On Jan 20, 12:20 pm,
wrote:
On Jan 20, 11:10 am, Mike
wrote:

The short question in all this is - can I run
coax from
2 different antennas into a splitter, then
from the
splitter to my TV, and get signals from both
antennas?

They're often called splitter-combiners, and
there's a
reason for that.

Inside that mystery box is nothing more than 3,
5, or 7
wires connected together. The shell of the
splitter-combiner serves to connect the outer
shielding
of the coax cable, and the center pins are
connected
through these wires.

No, that's not the case. If it were, you wouldn't
need splitters; all you'd need to do would be to
connect the wires together, which won't work due
to the impedance mismatch it creates.


So for example if you had a three-way splitter
with one
"input" and three "outputs," you could just plug
the
second antenna into one of the output jacks? - H

It won't hurt anything to try it out, but ...
you'll end up with problems a lot worse than what
you started with. In order for power transfer to
be maximized, the impedances must match that of
the cable. If it's 75 ohm cable, then the
splitter will contain, minimum, a set of 75 ohm
resistors.
The resistors allow impedance matching to the
cable, maximize power transfer, and keep
everything looking like the same impedance to the
antenna, TV, and whatever else may be in the
lineup. That's also the reason you often need to
add at least a 3 dB amplifier to a line if your
signal quality is minimal and you can't afford to
lose any.
RS carries some decent amplifier/splitters for
the purpose you're talking about. They properly
mix the signals from the antennas and then add a
power boost to amplify the signal (but not the
noise) back up to at least the level you had
before you added anything to it.

I have a similar situation to yours; we're in a
fringe area where the signals for DTV get pretty
iffy with rain & snow or even just high humidity
sometimes. Instead of another antenna though, I
got myself an 80 Db variable amplifier to put on
the antenna. It's a multi-directional antenna,
and boy, did THAT make a difference! If the
signal can get here now, I can see itg! I even
picked up a couple more I didn't know existed. It
hasn't snowed yet since I installed it, but it
looks like tomorrow I'll get to find out just how
successful it really was or if I wasted my money.
Stupid amp cost around $60! Oh well.

Regards,

Twayne