Outdoor OTA antenna

noway2

noway2

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Anyone have a recommendation for a good one?

My plan would be to mount it on a mast about 20 - 25' in the air. I would likely attach it to a pole that has a satellite dish mounted to it and extend it higher. I am thinking that a pre-amplifier would be good as it will likely get 'split' into three rooms.
 
The bigger and higher the better, and the signal amplifier makes a huge difference.
I have one from Lowe's on top of my chimney with a rotator.
 
I had thought about the rotator but my parents said no, so I'm going to go omnidirectional. The location is western Chatham and with the crappy one on my travel trailer in the down position (the crank broke and is on the todo list) I still get most of the Greensboro and Raleigh channels, so I think it will work out well.

I will also need to look into some low loss coax for 75ohms as at UHF frequencies loss becomes a factor. For my ham radio I use LMR400, I guess I will need yo see if there is a similar 75 ohm version.

Edit: lmr400-75 which has 3dB loss per 100 ft compared to over 7dB for RG6.
 
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Button Pusher said:
Take a look at this one, it has a rotor built into it.

https://www.amazon.com/Vansky-Outdo...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=NRWCQZVAEXBMJ339Z8YT
Click to expand...


This is one I picked up after the last discussion when I asked on the forum. Figure I would try the cheap route first as reviews were all over place on all them and this one had decent ones. It works good in SE corner of guilford county for me as I installed it inside just to try in my attic I do have my reservations on how it would hold up outdoor as it is pretty flemzy construction being mostly plastic.
 
noway2 said:
I had thought about the rotator but my parents said no, so I'm going to go omnidirectional. The location is western Chatham and with the crappy one on my travel trailer in the down position (the crank broke and is on the todo list) I still get most of the Greensboro and Raleigh channels, so I think it will work out well.

I will also need to look into some low loss coax for 75ohms as at UHF frequencies loss becomes a factor. For my ham radio I use LMR400, I guess I will need yo see if there is a similar 75 ohm version.

Edit: lmr400-75 which has 3dB loss per 100 ft compared to over 7dB for RG6.
Click to expand...
How far is the run to your splitter?
I've never priced the other stuff, but if cost is no consideration then it may not matter.
I got an amplifier/ splitter that gains 7db so it negates the loss from being split in the first place.

Sent from notthedroidyourelookingfor
 
Oh, and get some good weather proofing tape so you're not having to change connectors every 6 months

Sent from notthedroidyourelookingfor
 
Oneofsix said:
How far is the run to your splitter?
I've never priced the other stuff, but if cost is no consideration then it may not matter.
I got an amplifier/ splitter that gains 7db so it negates the loss from being split in the first place.
Click to expand...
Probably about 30 feet to the house from where we want to put it and then the run up the mast and down through the basement to the home run area. Enough that I would use good cable (I saw flexible LMR600-75 for about $2 a foot plus good F type connectors) the cable is 1.9dB per 100 feet which is about 1/4 that if RG6.

I agree on weatherproofing the connections. Do that with the ham radio antennas. Didn’t even think about it for the TV. I have some coax seal that is a self vulcanizing rubber tape.
 
Now here is a question. I received a suggestion on the radio this morning to use two antennas and a combiner to have one face towards Raleigh and one towards Greensboro. My thinking is that the two UHF signals could develop an interference pattern and it may not work. Has anyone found a way to receive multiple antennas?
 
I have much the same plan- so, what would be the difference between using an omnidirectional and two directional antennae?
I never really dug into it that deep, figuring the stations are all on different freqs and not knowing about any resonance/interference ...

Sent from notthedroidyourelookingfor
 
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noway2 said:
Now here is a question. I received a suggestion on the radio this morning to use two antennas and a combiner to have one face towards Raleigh and one towards Greensboro. My thinking is that the two UHF signals could develop an interference pattern and it may not work. Has anyone found a way to receive multiple antennas?
Click to expand...


Benifit i could see is not having to rotate one but I would think if you could put them on each end of the house it would be very little interference.
 
Oneofsix said:
I never really dug into it that deep, figuring the stations are all on different freqs and not knowing about any resonance/interference ...
Click to expand...
I think the standing waves on the transmission line (coax) could create interference patterns. The waves would add and subtract. From what I’ve read, it’s really hit or miss as to whether or not it works.

After reading yesterday, im thinking of going with an omnidirectional antenna, putting up a mast mount preamplifier and then using cheap coax as the amp will overcome the losses in it. Putting the amp at the antenna will boost the signal at the point where it has the best SNR.
 
Jp8819 said:
This is one I picked up after the last discussion when I asked on the forum. Figure I would try the cheap route first as reviews were all over place on all them and this one had decent ones. It works good in SE corner of guilford county for me as I installed it inside just to try in my attic I do have my reservations on how it would hold up outdoor as it is pretty flemzy construction being mostly plastic.
Click to expand...

This is what I have. It’s 20ft up in the air behind the house here. Trees all around it and limbs falling everywhere yesterday and it’s held up. Had mine over a year now.
Last antenna I had was installed by my dad years ago when I was a kid. It wasn’t grounded. Don’t make that mistake. Bout 3 years ago the old one was hit by lightning and it ran in and got the tv and everything electrical on that side of the house including my stove, washer, dryer, ac unit, tv and surround sound. I bought a ground block for this one and put it in line with the coax and grounded it to the same ground rod the meter box is on. Haven’t had any issues with this one linked above and I get more channels than I got with the older, larger one
 
Burt Gummer said:
I bought a ground block for this one and put it in line with the coax and grounded it to the same ground rod the meter box is on.
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Bingo. You want it tied to the service ground. That way if it gets hit, the voltage at your outlets (ground and neutral are bonded and your ‘hot’ lines are relative to this potential) rides the (ground) potential wave from the lightning and stays at 120/24v relative to “ground”.
 
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