I bought a GE Enhanced TV attic mount HD antenna (60 mile range) from
Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Attic-M...tenna/20976617

I have two TVs in the house, a 42" Sony and a 32" Vizio. My plan is to
install the antenna and run a coax cable from it to the junction box
where the cable comes into the attic.

1) Can I use one antenna for TVs?

2) Does it matter which side of the attic I install the antenna? I
think the stations are closer to the opposite side of my ranch house
than the cable junction.

The instructions are mute on these questions.

On 11/6/2014 9:42 PM, badgolferman wrote:
I bought a GE Enhanced TV attic mount HD antenna (60 mile range) from
Wal-Mart.


Start he

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ISSUES/erecting_antenna.html

pay attention to the links to other sections about choosing antennas and
general installation hints.

Go here to verify whatever you choose in hardware has a chance of
picking up a signal

http://www.tvfool.com

Also antennaweb.org

If your signals are weak and the coax runs are long, you may want an amplifier near the antenna end of the cable.
But put it where you can get at it easily in case it needs service.
..

Mark

On Thursday, November 6, 2014 10:59:17 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Also antennaweb.org

If your signals are weak and the coax runs are long, you may want an amplifier near the antenna end of the cable.
But put it where you can get at it easily in case it needs service.
.

Mark

And since he's already got the antenna, the easiest thing to do would seem to
be to just hook it up temporarily with a splitter and see if it works OK or not.

On 11/06/2014 08:42 PM, badgolferman wrote:
I bought a GE Enhanced TV attic mount HD antenna (60 mile range) from
Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Attic-M...tenna/20976617

I have two TVs in the house, a 42" Sony and a 32" Vizio. My plan is to
install the antenna and run a coax cable from it to the junction box
where the cable comes into the attic.

1) Can I use one antenna for TVs?


Yes, you will just need a cable splitter

2) Does it matter which side of the attic I install the antenna? I
think the stations are closer to the opposite side of my ranch house
than the cable junction.

The instructions are mute on these questions.



Best to go up there with the antenna and a cell phone and have someone
view the reception Vary the location and orientation until you find the
area of best reception...could be anywhere.

Per badgolferman:
1) Can I use one antenna for TVs?

I am using one rooftop antenna for effectively four TVs:
two actual televisions and two tuners that feed my Tivo-on-steroids PC
application.

I find that I need an amplifier. But I also need to split the
coax...so I bought a splitter that does double duty as an amplifier.

If the in-attic antenna does not work out, consider a rooftop antenna
installed/aimed/tuned by a professional.
--
Pete Cresswell

On 11/6/2014 6:42 PM, badgolferman wrote:
I bought a GE Enhanced TV attic mount HD antenna (60 mile range) from
Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Attic-M...tenna/20976617

I have two TVs in the house, a 42" Sony and a 32" Vizio. My plan is to
install the antenna and run a coax cable from it to the junction box
where the cable comes into the attic.

1) Can I use one antenna for TVs?

2) Does it matter which side of the attic I install the antenna? I
think the stations are closer to the opposite side of my ranch house
than the cable junction.

The instructions are mute on these questions.

There are MANY issues. Trial and error is the best plan.


The environment and direction of the TV stations are important.
That antenna is likely to be directional.
May be a problem if your stations aren't in the same direction.

Antennaweb.org is a good place to start.

It's likely that you can find an antenna position that works
for each TV station. Problem I had was finding a single position
that worked for ALL TV stations. I had an outside antenna with a
rotor, but that's no help if you time-shift and record several at once.

Reflections are likely to be more of a problem than signal strength.
With my early ATSC to NTSC tuner/adapters, I found that attenuating
the signal helped. I ended up with several tuners with different
attenuation optimized for different channels.

Inside the attic can be a problem depending on the composition of
your roof, the metal running around inside the attic, metal gutters, etc.

Trial and error is the best plan.

badgolferman wrote:

I bought a GE Enhanced TV attic mount HD antenna (60 mile range) from
Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Attic-M...tenna/20976617

I have two TVs in the house, a 42" Sony and a 32" Vizio. My plan is
to install the antenna and run a coax cable from it to the junction
box where the cable comes into the attic.

1) Can I use one antenna for TVs?

2) Does it matter which side of the attic I install the antenna? I
think the stations are closer to the opposite side of my ranch house
than the cable junction.

The instructions are mute on these questions.

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.

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.

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

"badgolferman" wrote in message
...
badgolferman wrote:

I bought a GE Enhanced TV attic mount HD antenna (60 mile range) from
Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Attic-M...tenna/20976617

I have two TVs in the house, a 42" Sony and a 32" Vizio. My plan is
to install the antenna and run a coax cable from it to the junction
box where the cable comes into the attic.

1) Can I use one antenna for TVs?

2) Does it matter which side of the attic I install the antenna? I
think the stations are closer to the opposite side of my ranch house
than the cable junction.

The instructions are mute on these questions.

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.

Does antennaweb.org indicate that there is more than one antenna farm near
you?

Do you have hills or large trees between you and the antenna farm(s)?

What do you mean by "All the other channels were local
useless ones" ? You have 7 independent stations not affiliated with any
network?

I'm in the Philly area 25 miles from the main antenna farm and get all the
main OTA stations with just old fashioned rabbit ears on the first floor..

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.

On 11/7/2014 4:49 PM, badgolferman wrote:
badgolferman wrote:

I bought a GE Enhanced TV attic mount HD antenna (60 mile range)
from Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Attic-M...tenna/20976617

I have two TVs in the house, a 42" Sony and a 32" Vizio. My plan
is to install the antenna and run a coax cable from it to the
junction box where the cable comes into the attic.

1) Can I use one antenna for TVs?

2) Does it matter which side of the attic I install the antenna?
I think the stations are closer to the opposite side of my ranch
house than the cable junction.

The instructions are mute on these questions.

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.

Good luck but I suggest keeping your expectations low if you expect
stable reception (no audio dropouts or video pixellation) on all major
channels.
I live within 8 miles of the network stations' broadcast towers, all of
which are within a 5 degrees arc. I'm in a major metropolitan suburban
area. Even with a professionally installed carefully aimed roof antenna
on an extended mast, I didn't have reliable reception on the majority of
stations that use the UHF band. Reception was better in the winter (no
leaves on the trees to absorb signal?) but still not acceptable
regardless of whether I used an amplifier or not. I suspect that even
though the antenna was directional, multipath interference from busy
fixed wing and helicopter air traffic in nearby airspace was largely to
blame. Despite investment in the antenna, I gave up and got FIOS. Only
the digital signals that were transmitted on the VHF frequencies were
rock stable via over-the-air reception.

Per Peter:
Good luck but I suggest keeping your expectations low if you expect
stable reception (no audio dropouts or video pixellation) on all major
channels.
I live within 8 miles of the network stations' broadcast towers, all of
which are within a 5 degrees arc. I'm in a major metropolitan suburban
area. Even with a professionally installed carefully aimed roof antenna
on an extended mast, I didn't have reliable reception on the majority of
stations that use the UHF band. Reception was better in the winter (no
leaves on the trees to absorb signal?) but still not acceptable
regardless of whether I used an amplifier or not. I suspect that even
though the antenna was directional, multipath interference from busy
fixed wing and helicopter air traffic in nearby airspace was largely to
blame. Despite investment in the antenna, I gave up and got FIOS. Only
the digital signals that were transmitted on the VHF frequencies were
rock stable via over-the-air reception.

That makes me feel lucky.

We are West of Philadelphia in a town called Paoli (zip 19301).

http://www.antennapoint.com/ says we are about 13 miles from our major
stations - and I suspect they all use the same antenna farm, or at least
antennas close to each other in a place called Manayunk.

Our rooftop antenna has been working well since summer of 2008. We get
the major channels (3, 6, 10, 12, 17) plus a few others.
--
Pete Cresswell

On 11/7/14, 10:05 PM, micky wrote:
On Fri, 07 Nov 2014 18:21:07 -0500, J Burns wrote:


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.

Before I got a DTV, I got a Phillips "HDTV" set-top amplified antenna.
For analog TV, I was amazing, as good as a rooftop antenna with an
amplifier. Then I got a DTV. That antenna was terrible. I guess it
wasn't good at rejecting multipath distortion, which can wreck a digital
signal.

It worked better with the amplifier power supply unplugged. DTV can do
fine on a weak signal.

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.

A splitter will mean 3dB attenuation. That may be OK with DTV, but 2
antennas seems to ask for multipath distortion.

When we first got a TV antenna, there were 3 weak stations 3 directions.
Rotators were expensive and prone to trouble. Our mast had 3 fixed
antennas and 3 transmission lines leading to a switch on the back of the TV.

I've considered using 2 fixed antennas. I'd use 2 coax lines and a coax
switch.

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

I haven't noticed, either, but quality can vary. When my BIL went to
DTV, he bought a balun at Radio Shack to connect his cable to a 300-ohm
antenna. He couldn't get anything. I unscrewed the cable and put my
finger on the center conductor. He got several channels.

I gave him a spare balun that cost about 1/4 of what he'd paid. It
worked. With baluns and splitters, it might pay to buy a spare of a
different brand.

On Sat, 08 Nov 2014 15:56:13 -0500, J Burns wrote:

On 11/7/14, 10:05 PM, micky wrote:
On Fri, 07 Nov 2014 18:21:07 -0500, J Burns wrote:


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. )

BTW., my large multi-arm antenna in the attic is just sitting on one or
two large empty cartons. That's just as good as a mast, isn't it?

When I had a small round remotely-rotatable amplified antenna in the
attic, I screwed a 2 foot piece of metal tubing to a rafter and attached
the antenna to that. but since this big one doesn't rotate, I saw no
reason to use a mast. Yes?

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.

I meant to say that it worked fine this way**, but maybe the amp power
supply broke because the attic gets fairly hot. The old amp power
supply smells burnt now, and the other half doesn't.

**People with antenna on masts don't do it this way, because they have
no AC receptacles on the roof or at the top of the mast!

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.

Before I got a DTV, I got a Phillips "HDTV" set-top amplified antenna.
For analog TV, I was amazing, as good as a rooftop antenna with an
amplifier. Then I got a DTV. That antenna was terrible. I guess it
wasn't good at rejecting multipath distortion, which can wreck a digital
signal.

It worked better with the amplifier power supply unplugged. DTV can do
fine on a weak signal.

Sometimes. Before the amp, I got a lot of feeze frame for 1 to 5
seconds, or sound on/off/on/off.

Now I get all these stations from 50 miles away, but one of the channels
in Baltimore, whose antenna is on "television hill" maybe 12 miles away,
has the sound on/off/on/off and blotchy picture much of the day. It
does this no matter where I set the amp adjust knob on the antenna amp.

I think without the amp it worked better, but all the other stations
work better with 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.

A splitter will mean 3dB attenuation. That may be OK with DTV, but 2
antennas seems to ask for multipath distortion.

I saw it recommended somewhere. Maybe at solidsignal.com, but maybe
not. But multipath is another reason to take a tv into the attic to
aim antennas there.

When we first got a TV antenna, there were 3 weak stations 3 directions.
Rotators were expensive and prone to trouble. Our mast had 3 fixed
antennas and 3 transmission lines leading to a switch on the back of the TV.

Talking about a co-ax switch reminds me. I haven't been using one much
lately, but I have two antennas myself. One is the one I've been
talking about and the other is a 6 or 8 foot piece of single strand
(insulated, fwiw) wire that just lies on the floor in the bedroom, or
maybe it's run across a dresser. It plugs into the center hole of a
co-ax switch, and when the antenna amp was broken, sometimes gave a
picture on more stations than the large, multi-arm attic antenna.

Now I think it's plugged into the input co-ax connector for the digital
to analog converter set-top box that feeds my VCR. The set-top box has
a better tuner than the Philips DVDR with Hard Drive. I use the vcr for
tapes and its settop box when I want to record one station and watch
another. That's rare.

I've considered using 2 fixed antennas. I'd use 2 coax lines and a coax
switch.

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

I haven't noticed, either, but quality can vary. When my BIL went to
DTV, he bought a balun at Radio Shack to connect his cable to a 300-ohm
antenna. He couldn't get anything. I unscrewed the cable and put my
finger on the center conductor. He got several channels.

I gave him a spare balun that cost about 1/4 of what he'd paid. It
worked. With baluns and splitters, it might pay to buy a spare of a
different brand.

But you're not saying they're designed for lower or higher frequencies?
Just that the quality can be bad?

On Sat, 08 Nov 2014 10:44:24 -0500, Peter wrote:

On 11/7/2014 4:49 PM, badgolferman wrote:
badgolferman wrote:

I bought a GE Enhanced TV attic mount HD antenna (60 mile range)
from Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Attic-M...tenna/20976617

I have two TVs in the house, a 42" Sony and a 32" Vizio. My plan
is to install the antenna and run a coax cable from it to the
junction box where the cable comes into the attic.

1) Can I use one antenna for TVs?

2) Does it matter which side of the attic I install the antenna?
I think the stations are closer to the opposite side of my ranch
house than the cable junction.

The instructions are mute on these questions.

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.

You can try the outdoor type IN the attic. Even a pretty big one.

Good luck but I suggest keeping your expectations low if you expect
stable reception (no audio dropouts or video pixellation) on all major
channels.
I live within 8 miles of the network stations' broadcast towers, all of
which are within a 5 degrees arc. I'm in a major metropolitan suburban
area. Even with a professionally installed carefully aimed roof antenna
on an extended mast, I didn't have reliable reception on the majority of
stations that use the UHF band. Reception was better in the winter (no
leaves on the trees to absorb signal?) but still not acceptable
regardless of whether I used an amplifier or not. I suspect that even
though the antenna was directional, multipath interference from busy
fixed wing and helicopter air traffic

So you think it was the aircraft themselves, and not all the radio
transmissions they were having?

in nearby airspace was largely to
blame. Despite investment in the antenna, I gave up and got FIOS. Only
the digital signals that were transmitted on the VHF frequencies were
rock stable via over-the-air reception.

On Sat, 08 Nov 2014 14:17:03 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:


That makes me feel lucky.

We are West of Philadelphia in a town called Paoli (zip 19301).

I know about Paoli. It's in Pennsylvania.

http://www.antennapoint.com/ says we are about 13 miles from our major
stations - and I suspect they all use the same antenna farm, or at least
antennas close to each other in a place called Manayunk.

Our rooftop antenna has been working well since summer of 2008. We get
the major channels (3, 6, 10, 12, 17) plus a few others.

My friend who lived in Reisterstown MD could get channel 50 in
Lancaster.

I live about 5 miles south of her and can never get it. I used to be
jealous, but now I get enough stations.

Pete Cresswell

On Fri, 7 Nov 2014 21:49:13 +0000 (UTC), "badgolferman"
wrote:

badgolferman wrote:

I bought a GE Enhanced TV attic mount HD antenna (60 mile range) from
Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Attic-M...tenna/20976617

I have two TVs in the house, a 42" Sony and a 32" Vizio. My plan is
to install the antenna and run a coax cable from it to the junction
box where the cable comes into the attic.

1) Can I use one antenna for TVs?

2) Does it matter which side of the attic I install the antenna? I
think the stations are closer to the opposite side of my ranch house
than the cable junction.

The instructions are mute on these questions.

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.

Two things come to mind:

1) Some roofing materials are worse than others for blocking signals,
especially metallic radiant barriers.

2) Is the antenna for both VHF and UHF -- check antennaweb to see if
you need both ("RF channel" 13 or below). I've seen some antennas
advertised as "digital" (there's no such thing; they're all just hunks
of metal) that were UHF-only. In my area at least, during the
transition period all of the "temporary" channels were UHF, but
several stations moved back to VHF after the cutover, disappointing
some who bought the UHF-only ones from companies that should have
known better.

As others suggested, it may be worth taking the TV outside with a
ladder and trying there, to see if it's the roof interfering. FWIW,
we're about 25 miles from the transmitters, no mountains in the way,
and get all of the local affiliates with a pretty compact cheap
antenna I got from Home Depot.

Josh

On 11/8/14, 11:39 PM, micky wrote:
On Sat, 08 Nov 2014 15:56:13 -0500, J Burns wrote:


BTW., my large multi-arm antenna in the attic is just sitting on one or
two large empty cartons. That's just as good as a mast, isn't it?

....unless the cartons hold metal.

When I had a small round remotely-rotatable amplified antenna in the
attic, I screwed a 2 foot piece of metal tubing to a rafter and attached
the antenna to that. but since this big one doesn't rotate, I saw no
reason to use a mast. Yes?

I have an omnidirectional FM antenna hanging from the rafters by strings.


I meant to say that it worked fine this way**, but maybe the amp power
supply broke because the attic gets fairly hot. The old amp power
supply smells burnt now, and the other half doesn't.

**People with antenna on masts don't do it this way, because they have
no AC receptacles on the roof or at the top of the mast!

I once took an ion generator to the attic because it was great for
settling the dust I stirred up pushing the rock wool insulation around
to do wiring. I forgot it. When I remembered, the heat had wrecked it.


Before I got a DTV, I got a Phillips "HDTV" set-top amplified antenna.
For analog TV, I was amazing, as good as a rooftop antenna with an
amplifier. Then I got a DTV. That antenna was terrible. I guess it
wasn't good at rejecting multipath distortion, which can wreck a digital
signal.

It worked better with the amplifier power supply unplugged. DTV can do
fine on a weak signal.

Sometimes. Before the amp, I got a lot of feeze frame for 1 to 5
seconds, or sound on/off/on/off.

Now I get all these stations from 50 miles away, but one of the channels
in Baltimore, whose antenna is on "television hill" maybe 12 miles away,
has the sound on/off/on/off and blotchy picture much of the day. It
does this no matter where I set the amp adjust knob on the antenna amp.

I think without the amp it worked better, but all the other stations
work better with it.

I'd unplug the amp for that channel. An adequate signal may pass
through the amp.

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.

A splitter will mean 3dB attenuation. That may be OK with DTV, but 2
antennas seems to ask for multipath distortion.

I saw it recommended somewhere. Maybe at solidsignal.com, but maybe
not. But multipath is another reason to take a tv into the attic to
aim antennas there.

I ended up using a 4-bay bowtie that I used to have 10 feet above the
chimney with an amp for analog UHF. When I got a DTV, I hoisted it to
that height and scanned with it pointed in various directions. I listed
the channels and found that I could get them all indoors on the ground
floor.

I may rotate the antenna depending on weather. With a distant
transmitter, the strongest signal can bounce off the sky. In some
weather conditions, it's erratic, and I do better turning the antenna 45
degrees to catch the bounce off a building.

When we first got a TV antenna, there were 3 weak stations 3 directions.
Rotators were expensive and prone to trouble. Our mast had 3 fixed
antennas and 3 transmission lines leading to a switch on the back of the TV.

Talking about a co-ax switch reminds me. I haven't been using one much
lately, but I have two antennas myself. One is the one I've been
talking about and the other is a 6 or 8 foot piece of single strand
(insulated, fwiw) wire that just lies on the floor in the bedroom, or
maybe it's run across a dresser. It plugs into the center hole of a
co-ax switch, and when the antenna amp was broken, sometimes gave a
picture on more stations than the large, multi-arm attic antenna.

By "switch" I mean a thing that looks like a splitter, with fittings to
screw on three cables. With a splitter, the three circuits are on the
same transformer. With a switch, one antenna won't interfere with the
other.

Now I think it's plugged into the input co-ax connector for the digital
to analog converter set-top box that feeds my VCR. The set-top box has
a better tuner than the Philips DVDR with Hard Drive. I use the vcr for
tapes and its settop box when I want to record one station and watch
another. That's rare.

I've considered using 2 fixed antennas. I'd use 2 coax lines and a coax
switch.

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

I haven't noticed, either, but quality can vary. When my BIL went to
DTV, he bought a balun at Radio Shack to connect his cable to a 300-ohm
antenna. He couldn't get anything. I unscrewed the cable and put my
finger on the center conductor. He got several channels.

I gave him a spare balun that cost about 1/4 of what he'd paid. It
worked. With baluns and splitters, it might pay to buy a spare of a
different brand.

But you're not saying they're designed for lower or higher frequencies?
Just that the quality can be bad?

I looked at amazon. Few advertise 1, 2, or 3 GHz. All should be
adequate for DTV. If it's not designed well or quality control is poor,
an impedance mismatch could cause reflected energy. That could make a
mess of reception on some or all digital channels.

On Friday, November 7, 2014 6:21:11 PM UTC-5, 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.

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

I agree he should try it without the amp. That's what I would always do
first. I don't have a lot of experience with indoor vs outdoor, but the
couple of times I tried it, I did not see much difference in reception.
I think if the height is about the same and there is just typical wood
construction involved, the reception will probably be similar, meaning if
he can't get most channels now, I doubt moving outside is the issue.

micky wrote in
:

BTW., my large multi-arm antenna in the attic is just sitting on one or
two large empty cartons. That's just as good as a mast, isn't it?


Not a good idea. The cartons may alter the dynamics of the signal you are
trying to receive. If you have any reception problems, that may be a
cause.

On 11/08/2014 10:55 PM, Josh wrote:

[snip]

2) Is the antenna for both VHF and UHF -- check antennaweb to see if
you need both ("RF channel" 13 or below). I've seen some antennas
advertised as "digital" (there's no such thing; they're all just hunks
of metal)

True. There's no such thing as a "HD antenna" either. HD refers to
display resolution, and the antenna has nothing to do with that.
However, I was SURE that advertisers would make both claims.

that were UHF-only. In my area at least, during the
transition period all of the "temporary" channels were UHF, but
several stations moved back to VHF after the cutover, disappointing
some who bought the UHF-only ones from companies that should have
known better.

Here, most stations used (and still use) UHF channels. The ABC channel
was an exception (temporary channel = 10, regular channel = 7). I have a
UHF-only antenna that picks up NBC and CBS, but not ABC.

[snip]

--
46 days until the winter celebration (Thursday December 25, 2014
12:00:00 AM for 1 day).

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us

Sign in front of a funeral home: "Drive carefully, we'll wait"

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

I bought a GE Enhanced TV attic mount HD antenna (60 mile range) from
Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Attic-M...tenna/20976617

I have two TVs in the house, a 42" Sony and a 32" Vizio. My plan is
to install the antenna and run a coax cable from it to the junction
box where the cable comes into the attic.

1) Can I use one antenna for TVs?

2) Does it matter which side of the attic I install the antenna? I
think the stations are closer to the opposite side of my ranch house
than the cable junction.

The instructions are mute on these questions.

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 direction 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.

I believe the government site is better than antennaweb.
http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps/

If I give them my street address, I get a different list than if I
simply give my zip code. I find it much more accurate than antennaweb.

When antennaweb recommends omnidirectional indoor antennas in some
cases, I'm very skeptical. When they make recommendations in terms of
antenna color coding, I'm very skeptical.

Antennas are often advertized in terms of miles. That's nonsense. The
FCC groups stations by the calculated signal strength at the user's
site; I can even click a button to get the decibels for a station.
That's what the consumer needs to know. It correctly shows that I may
do fine with stations 70 miles away but not with one 11 miles away.

The FCC shows the carrier channel for each station. That's likely to be
different from the DTV channel number. If I miss a channel when I scan,
and the FCC shows I should have a good signal, I can probably get it by
pointing my antenna in that direction and punching in the carrier channel.

By showing the calculated strength of signals from various stations at
your site, he FCC site can help you figure out if there's something
wrong with your setup.

On Wednesday, November 12, 2014 4:29:07 PM UTC-5, J Burns wrote:
On 11/7/14, 4:49 PM, badgolferman wrote:
badgolferman wrote:

I bought a GE Enhanced TV attic mount HD antenna (60 mile range) from
Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Attic-M...tenna/20976617

I have two TVs in the house, a 42" Sony and a 32" Vizio. My plan is
to install the antenna and run a coax cable from it to the junction
box where the cable comes into the attic.

1) Can I use one antenna for TVs?

2) Does it matter which side of the attic I install the antenna? I
think the stations are closer to the opposite side of my ranch house
than the cable junction.

The instructions are mute on these questions.

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 direction 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.

I believe the government site is better than antennaweb.
http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps/

If I give them my street address, I get a different list than if I
simply give my zip code. I find it much more accurate than antennaweb.

When antennaweb recommends omnidirectional indoor antennas in some
cases, I'm very skeptical. When they make recommendations in terms of
antenna color coding, I'm very skeptical.

Antennas are often advertized in terms of miles. That's nonsense. The
FCC groups stations by the calculated signal strength at the user's
site; I can even click a button to get the decibels for a station.
That's what the consumer needs to know. It correctly shows that I may
do fine with stations 70 miles away but not with one 11 miles away.

The FCC shows the carrier channel for each station. That's likely to be
different from the DTV channel number. If I miss a channel when I scan,
and the FCC shows I should have a good signal, I can probably get it by
pointing my antenna in that direction and punching in the carrier channel..

By showing the calculated strength of signals from various stations at
your site, he FCC site can help you figure out if there's something
wrong with your setup.


Unfortunatly DTV in the US is very suseptable to multipath. With analog, multipath caused ghosting but the picture was for the most part watchable and ghosting had no impact on the sound. With digital, multipath instead of ghosting, causes blockies and total loss of reception including loss of the sound. But digital can give an excellent picture with a weaker signal as long as there is little multipath. So the best defense against multipath is a directional antenna amimed correctly. But if the reflection is inline with the desired signal , there is not much you can do except hope the engineers develop better demodulators.

Mark

On 11/12/2014 2:02 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, November 12, 2014 4:29:07 PM UTC-5, J Burns wrote:
On 11/7/14, 4:49 PM, badgolferman wrote:
badgolferman wrote:

I bought a GE Enhanced TV attic mount HD antenna (60 mile range) from
Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Attic-M...tenna/20976617

I have two TVs in the house, a 42" Sony and a 32" Vizio. My plan is
to install the antenna and run a coax cable from it to the junction
box where the cable comes into the attic.

1) Can I use one antenna for TVs?

2) Does it matter which side of the attic I install the antenna? I
think the stations are closer to the opposite side of my ranch house
than the cable junction.

The instructions are mute on these questions.

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 direction 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.

I believe the government site is better than antennaweb.
http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps/

If I give them my street address, I get a different list than if I
simply give my zip code. I find it much more accurate than antennaweb.

When antennaweb recommends omnidirectional indoor antennas in some
cases, I'm very skeptical. When they make recommendations in terms of
antenna color coding, I'm very skeptical.

Antennas are often advertized in terms of miles. That's nonsense. The
FCC groups stations by the calculated signal strength at the user's
site; I can even click a button to get the decibels for a station.
That's what the consumer needs to know. It correctly shows that I may
do fine with stations 70 miles away but not with one 11 miles away.

The FCC shows the carrier channel for each station. That's likely to be
different from the DTV channel number. If I miss a channel when I scan,
and the FCC shows I should have a good signal, I can probably get it by
pointing my antenna in that direction and punching in the carrier channel.

By showing the calculated strength of signals from various stations at
your site, he FCC site can help you figure out if there's something
wrong with your setup.


Unfortunatly DTV in the US is very suseptable to multipath. With analog, multipath caused ghosting but the picture was for the most part watchable and ghosting had no impact on the sound. With digital, multipath instead of ghosting, causes blockies and total loss of reception including loss of the sound. But digital can give an excellent picture with a weaker signal as long as there is little multipath. So the best defense against multipath is a directional antenna amimed correctly. But if the reflection is inline with the desired signal , there is not much you can do except hope the engineers develop better demodulators.

Mark


The other problem with the web site is it doesn't know about repeaters.
I get my TV signals from repeaters on Grizzly Mountain, directly West.
The web site thinks the signal is directly South towards Bend, Oregon.

Pretty useless!!!!

Paul

On 11/12/14, 10:25 PM, Paul Drahn wrote:
The other problem with the web site is it doesn't know about repeaters.
I get my TV signals from repeaters on Grizzly Mountain, directly West.
The web site thinks the signal is directly South towards Bend, Oregon.

Pretty useless!!!!

Paul
K22IL-D: 250 watts, 23 meters. Maybe they couldn't afford to submit
coverage data to the FCC. Did you give them your street address?

On 11/12/14, 5:02 PM, wrote:
Unfortunatly DTV in the US is very suseptable to multipath. With
analog, multipath caused ghosting but the picture was for the most
part watchable and ghosting had no impact on the sound. With
digital, multipath instead of ghosting, causes blockies and total
loss of reception including loss of the sound. But digital can give
an excellent picture with a weaker signal as long as there is little
multipath. So the best defense against multipath is a directional
antenna amimed correctly. But if the reflection is inline with the
desired signal , there is not much you can do except hope the
engineers develop better demodulators.

Mark


The 4-bay bowtie had a great reputation for UHF analog. IIRC, everybody
made it the same: 4 wire "cat whiskers" in front of a mesh screen.

When DTV came in, all the manufacturers seemed to make little
modifications to the original design. I wonder if they were refinements
to reject secondary paths a little better.

My problems seem to be weather-related, so I suspect that they occur
when multipath distortion comes inline, from similarly strong
reflections at different atmospheric levels.

On Friday, November 7, 2014 4:49:17 PM UTC-5, badgolferman wrote:
badgolferman wrote:

I bought a GE Enhanced TV attic mount HD antenna (60 mile range) from
Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Attic-M...tenna/20976617

I have two TVs in the house, a 42" Sony and a 32" Vizio. My plan is
to install the antenna and run a coax cable from it to the junction
box where the cable comes into the attic.

1) Can I use one antenna for TVs?

2) Does it matter which side of the attic I install the antenna? I
think the stations are closer to the opposite side of my ranch house
than the cable junction.

The instructions are mute on these questions.

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.

That 5-10 miles may make a difference, so may the construction of your attic. If you have a metal roof you will be attenuating the signal to near uselessness.

There is really no difference between an attic antenna and a roof antenna other than mounting and location. (likewise, there is no difference between an old school TV antenna and a "HD" antenna whatsoever. Difficulty: since the changeover to digital, channels no longer directly correspond to frequencies, so e.g. "Channel 2" may actually be a UHF frequency in your area.)

For good reception, very little beats a proper outdoor antenna mounted above the roof, although if you go that route make sure that it is properly grounded.

nate

N8N wrote:

Difficulty: since
the changeover to digital, channels no longer directly correspond to frequ
encies, so e.g. "Channel 2" may actually be a UHF frequency in your area.)

http://www.antennaweb.org/ is helpful for this.

N8N wrote:
On Friday, November 7, 2014 4:49:17 PM UTC-5, badgolferman wrote:
badgolferman wrote:

I bought a GE Enhanced TV attic mount HD antenna (60 mile range) from
Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Attic-M...tenna/20976617

I have two TVs in the house, a 42" Sony and a 32" Vizio. My plan is
to install the antenna and run a coax cable from it to the junction
box where the cable comes into the attic.

1) Can I use one antenna for TVs?

2) Does it matter which side of the attic I install the antenna? I
think the stations are closer to the opposite side of my ranch house
than the cable junction.

The instructions are mute on these questions.

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.

That 5-10 miles may make a difference, so may the construction of your
attic. If you have a metal roof you will be attenuating the signal to near uselessness.

There is really no difference between an attic antenna and a roof antenna
other than mounting and location. (likewise, there is no difference
between an old school TV antenna and a "HD" antenna whatsoever.
Difficulty: since the changeover to digital, channels no longer directly
correspond to frequencies, so e.g. "Channel 2" may actually be a UHF
frequency in your area.)

For good reception, very little beats a proper outdoor antenna mounted
above the roof, although if you go that route make sure that it is properly grounded.

nate

There are VHF high band channels being used. I don't know if any use the
low VHF low channels using even longer elements. I only have one, channel
13 high band. On my rabbit ears, I pull out 1 1/2 foot or so for 13 . It's
also got the UHF loop which is not adjustable except for rotation.

Greg