Connecting two TV antennas, rcv signals from diff directions

[barnabas1969]

I bit the bullet and put up an outdoor TV antenna. It's a combination UHF/hi-band-VHF antenna. I re-purposed one of my dual-hybrid NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuners. Most of my ClearQAM channels also come OTA. I can get all the majors, including ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX. I even get WB, CW, MyNet, ION, several independents, and a couple of PBS stations. If this works well enough, I may "cut the cord"... as long as I can find a way for my wife to watch live feeds of CNN... and we can get some Showtime shows (Dexter, Weeds) some other way (Hulu, DVD, etc).

The antenna is almost perfect for my location. Almost all of the transmitters for the stations I want to receive are in the same direction. However, one of the stations is 63 degrees to the west of the others... and that channel breaks up once in a while. It's an "ION" network channel... not the most frequently-watched channel in my household, but they do play good shows occasionally.

So, I was thinking about possibly mounting another smaller UHF antenna on the same mast, below the other antenna, pointed toward that station... WOPX, actual RF channel 48 (virtual 56.1).

My other stations are on various RF channels, ranging from VHF 11 up to UHF 46, 47, and 51. As you can see, UHF channel 48 is between my other channels on 47 and 51.

I've looked into signal combiners, but I don't see any that would work in my situation. I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with this. I've thought about just putting a small UHF antenna on the mast and connecting the 300 ohm outputs of the two antennas in parallel... but I'm not sure how that will affect the impedance of the whole antenna system.

I don't want a rotator.

Can anyone with experience offer any advice?

Thanks.

[KHTPC75]

I have a DB8 uhf hdtv antenna that basically has two halves. Both halves are hooked together with what I believe to just be a passive combiner with 2 coax cables in and one out.

The current revision of the same antenna has a combiner bar with what they call a transformer.

The DB8 is multi-directional so I just hang it up in the attic and it does it's thing. No pointing. It was $69 back in 2006 and you can still get it today for the same price on amazon and other places.

Anyway...Check out this URL: http://www.tvantenna.com/support/tutori ... ining.html

[barnabas1969]

Yep, I've read that tutorial. It mentions the "Jointenna" combiner. However, there are no combiners that work with my specific channels.

I've posted my question over at TVFool.com. A couple of respondents there have suggested that I simply aim my antenna at a point between the two groups of transmitters before I try to combine antennas. I'll give that a shot this weekend. If it works... it's free. If not... I'll try combining antennas with a combiner that does not filter the frequencies. When I posted here originally, I was not aware of antenna combiners that do not include notch/bandpass filters. I found a couple of them... and they should work if I cannot get a reliable signal when aiming my antenna between the two groups of transmitters.

[bluezr1]

Yep, I've read that tutorial. It mentions the "Jointenna" combiner. However, there are no combiners that work with my specific channels.

I've posted my question over at TVFool.com. A couple of respondents there have suggested that I simply aim my antenna at a point between the two groups of transmitters before I try to combine antennas. I'll give that a shot this weekend. If it works... it's free. If not... I'll try combining antennas with a combiner that does not filter the frequencies. When I posted here originally, I was not aware of antenna combiners that do not include notch/bandpass filters. I found a couple of them... and they should work if I cannot get a reliable signal when aiming my antenna between the two groups of transmitters.

You could always just add another tuner for the other antenna.

Sent from my Full Android on Supersonic using Tapatalk 2 Beta-2

[dmagerl]

You can use a regular old splitter, only installed backwards, to combine two antennas.

However, using two antennas pointed in different directions almost always results in signal problems. One of the reasons OTA TV works is because of the directionality that a TV antenna provides. It rejects cochannel signals off the sides and back of the antenna. By combining two antennas, you eliminate this benefit. What is off the side of one antenna may be in the main lobe of the other antenna and you get no rejection at all.

During times of normal propagation, this may not ever be a problem, but during times of atmospheric skip, which is during most of the summer, you may not get any signal anywhere due to signals from both antennas interfering with each other.

A better way, though more complicated and messier to maintain, is to install two tuner cards and dedicate a tuner card to each antenna. This is what I do. I have 3 tuners on an antenna pointed toward Chicago, and 1 tuner on an antenna pointed toward Milwaukee. Then I edit the sources for each channel to only use the appropriate tuners. If I were to combine the two antennas into a single feed, I would get interference from Wisconsin stations wiping out all the Chicago stations.

You can try the reverse connected splitter. If it works for you, fine, you're good to go. If not, you'll have to use the multi-tuner approach.

[KHTPC75]

Came across this in case you haven't seen it yet: http://overtheair.saveandreplay.com/Ant ... anging.asp

[morrison0880]

You can use a regular old splitter, only installed backwards, to combine two antennas.

However, using two antennas pointed in different directions almost always results in signal problems. One of the reasons OTA TV works is because of the directionality that a TV antenna provides. It rejects cochannel signals off the sides and back of the antenna. By combining two antennas, you eliminate this benefit. What is off the side of one antenna may be in the main lobe of the other antenna and you get no rejection at all.

During times of normal propagation, this may not ever be a problem, but during times of atmospheric skip, which is during most of the summer, you may not get any signal anywhere due to signals from both antennas interfering with each other.

A better way, though more complicated and messier to maintain, is to install two tuner cards and dedicate a tuner card to each antenna. This is what I do. I have 3 tuners on an antenna pointed toward Chicago, and 1 tuner on an antenna pointed toward Milwaukee. Then I edit the sources for each channel to only use the appropriate tuners. If I were to combine the two antennas into a single feed, I would get interference from Wisconsin stations wiping out all the Chicago stations.

You can try the reverse connected splitter. If it works for you, fine, you're good to go. If not, you'll have to use the multi-tuner approach.

Hey dmager!

I've been using an antenna for years now, and we bought a home last year with horrible wiring. Cables running every which way, and I ffinally got things figured out as to where they run. I'm going to be setting up my antenna system this summer. We're currently using an indoor for the bedroom, and have been using a ClearStream 2 http://www.amazon.com/Antennas-Direct-C ... B0017O3UHI downstairs, which has stayed indoors while we figured out the best way to mount it and set it up.

I am in the exact predicament as you are. Living in the Racine area, I could easily live with just the Milwaukee stations, but I'd like to pull in Chicago as well. I'm pretty new to learning exactly how antennas work, so I'd like to get some advice from you if you wouldn't mind. I'd like to use an amplifier on the antenna to boost the signal as well. Could you give me a better, or more detailed, description of your current set up? I would like to look into combining the two antennas into one line if possible, but if you have a better idea I'm all up for it. I appreciate any help you can give. Thanks!