On Fri, 07 Nov 2014 18:21:07 -0500, J Burns wrote:

On 11/7/14, 4:49 PM, badgolferman wrote:

I tried out the attic antenna today. It is supposed to have a range of
60 miles and the broadcast towers are around 25 miles south of me. I
pointed it in that direcection and hooked it up to the attic amplifier
where the cable comes in. I then auto-scanned for channels on both TVs.

A total of 8 digital channels were detected. Only one of them was HD
and that was the ABC affiliate. All the other channels were local
useless ones I would never watch. I went back up there and moved the
direction of the antenna around a few times and rescanned. Not much
changed. According to the antennaweb.org site all the major affiliates
should be easily reachable for me.

I am dubious of the attic antenna although my friend who lives 5-10
miles closer to the towers is pleased with his. I may get an outdoor
type and try that next.

When I went digital, I took my TV out to a tree, connected 25 feet of
coax to the antenna, threw a rope over a branch, and hoisted the
antenna. I could aim it by a cord tied to one corner. That let me test
with a straight connection and nothing to block a signal.

A good idea.

Another idea would be to take that long piece of coax and run it up to
the attic, and bring up a small TV, so he can look at the picture
himself and not go through someone else. (I have a cable jack up there
from when I spent a lot of time in the attic, but a temp cable is just
as good.)

Your problem could be the amplifier. I'd test the antenna with just a
coaxial cable.

Definitely. I bought an antenna amp from the sale table at Radio Shack.
It was 8 dollars marked down from 30 or so!! Looked new. With my attic
antenna and the amp, I could get almost all the DC stations now.
(Strangely I don't get channel 20 which iirc is in Baltimore where I
live. But I never watched it much anyhow. )

Something went wrong about 2 months later, and I could only get
Baltimore again. There was no difference if the amp was in the
circuit or if it wasn't. Bought a new amp from Solid Signal. So many
choices, I ended up buying the very same amp under a different name. It
wasn't very expensive (about $35 or 40) and I knew how well it worked
before it broke. I wonder if this one will break too, or if Radio Shack
knew something when the cut the price by 75%.

The first time I put both parts of the amp in the attic close to the
antenna. The second time I read th e instructions and it said to put
the power supply half closer to the TV, or in my case the DVDR. (It
runs the power up through the co-ax, at the same time the TV signal is
going down it.


BTW, if worst comes to worst it's possible to use two antennas,
connected through a splitter (which in this case is a merger or
something!) Both can be directional or one can be dir. and the other
omnidirectional. The amp should go after where the splitter joins
them, unless one antenna has a built in amp.

Are splitters for antenna signals different from other similarly looking
splittlers, because frequencies are different? I never paid
attention.