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Old 01-24-2013, 02:48 PM   #1
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Installing a Digital TV Antenna

Removed since it seems to be unwanted info.

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Old 01-26-2013, 04:54 PM   #2
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Re: Installing a Digital TV Antenna

Ahh, Marketing! The people selling these antennas kind of reminds me of the ads marketing "Digital Headphones," as if any of us were born with digital ears.

It's a good article, but could have more correctly been titled "Installing a UHF TV antenna."

While there are some actual digitally tuned antennas in the nose cones of aircraft, and in the satellite uplink seen on the roof rack of Commissioner Reagan's suburban in Blue Bloods, the antennas for broadcast TV are designed to pick up the frequency of the channels. The antennas do not differentiate whether the picture and sound are encoded onto the radio waves in analog or digital mode.

These small "digital" antennas, and the traditional RV disc antenna, get their performance in a small package by having a preamp boost the weak signals to push it down the cable to the tuner. A regular antenna without a preamp would need to be larger to pick up weak signals that might get lost in a long cable.

A word of warning - during the analog to digital transition, stations for a time actually had two channels, one analog, and one digital. Since the VHF channels were pretty much full, almost all of the digital simulcasts were on UHF. So most of these "digital antennas" were designed to tune UHF only, and ignore the "old" VHF frequencies. After analog was turned off, the stations could pick the original channel or the temporary channel as their permanent home. Many stayed, and some went back. So a UHF-only design like the one in this project will not get VHF "air" channels 2 through 13 as well, if at all.

It is hard to tell what "air" channel (frequency) a station is on now, since they all still ID as the "used-to-be" channel numbers.

For example, in the upstate NY Capital market:
6.1 reverted back to channel 6 on VHF after the switch
10.1 kept its digital channel 26 UHF
13.1 now transmits on channel 12, with boosters on channels 18 and 38, while digital 51.1 is now on the actual channel 13
17.1 kept its digital channel 34
23.1 which had been UHF, kept its digital channel 7, staying on a new VHF channel
45.1 kept its digital channel 43
55.1 kept its digital channel 50

ABC and PBS are on UHF only, NBC is on both. But CBS and Fox are only on VHF. The antenna in the article would not be good for NASCAR or football fans here. And Channel 6.1 here is the only major station actually on the channel it claims to be . The other 'channel' numbers do not match tuner settings at all. Who thinks up these things?


Helpful link - to find out what over-the-air stations might be in range of where you happen to be, enter your address at http://www.antennaweb.org to generate a list.
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Old 01-26-2013, 05:12 PM   #3
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Re: Installing a Digital TV Antenna

One of millie's friends here installed one of those after they put in solar panels and had the electricity from the power company removed. theirs works good, but they have limited channels.

I have direct tv sat. in my bus.
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Old 01-26-2013, 06:52 PM   #4
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Re: Installing a Digital TV Antenna

My plan was to just grab one of our DVR units out of the house and put it in thebus so we could watch what was recorded already on the harddrive of the unit,I have read tho that you have to have sat. Signal to actually use the unit??(to complete "setup" ) Any input to that?I haven't tried it yet
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Old 01-26-2013, 10:00 PM   #5
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Re: Installing a Digital TV Antenna

My apologies. Since I happen to think that RV OTA antennas are a bit on the crappy side (if the one on the Class C was anything to go by) and not everyone has a sat dish, I thought it might be of interest. I have been in areas that you either had a sat dish (IF YOU COULD HIT A SATELLITE THRU THE TREES) or you used an antenna. We were using an antenna when the "local" channels went digital. Or rather the channels broadcasted in both but the repeater was digital only. So the TV stations in Asheville (NC) and Greenville-Spartenburg (SC) were repeated in digital only to the Western NC area we were in at the time. We ended up patching a 100 ft coax cable into a splitter at the cabin our daughter was living in at the time.

I will pull the link down. Sorry.
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Old 01-27-2013, 05:39 PM   #6
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Re: Installing a Digital TV Antenna

Sorry if you misunderstood my post - I did say it was a good construction article, no need to pull the link down.
Those are great antennas for UHF, where a lot of the stations have moved to. We have played with the same model at the office.

I have relatives who say I get too "engineerical," so in the process of being over-descriptive of the "why" of things, my points about the "what" sometimes tend to get lost.

My obscured points are:

1. If you have a working TV antenna, no need to throw it away for a "digital" model - the frequencies are the same.
2. The particular Phillips model, and some others from the transition era, are UHF only, and may miss some channels.
3. An antenna with a good preamp will out-perform one without one.

I've been taking things apart to find out the "why" since before I started school.
Sometimes I forget all other people need is an "executive summary."
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Old 01-28-2013, 02:35 PM   #7
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Re: Installing a Digital TV Antenna

Quote:
I will pull the link down. Sorry.
Seriously? What about the marbles, are you taking them too? You bring a lot of good valuable info to the table but if anyone questions any part of it you get bent out of shape. What's up with that? You're an adult. Don't take everything so personal.
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Old 01-28-2013, 05:23 PM   #8
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Re: Installing a Digital TV Antenna

I have already been "warned" on another forum. Just playing it safe. I don't need this forum banning me.
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Old 01-28-2013, 06:07 PM   #9
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Re: Installing a Digital TV Antenna

No one is going to ban you from here. You haven't done anything. I just think you shouldn't take a different opinion as someone attacking you. Other than vicious attacks against other members, I think everything is pretty much open for discussion.
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Old 01-29-2013, 05:33 PM   #10
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Re: Installing a Digital TV Antenna

We've been on digital ant. for a number of years at the house and I love it... We get the usual abc, cbs, nbc, fox and a few more... When we had a million channels there was nothing on to watch, so I just have less channels to not watch now... I do have one of the converter boxes because our current tv doesn't understand the signal on its own...

I plan on installing one in the bus... I'm sure it wont get signal in most places, but on trips to friends and families places it'll be nice to have when you want to relax away from the klan...

I owned a sat installation company several years ago and had contracts with dish and Dtv... I use to sell dishes on tripods to full timers all the time... Non full timers would buy them and just take one of the boxes from their house on the road with them...
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