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  3. Antennas

  • Question

    From MIKE POWELL@CAPCITY to ALL on Sat Apr 26 15:50:00 2008
    Is this an appropriate forum to discuss television antennas, or is this
    area meant for only radio antennas?

    Thanks!

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  • From W8ZZU@SCANNER to MIKE POWELL on Tue Apr 29 10:27:00 2008
    Re: Question
    By: MIKE POWELL to ALL on Sat Apr 26 2008 04:50 pm

    Is this an appropriate forum to discuss television antennas, or is this
    area meant for only radio antennas?

    All types of antennas.. What about TV antennas?


    Jason - W8ZZU
    Total Logged Contacts = 1761
    Last Contact: K1SD on 40 SSB. Location: RI. 2/27/08 at 23:40 UTC
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  • From MIKE POWELL@CAPCITY to W8ZZU on Wed Apr 30 16:11:00 2008
    │ > Is this an appropriate forum to discuss television antennas, or is this
    │ > area meant for only radio antennas?
    │
    │ All types of antennas.. What about TV antennas?
    └─[W=>MP]

    Well, I live in an area that has no TV stations of its own, and is between
    two metro areas that have a whole bunch. Our cable company carries some of them, and I use rabbit-ears on one set to get most of the rest.

    I recently bought one of the Digital TV tunners for the non-cable TV. I actually expected not to get anything with it. However, I was surprised as
    I was able to pick up quite a few stations I wasn't getting before, and a
    few others came in a whole lot better than before.

    One surprise, though, was that two of the three stations that had great reception on analog don't come in at all now.

    My question involves amplification ratings. My rabbit ears unit can get up
    to 50dB. I thought I might ought to get one of the "multi-directional" indoor-outdoor or outdoor antennas to see if the reception was better, but
    most of them are rated much lower than 50dB.

    Am I correct in thinking that the higher the dB number, the more powerful
    the amplification? Also, would an indoor-outdoor or outdoor antenna with a lower (number) rating still be more powerful than an indoor unit with a
    higher rating?

    One other note... I know that with DTV, having too much amplification can
    cause the same results as not having enough; no signal. I have tried
    turning the amplification down without good results.

    For discussion sake, I am approx. 40-50 miles from one of the metro areas (Louisville, KY), and 25-30 miles from the other (Lexington). Some of the Louisville transmitter towers are closer than the city itself, while others
    are on the other side of it (possibly 60 miles). I am not certain about
    the Lexington tranmitters, but I don't think any of them are much further
    away than the city is.

    Mike

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  • From W8ZZU@SCANNER to MIKE POWELL on Wed Apr 30 17:45:00 2008
    Re: Question
    By: MIKE POWELL to W8ZZU on Wed Apr 30 2008 05:11 pm

    │ All types of antennas.. What about TV antennas?

    Well, I live in an area that has no TV stations of its own, and is between two metro areas that have a whole bunch. Our cable company carries some of them, and I use rabbit-ears on one set to get most of the rest.

    I recently bought one of the Digital TV tunners for the non-cable TV. I actually expected not to get anything with it. However, I was surprised as I was able to pick up quite a few stations I wasn't getting before, and a few others came in a whole lot better than before.

    One surprise, though, was that two of the three stations that had great reception on analog don't come in at all now.

    My question involves amplification ratings. My rabbit ears unit can get up to 50dB. I thought I might ought to get one of the "multi-directional" indoor-outdoor or outdoor antennas to see if the reception was better, but most of them are rated much lower than 50dB.

    Am I correct in thinking that the higher the dB number, the more powerful the amplification? Also, would an indoor-outdoor or outdoor antenna with a lower (number) rating still be more powerful than an indoor unit with a higher rating?

    One other note... I know that with DTV, having too much amplification can cause the same results as not having enough; no signal. I have tried turning the amplification down without good results.

    For discussion sake, I am approx. 40-50 miles from one of the metro areas (Louisville, KY), and 25-30 miles from the other (Lexington). Some of the Louisville transmitter towers are closer than the city itself, while others are on the other side of it (possibly 60 miles). I am not certain about
    the Lexington tranmitters, but I don't think any of them are much further away than the city is.

    I would recommend a directional antenna (beam antenna) and a mast mounted preamp. Try the antenna without a preamp first, that might be all you need.


    Jason - W8ZZU
    Total Logged Contacts = 1761
    Last Contact: K1SD on 40 SSB. Location: RI. 2/27/08 at 23:40 UTC
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