and there are other local stations to the
South. *I was wondering if instead of using a rotor, could I use 2 antennas
and some sort of signal combiner? *Anybody here doing this?

RogerN

You could use a combiner or a splitter backwards but they cost you
some signal strength. It's the easiest thing to try.

I have a rotator and also a second coax from another antenna leading
to a patch panel on the electronics rack. The coax and several other
wires come in through a waterproof outdoor electric outlet box with
3/4" plastic threaded pipe passing through the wall. I put a blank
cover plate on the box and drilled the bottom for the coax feedthrus.
The outdoor coax terminates in push-on F connectors that I unplug and
bag before thunderstorms, although the mast is grounded.

"RogerN" wrote in message
m...
I've heard people talking about Digital TV and saying they are getting
many channels with good quality... So I'm considering getting an antenna
to receive local broadcasts and save $5/month from the satellite bill plus
get more local channels.

Anyway, the broadcast stations for this area are pretty much in 2
directions from my house, St Louis is West and there are other local
stations to the South. I was wondering if instead of using a rotor, could
I use 2 antennas and some sort of signal combiner? Anybody here doing
this?

RogerN



It can be done BUT - if you're not very close to the stations [ 50 miles
LOS] I wouldn't waste either the money or the time.

DTV signals have less range than Analog provides and - in fringe areas -
suffer far more than Analog from any kind of disturbance.

Part of the reason is that only channels 8-13 remain at their current VHF
frequencies while the rest become UHF and if you have troubles receiving
over-the-air UHF Analog signals you'll have real problems with the DTV
signals.

If you're close enough to the transmitter(s) then you might even want to
consider an omni-directional antenna and save yourself a bit of expense.

a cheap antenna is less directional - try just pointing it half way in
between - I use an antenna but I am in a strong signal area and most signals
come from a few mountains to the east of me.

you can also just parallel the 300 ohm outputs of two antennas (that will
give you 75 ohms) - it will probably work pretty well - it's not the proper
theoretic answer, but it's quick, cheap and generally effective

"RogerN" wrote in message
m...
I've heard people talking about Digital TV and saying they are getting
many channels with good quality... So I'm considering getting an antenna
to receive local broadcasts and save $5/month from the satellite bill plus
get more local channels.

Anyway, the broadcast stations for this area are pretty much in 2
directions from my house, St Louis is West and there are other local
stations to the South. I was wondering if instead of using a rotor, could
I use 2 antennas and some sort of signal combiner? Anybody here doing
this?

RogerN

RogerN wrote:
I've heard people talking about Digital TV and saying they are getting many
channels with good quality... So I'm considering getting an antenna to
receive local broadcasts and save $5/month from the satellite bill plus get
more local channels.

Anyway, the broadcast stations for this area are pretty much in 2 directions
from my house, St Louis is West and there are other local stations to the
South. I was wondering if instead of using a rotor, could I use 2 antennas
and some sort of signal combiner? Anybody here doing this?
A combiner is possible, in theory. Central
antenna systems on apartment houses use these, but
they are going to be expensive, and have to be
hand-adjusted to set the right frequencies to mix.
But, run two cables down to by the TV and use a
selector switch. That will be cheap.

The problem with a simple combiner is that the
off-axis antenna still picks up the freq of the
station it is not pointed at, and whenever a plane
goes by, it reflects a portion of the signal into
that antenna, with several miles of path delay.
That is caused multipath. If you just mix this
with the direct antenna, you will get a mess,
I think.

Jon

Go to antennaweb.org and plug in your zip code. They will tell you whether
you will need a directional antenna.
It looks like St. Louis dtv will all be in the uhf . If you're getting stuff
from Monkey's Eyebrow, I don't know. I didn't check.
I am not an expert, but everything I have read says that using two antennas
is just a mess unless you separate them completely.

Paul K. Dickman

RogerN" wrote in message
m...
I've heard people talking about Digital TV and saying they are getting
many channels with good quality... So I'm considering getting an antenna
to receive local broadcasts and save $5/month from the satellite bill plus
get more local channels.

Anyway, the broadcast stations for this area are pretty much in 2
directions from my house, St Louis is West and there are other local
stations to the South. I was wondering if instead of using a rotor, could
I use 2 antennas and some sort of signal combiner? Anybody here doing
this?

RogerN

RogerN wrote:

I've heard people talking about Digital TV and saying they are getting many
channels with good quality... So I'm considering getting an antenna to
receive local broadcasts and save $5/month from the satellite bill plus get
more local channels.

Anyway, the broadcast stations for this area are pretty much in 2 directions
from my house, St Louis is West and there are other local stations to the
South. I was wondering if instead of using a rotor, could I use 2 antennas
and some sort of signal combiner? Anybody here doing this?

Yes. I have plenty of signal strength to spare, so the loss through a
combiner (a splitter connected backwards) isn't a problem. I use
directional antennas mainly to reject multipath distortion. Take a look
at www.tvfool.com to get an idea of directions and signal strengths
for stations around you.

If you live close enough to the stations, try rabbit ears. If you get
occasional drop-outs due to multipath, you may need to step up to a
directional antenna or two if your stations are separated by a
significant angle. The increase in gain with a good directional antenna
will help overcome the loss in a combiner. If you are a do it
yourselfer, you might want to take a crack at building your own UHF
antenna(s):

http://www.digitalhome.ca/ota/superantenna

--
Paul Hovnanian
------------------------------------------------------------------
Happily doing the work of 3 Men ... Moe, Larry & Curly

They sell omni-directional antenna for HD. I have one on my plasma
for when the storms get bad or the dish software sucks. We just went
through a week or so of bad versions to download. I can only get 1 station,
but heck - better than not. It uses the antenna port that isn't normally used
on a digital TV.

Many large antenna have a frontal lobe that is strong and rear pointing weaker
receiving lobes. The lobes indicate signal gain. So a single one pointing
to the far antenna and the back side points to the local strong one.

The one you have might be just fine.

Yea - on the local stations. We should have Houston, but get Tyler. There is
a local station in town but we don't get it. The Tyler station owns it...

We live just beyond good Radar coverage as well.

Martin

Paul Hovnanian P.E. wrote:
RogerN wrote:
I've heard people talking about Digital TV and saying they are getting many
channels with good quality... So I'm considering getting an antenna to
receive local broadcasts and save $5/month from the satellite bill plus get
more local channels.

Anyway, the broadcast stations for this area are pretty much in 2 directions
from my house, St Louis is West and there are other local stations to the
South. I was wondering if instead of using a rotor, could I use 2 antennas
and some sort of signal combiner? Anybody here doing this?

Yes. I have plenty of signal strength to spare, so the loss through a
combiner (a splitter connected backwards) isn't a problem. I use
directional antennas mainly to reject multipath distortion. Take a look
at www.tvfool.com to get an idea of directions and signal strengths
for stations around you.

If you live close enough to the stations, try rabbit ears. If you get
occasional drop-outs due to multipath, you may need to step up to a
directional antenna or two if your stations are separated by a
significant angle. The increase in gain with a good directional antenna
will help overcome the loss in a combiner. If you are a do it
yourselfer, you might want to take a crack at building your own UHF
antenna(s):

http://www.digitalhome.ca/ota/superantenna

On Nov 15, 11:33*pm, "Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote:
...If you are a do it
yourselfer, you might want to take a crack at building your own UHF
antenna(s):
http://www.digitalhome.ca/ota/superantenna*
Paul Hovnanian * *

I pick up Boston channels in NH very well with an antenna made of two
6" aluminum standoffs stuck into a plastic tubing center insulator. It
was a temporary repair to a broken Radio Shack UHF antenna, with
corner reflector and directors, when I couldn't find 3/8" tubing to
machine a replacement tuned for 700 MHz.

Here is the site with the antenna calculator;
http://www.k7mem.150m.com/Electronic...vhf_quick.html

Right now it's pointed north at Manchester NH and receives all the
major Boston digital stations clearly right through the reflector.

I don't have a spectrum analyzer to measure it well, but it seems to
have a dipole's figure-8 pattern with a fairly narrow front lobe and
smaller but wider lobe in back, possibly from corroded connections on
the passive elements. It won't pick up stations from the side.

You could buy an omnidirectional UHF antenna, which is two dipoles at
right angles with a non-obvious matching stub connecting them, or
simply put up a cross of four 6" rods and see what happens. I get a
fairly good UHF digital signal from the VHF antenna.

Jim Wilkins