I have a mast for outdoor antennas tall enough to mount two full side standard UHF/VHF/FM antennas on. One currently on it, angled enough to get the locals in well most of the time.
Question is, my mom is moving into the house soon. I was thinking of taking the antenna down from her place, mounting it above/below the current antenna on my house, using a splitter/combiner, and angled in a different direction than the original, therefore basically making a rather large makeshift "omnidirectional" antenna.
Would a set-up like this, in ANY way, improve signal strength(which is in the 70's-80's mostly currently on the locals on average), or pull in extra channels in your opinions? In other words, would it hurt anything to try it?
-- Albert Sims
West Monroe,Louisiana
Albert Sims <albert71...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>Would a set-up like this, in ANY way, improve signal strength(which is >in the 70's-80's mostly currently on the locals on average), or pull in >extra channels in your opinions? In other words, would it hurt anything >to try it?
It depends.
Go to TV Fool or AntennaWeb and see if there are stations that you can get but
are not getting currently. If not, why bother?
Also, an "omnidirectional" antenna may pick up multipath (what used to be
called "ghosts") which will hurt your reception.
Google for info on combining antennas; the spacing between them and the length
of the wire connecting them are important.
> Would a set-up like this, in ANY way, improve signal strength(which is
> in the 70's-80's mostly currently on the locals on average), or pull in
> extra channels in your opinions? In other words, would it hurt anything
> to try it?
If most of your stations are coming from one central location, then a
second antenna is not going to help. Just stick with 1 antenna, and
put a splitter to feed your mom's tv.
As the other poster said, go to tvfool.com and post your results so we
can see what is in your area (your address will not be displayed).
One more thing: Antennas age. It really might not be worth the effort to take
down and re-use the old antenna. You could be far better off with a new one.
> I have a mast for outdoor antennas tall enough to mount two full side
> standard UHF/VHF/FM antennas on. One currently on it, angled enough to
> get the locals in well most of the time.
> Question is, my mom is moving into the house soon. I was thinking of
> taking the antenna down from her place, mounting it above/below the
> current antenna on my house, using a splitter/combiner, and angled in a
> different direction than the original, therefore basically making a
> rather large makeshift "omnidirectional" antenna.
> Would a set-up like this, in ANY way, improve signal strength(which is
> in the 70's-80's mostly currently on the locals on average), or pull in
> extra channels in your opinions? In other words, would it hurt anything
> to try it?
> --
> Albert Sims
> West Monroe,Louisiana
Angled in a different direction is NOT a good idea as you'll get some
very strange phase additions / cancellations. I would only do that if
I had a spectrum analyzer to see the final version of the signal. If
you have stations is a different direction you might look into
'jointennas' which are frequency selective and will inhibit the phase
behavior but they aren't cheap. If your signal is in the 70-80 zone
count your lucky stars and stop.
Would it hurt to try? As long as you don't fall off the ladder it will
only spend some time. Personally, I'd leave it alone.
