Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ok! Calling on the Campfire brain-trust

We've had an antenna before that worked and we got all the stations we wanted but when we got
Direct TV when mom moved in with us I think that old antenna went to someone else. It wasn't the greatest and the grandkids were always hitting it. Knocking it over. Etc. So I thought that since all this direct tv coax was already here in place, why not use it??? And get an outdoor antenna that would give us more height and be done with it.

As to whether or not the existing coax cable that was used for your satellite TV would work with an ordinary air signal antenna, as I understand it should work just fine as long as the end connectors fit and of course if your TV has a built in digital tuner. There are cheap adapters that allow attaching the old flat two wire antenna cable to the screw-on type coax connectors too.

BINGO! Glad you know you have good reception. You probably don't need an outdoor antenna, KW. Probably a situation where whatever is cheapest is best. Plug and play.

That will absolutely work. What you pick up on the antenna will depend on what's floating out there. The link above might prove very helpful to tell you what's out there.

I've never had cable or etc. We had an antenna from the '60s outside on a mast when broadcast TV went digital and one of those digital signal to analog TV converter boxes worked just fine. We had about 100 channels here 40 or 45 miles from Chicago, including channels from a number of other towns.

Then we got a modern, digital TV, ditched the box and had about 60 channels using that old antenna on a mast. The new TV was apparently less sensitive than the converter box was.

A windstorm damaged the antenna so I put up a "new" one that had been stored unused since the '70s. I looked into it a bit more and wound up putting a new mast in place and installing a signal amplifier up at the antenna. Now we're back to about 100 channels.

I think that with a more sensitive TV we would get more channels (remember our old analog TV on a converter box got 100 channels off the old antenna without a signal booster) and I'm pretty sure if we rotated the antenna to point to other towns than Chicago we'd find way more stations.

They did not change the radio frequencies of the broadcast channels. Whether the radio waves broadcast at that frequency are carrying an analog signal or digital signal is meaningless to the antenna.

RG 6 connectors (coax) are universal. They fit any coax outlet.

What the connectors are, are called "F" connectors. The coax (coaxial) cable could be either RG-59 or most likely RG-6. Just get the correct connectors if needed. Lowe's Home Depot have them.

Sorry RG 6 is the coax cable. Older coax is RG 59. If your satellite cable was wired in the last few years it will most likely be RG 6.

Bob, trust me, if your wife likes cooking shows, YouTube has 'em by the barrel full, including lots of ones by folks she'd know. My little Yellow Peril started watching them, and has turned out a bunch of stuff she never dreamed of like the awesome banana bread she cranked out the other day.

First, there is no such thing as a digital antenna. The antenna has no way to know what type of signal it is receiving. The new digital TV channels occupy the same part of the spectrum as the old UHF analog channels.

Yes, you can use your existing RG-6 or RG-59 coaxial cable to distribute TV within your house. I'm doing exactly that right now.

Here's the one thing you MUST do: Put an amplifier right at the antenna, or within a few feet of it. At UHF frequencies, the signal loss down the coax is very high. An inexpensive amplifier uses the coax to send power up the coax. The amplifier boosts the signal so as to overcome the coax losses.

Make sure that your first signal splitter is AC coupled, or that the gizmo that taps power into the coax is AC coupled (has a capacitor in series on the port toward the splitter...AC passes, DC is blocked). There are signal splitters that do not react kindly to having DC power imposed on them. Simple test: Measure the resistance from the center conductor of the input jack of the splitter to the metal case. If it's around 75 ohms, it's not AC coupled. If it reads infinity, it is. I would expect that most gizmos used to put power on the coax already handle this.

I'm using a bow tie style antenna, with two bows and a reflector screen. It's a lot smaller than the old general purpose TV antennas.

We get a bunch of channels, and we use Netflix and Amazon Prime. I don't know why we didn't do it sooner.

Antennas are made for a set frequency. The style and length etc are because of the frequency they are made to receive. As to whether or not the signal is digital or analog makes no difference. A capacitor in line will blow up.. What you are talking about is a Diode only passes current in one direction. Are you confusing an LNB type Satellite setup where the decoder box powers the LNB? Perhaps one would need an amplifier for an antenna, if the coax run was very long (over 100 yards) there is no powered conversion of the signal going on in an antenna, no need for power.

Don't see why not as that is how it is done here...but then you are in a third world country, being next to Canada and all that.


(Snicker)

Best bet is an omnidirectional RV antenna on a pole with a signal booster at the base.

Sure there is.


Antennas are better tuned now for the narrow band digital channels by slightly altering the length, angle, and spacing of the antenna tines, that look just like the old style. But like I said, the old "fringe antennas" still work quite well. Don't take one down just to get a newer, digitally optimized one that looks almost just like the old one.

My point being, that even though a digitally optimized antenna may work a tiny bit better, it's not nearly enough to justify taking a perfectly good "old style" antenna down to replace it. But if you have to start from scratch, then the newer style antennas may work a little better. Of course the same old rules apply. - The higher in the air the better.

Mostly she likes the white noise and the ambient light at night. She's not going to cook any of this stuff. She can barely make it to the kitchen. 90% of the time she can't send a coherent text. We do not have internet service any more per se. Simply the data on our iPhones. She can work the TV remote. And as long as there's a picture and people talking all is good!

Simple and cheap is best for us! She can't make it thru a movie or a very long show ( or breakfast!) with out drifting off to sleep. Pretty sad.

Have to admire a man who takes care of his wife, sign of real love. Take care of yourself and don't wear thin. Hope there is family/friends to share the burden.

Fellow feelings. My wife is crippled so is stuck at home too much, and she has only me to talk to far too often.

I understand!!!!! Other than our kids the ONLY folks who stop by to see us/check up on us, are members right off this campfire forum!

( those usual suspects know who they are!!!😉😂).

Thanks! And back at y'a!!!

Pulling in signals from 30 miles away to a low lying house is going to be a challenge. You'll have to get a big antenna and put it up as high as possible.

A lot of the pbs shows can be streamed from pbs.org. If possible, I'd try to get good internet and stream more.

Several conflicting and wrong information on some of these posts. Not being a know it all, but this is something I know a little bit about as it's in my line of work.

It can be a bit confusing when you look at stuff online because people as well as manufacturer's use different terms. Boosters, amplifiers, drop amplifier's, distribution amplifiers.

Basically here's what you need. If you're close to a broadcasting station, all you need is an indoor antenna hooked up to your TV. Any newer TV has a built in digital tuner to grab the new digital signal the Federal government has mandated. If you have an older TV you just get a digital off air box and run the cable from the antenna into that, then from the box to your TV. You change channels through the box and run your TV on ch 3 or 4. Like a VCR.

Short of being close to the broadcast stations you need an outdoor antenna. You also will likely need a Pre-Amp. That's the square box that is mounted on your antenna with a short cable from the antenna connection. Mounted port side down to protect from weather. If you are around 50 miles from the broadcast stations then a medium range antenna should work. Over 50 miles you want a long range antenna.

With that Pre-Amp will come a inline power inserter to power up the pre-amp.

If you have a good signal and are only feeding one TV, you will likely not need any kind of a booster beyond the pre-amp. If you have long cable runs or are splitting out to multiple TV's then you will probably need to install an indoor booster, drop amplifier, or distribution amplifier. All the same thing.

Unlike the one post stated above, you do NOT want your splitter in line between the power inserter and pre-amp. That higher votage going down the line is meant only for the the pre-amp. If cabling routes would make it necessary to have the splitter in line between the power inserter and the pre-amp, then you want a splitter with a power passing port to go to the pre-amp, and you put voltage blockers on the ports feeding TV's. Voltage blockers come as a simple RF male on one end, and female on the other to thread your coax onto.

Otherwise on a normal installation you have your power inserter indoors going to the pre-amp on one side, and the other side of the power inserter goes to your TV or splitter. They are marked to antenna, or to TV. If you're putting in an additional booster, distribution amplifier, etc, you put it down line after your power inserter and right before your splitter. No AC couplers, voltage blockers, capacitors, or anything else needed or wanted at that point. A distribution amplifier simply boosts the DB level of the signal. Puts extremely low voltage in the line to boost signal. Best if you get an adjustable gain amplifier for indoors, as you can overboost a signal. Wont hurt anything but your picture will have lines and specks in it. That's called noise in the TV industry. An adjustable gain amplifier will let you gain needed boost without overdriving the signal going to your TV's.

If you're happy with that, far be it from me to encourage you to change. I read a good bit myself, mostly in binges. Just ordered 6 new books myself: three from the Harry Bosch series and three featuring Sicilian Detective Salvo Montalbano. My Medicare Advantage carrier just sent me a $50 Amazon gift card to reward me for going to the doctor for my checkup, so they were essentially free.

The Bosch books arrived instantly via Kindle, but the Montalbanos are very nice quality paperbacks and take up little of my precious remaining shelf space.

My "white noise" is usually Old Time Radio shows of Bob & Ray, Phillip Marlowe, or Johnny Dollar played off my iPhone. Knocks me right out.

Gotta have my streaming though for my old movies as well as the new stuff, including adaptations of those book series I just bought.