[mythtv-users] HELP! In antenna hell!

Richard Shaw hobbes1069 at gmail.com
Thu Sep 30 18:38:56 UTC 2010


On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 11:31 AM, Joseph Fry <joe at thefrys.com> wrote:
>> Once analog TV was dead, two of the networks moved down to their
>> original analog frequency: 5 & 13. I was able to get 13 OK with my UHF
>> antenna but I could no longer get channel 5.
>
>
> I had a similar problem with Channel 7 in Detroit.  Seeing as how it was the
> only VHF channel I was interested in, I built an antenna tuned strictly for
> that channel.
[SNIP]
> I created a simple folded dipole antenna out of standard twinlead, and
> balun, and a strip of wood following instructions found here:
> http://www.wfu.edu/~matthews/misc/dipole.html if it hadn't worked so well, I
> might have remade it by bending aluminum or copper tubing... but it was
> perfect so I just left it alone.

Hmm... I wonder how you would connect two of these together, if, for
instance I wanted to make two custom folded dipole antennas. One for
channel 5 and one for channel 13. The antenna I purchased seems to be
a regular dipole antenna (not folded) and it flips the connections
between each pair of elements. I wonder if the same approach would
work for the folded version.

> One other thing to look out for is the combiner you are using.   While a
> standard 3.5db splitter will work, there are better designed combiners
> available.  And there is a huge variation in quality when it comes to
> splitters/combiners; enough that I would try swapping yours before doing
> anything else, it may be the cause of your issues.  Oh, and your baluns...
> they can be pretty crappy as well!

I'm using a filter combiner not a standard splitter so unless it's
defective I don't think that's the problem. I purchased everything
from summitsource.com and tried to choose high quality components for
the filter/combiner and balun.

I think I'm going to try connecting the VHF antenna by it self and see
if the signal quality improves significantly. If so I may try going
after more antenna separation and making some custom length quad
shielded RG6 cables.

Thanks!

Richard


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list