In article
,
stryped wrote:

I have a very old large Radio Shack directional antenna that is about
12 years old. It is on top of a tower. I get all the stations I want
with the exception of channel 5 that used to be no problem but now
goes in and out. I have a rotor but it was not put on properly because
the wind blows the antenna around.

ANyway, I am tired of fooling with it. What I want to do is to get one
of those round, omni directional antennas and mount it on a 5 foot
pole on top of the existing antenna, use a diplexer to connect that
antenna to my new antenna, and be done with it. My thinking is this
will give me the little signal boost I need to get the channel. I don't
want to fool with this very much as I hate climbing on the tower. DOes
this sound like it will work?

One reason for wanting to increase the signal is I bought my wife a 19
Dynex tv for Christmas. great picture. But when you tune to channel 5
and the signal starts messing up and you tune back to a known good
channel the tuner messes up and can now get no good channels. If you
tune the tv off then back on it can get the known good channel now.

I took the tv back and got another one and the new one did the exact
same thing. I am so frustrated. I live a long way from town and it is
hard to find time to take things back, etc.

ANy advice is appreciated!stryped

One assumes that use of a tower, rotator and directional antenna, an
expensive option, is necessary.

Be aware that an omnidirectional antenna has far *less* gain than a
directional antenna, and so may not work at all (even with an
amplifier), depending on how far you are from the various transmitting
towers.

It's hard to see how one could misinstall a rotator to cause this
effect. It sounds like your rotator is either worn out, broken or too
small for the antenna.

I would look into replacing the rotator and perhaps the antenna as well.
Local radio amateurs will know what does and does not work in your area.

Joe Gwinn