OT Outdoor tv antenna question

kyplowboy · Jan 4, 2011

I give up on my little indoor antenna, when the digital take over happened every thing was fine. Seems now that I am getting fewer channels all the time and I am always have'n to move my antenna around just to get one. I bought an out door antenna and got to scrach'n my head. It says in the directions that it's best to have it close to the tv where you have as short a cable as possible then it says you need to have it over the top of other build'ns. Here's the deal, to get it on my house close to the tv I will have to do alot of brace'n to get it over the barn. Would it be better to have it just a little under the barn roof or would I be better to put it on the back of the barn roof up alot higher but have about 100' of cable?

Dave

Anonymous-0 · Jan 4, 2011

put it on the barn, make sure you have continuous cable without any splices

RayP(MI) · Jan 4, 2011

What's the barn roof made of? If metal, you'd do well to go over. If made of wood and conventional shingles, you can probably get by under the roof. Longer the cable, the more signal loss between antenna and receiver. Need more data to help you out here.

Janicholson · Jan 4, 2011

100 ft is a lot. a signal amplifier, rotator, and High quality Coaxial cable is a good idea. Buildings made of metal, or stucco with metal lathe, will be difficult to deal with. An antenna in an attic with a composite shingle roof can be successful.
The worst is a sheet metal roof. Best of luck

kyplowboy · Jan 4, 2011

All metal pole barn. I thank'n about mounting the pole to the back side of the barn and go'n through the ridge cap up another 10' or so. Don't really have an easy place on the house to get to that I could get over the barn with out alot of brace'n, 20' pole stuck to a 4' tall chimney just seems like it will be pretty flimsey when wind gets kicked up pretty good.

Dave

rrlund · Jan 4, 2011

Do you mean IN the attic with a steel roof is bad? Because mine is OVER a steel roof and I'm pulling in 48 digital channels.

Janicholson · Jan 4, 2011

In the metal roof is not good at all. Over one is either real good or real bad (trial and error with the antenna on a stick is a good idea with a metal roof. Jim

johndeereman · Jan 4, 2011

they make amplifiers for the long cable runs i had 5 channels then we put a steel roof on the house now i have 8 channels a guy down the road has his mounted on top of a 40 foot ribstone silo plus he is on top of a big hill they claim the higher up you go the more channels you get (less interferience)

old · Jan 4, 2011

I got one for my mom from the local radio shack that sort of looks like a fly suaser (sp) that has a rotor built in and it works real well she gets over 10 channels with it. Cost her $100 and is about 50 foot up and out from the TV

buickanddeere · Jan 4, 2011

High gain directional channel 7-69 antenna. Low loss RG-6 cable. Antenna mounted pre-amp. Antenna rotor. Tower high enough to clean local obstructions.
A $19.99 antenna on a 20ft water pipe with RG-59 cable is little better than a Walmart indoor antenna.

jm. · Jan 4, 2011

Dave can,t recall the brand but when we built the new house at the farm did not want to pay for dish. Installed a good brand antena on 80 ft tower and have about 30 chanels or more. I am think I am about as far wes of Nashville as you are north . About 130 miles . You might be geting yous from Bowling Green don,t know what is in your area but I have been suprised and satisfied with this antena set up. jm Dove Tn.

Firewood · Jan 4, 2011

We have 100 feet of cable which is then split for 3 floors. An amplifier is in the line just prior to the spliter and it works just fine.

Dieselbreath · Jan 4, 2011

100 ft of cable is not bad. Just make sure it's RG6. I have about 200'. I placed the antenna (big one) on my shop building and pulled in 30 channels there. At the house, after the 200' run I only got 10 or so channels. Placed a amplifier near the antenna now I get 25. Good enough for me. I would experiment with your antenna location. You might be surprised.

paul · Jan 4, 2011

Continuous cable no splices, and an amplifier with a piece up on the antennea, and the powered part at the end of the 100 feet.

--->Paul

Tony in SD · Jan 4, 2011

Most of the advice given here is sound. I have been designing antenna and coaxial systems for most of my life. So if you tell me the your location I can calculate the losses in the cable run and determine if an amplifier is needed. Splices are ok if they are put on correctly. However a splice can cause trouble if it gets wet or put on wrong. If you know a Cable TV guy he may give you 100 feet of hardline coax for free. 100 feet is a scrap piece for a cable guy. Hardline coaxial cable has much less loss than RG 6 or RG 50. So if you wanted to put the antenna on the barn you could. 200 feet or even 400 feet is not out of the question if you have the right size coaxial cable and/or amplifiers.

PJH · Jan 4, 2011

If you can get to know the local CATV guys, they have spool ends of low loss hardline that might be free for the asking. It's 75 ohm impedence. You can make end fittings out of 1/2" compression fittings and a pl259 connecter. I've gotten several hundred feet from them for use as feedlines for ham radio repeaters. They seem glad to see it leaving their storage facility. Probably the best material available for low signal loss. . .

Paul

PJH · Jan 4, 2011

Sorry Tony - I'm a slow typist. You covered the same idea at the same time I did - only better.

Paul

buickanddeere · Jan 4, 2011

That amp doesn't compensate from coax loss between the antenna and the splitter or loads.
Your amp only compensates for splitter losses.

greenbeanman in Kansas · Jan 4, 2011

A lot of you fellow sure are lucky. Even if I could pick up every single broadcast station within a 100 mile radius I still couldn't get as many stations as many of you do.

Of course on the other hand I've got a lot of elbow room that many of you don't have.

Dell (WA) · Jan 5, 2011

plowboy.......do you know WHY you haffta have TV antennas as tall as possible??? Its called signal loss. Antenna mounted amplifiers do NOT make up for signal loss but they make up for co-ax line loss. Understand the difference???

Same thing, do NOT mount yer antenna inside under a METAL roof. Know WHY??? TV does NOT go thru metal and guess what??? NO SIGNAL. But yes, you can mount OVER a sheetmetal roof and actually gitt some extra signal over wood roof.

Remember, all TV antennas are DIRECTIONAL. And depending on design can be very directional (and good for long distance) as 10* lobe (technical term) and you won't gitta signal no matter how much antenna amplification you have.

There are free antenna pointing programs that will tell you which way to point for the stations in your area. Sometimes yer lucky and they are all in the same general direction. Iff'n they are all around you, guess what? You'll need a rotor motor to tune them all in. And surprizingly enuff, that is what you are doing by moving yer rabbit ears around. Isn't that amazing???? ........Dell, FCC licensed TV Engineer

Dell (WA) · Jan 5, 2011

plowboy.......do you know WHY you haffta have TV antennas as tall as possible??? Its called signal loss. Antenna mounted amplifiers do NOT make up for signal loss but they make up for co-ax line loss. Understand the difference???

Same thing, do NOT mount yer antenna inside under a METAL roof. Know WHY??? TV does NOT go thru metal and guess what??? NO SIGNAL. But yes, you can mount OVER a sheetmetal roof and actually gitt some extra signal over wood roof.

Remember, all TV antennas are DIRECTIONAL. And depending on design can be very directional (and good for long distance) as 10* lobe (technical term) and you won't gitta signal no matter how much antenna amplification you have.

There are free antenna pointing programs that will tell you which way to point for the stations in your area. Sometimes yer lucky and they are all in the same general direction. Iff'n they are all around you, guess what? You'll need a rotor motor to tune them all in. And surprizingly enuff, that is what you are doing by moving yer rabbit ears around. Isn't that amazing???? ........Dell, FCC licensed TV Engineer

Anonymous-0 · Jan 5, 2011

What are you complaining about?????????? Grew up in a small river valley with power lines running over and right beside the house. Only TV that would work was a 13" B&W on a clear day. Got 3 channels then. Heavy fog or rain= no TV, light fog, you could hear the lines humming and tell every vehicle within a mile up and down the river that didn't have resistor plugs. Had a 60ft antenna tower with voice activated rotator (dad said "turn the antenna" and one of us would go outside and turn til he yelled "OK". 1/2" water pipe with a gear on the bottom and a riding mower steering wheel/box to turn. We later put one with an electric rotor about 300 ft away on top of the hill and got the same 3 channels just in any weather and could use a small color TV.

You ain't watched TV till you had rabbit ears with tinfoil chunks that you had to ad and adjust to get a better picture.

Tony in SD · Jan 5, 2011

Paul, I take it your a Ham.. If you ask, they have factory made "F" connectors which are standard for Television RF input. However they may charge you for them because they are not scrap to them. The PL259 is one of the standard two-way radio connectors it will work but has to be converted to "F".

kyplowboy · Jan 5, 2011

I think I understand what you and every one else is say'n but lets make sure I got this.

If give'n a choice tween a lower antenna with a short cord and a barn tween it and town or a taller antenna with out a barn but longer cord I should choose the longer cord and put an amp on. You are say'n put it on the barn, run a long cord, and put an amp on right?

Dave

JDemaris · Jan 5, 2011

I've got antennas mounted 600 feet from my house and I get 30 channels from stations that are 70 miles away - with many moutain tops in the way.

Distance is not a problem is you use the correct wire and correct amps to prevent signal loss. Long runs need RG-11 coax, shorter RG-6.

JDemaris · Jan 5, 2011

I'm running over 600 feet on low VHF, high VHF, and UHF with RG11. Loss depends on the band being used, but on average it's only 1.3 dB per every 100 feet. Good RG6 only loses 2 dB per 100 feet. Either way, it's not big deal to make up 5-20 dB of line-loss with a line-amp. A good quality 25 dB line-amp only costs around $20.

Dell (WA) · Jan 5, 2011

yep Dave.......thats the gist of the recommendation. TALL is better!!! Use an antenna mounted amplifier to make up for co-ax line loss from tall barn roof to house. Inside the house will be yer amplifier power box plugged to house power. Then co-ax to yer new digital TV. Simple, eh? .......Dell

Brian Jasper co. Ia · Jan 5, 2011

Dave, I know that well. We had TV's growing up that were the old tube type that had to warm up before it started working. Remember the fine tuning on them? Dad would get irate when you changed channels and it was always someone's fault for fiddling with the fine tuning when the reception was poor. (more often than not)

kyplowboy · Jan 5, 2011

It is now. Thanks!

Dave

OT Outdoor tv antenna question

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