72 miles. 4.7 KW, Indoor antenna

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

I am successfully receiving a HDTV station that broadcasts
at only 4.7 KW, and is 72 miles away. Moreover, I am using
an indoor antenna! There are dropouts, but my Samsung
T150 receiver is able to lock on to it about 80% of the time
(subjective estimate).

First, why I bothered. I was enjoying receiving a PBS
station on analog until a religious station started up
broadcasting on the same analog frequency from a
much closer distance, and drowned out the PBS station.
Last year, the PBS station started broadcasting a weak
digital signal on a neighboring channel that had no local
interference. I already had a digital receiver, but
unfortunately, the signal was too weak to tune in,
although it did register on the T150 meter.

I took this as a challenge to restore my reception. Because
of homeowner association restrictions, it seemed there
might be problems with putting up an outside antenna,
so I tried to do what I could with an indoor antenna. I
tried a lot of things, but will just describe what succeeded.

First I found a "hotspot" for the channel at an upstairs
window, where it seemed to be stronger than anywhere
else. I found that I could occasionally (but very rarely)
tune in the DTV signal with an amplified Jensen antenna
plus an additional radio shack "bullet" inline amplifier.
This was only when weather conditions were just right.

I switched to Zenith Silver Sensor and a ChannelMaster
7777 preamp, and I was able to pick up the signal more
often, but still rarely. Then I replaced the CM preamp
with a high-end preamp from a U.K. company. This was
a PHEMT preamp with 0.4 DB noise figure. This was
attached directly to the F connector on the Silver Sensor.
This improved things a bit more, but still not much.

I replaced the Zenith (which is a log-periodic) by a bigger
log-periodic made by Terk (!), which did seem to be a
bit better on the digital. At any rate, it actually allowed
me to pick up the audio on the PBS analog channel, even
over the interfering nearby channel, much of the time.
This allowed me to use the analog channel as a "guide"
for fine-tuning the aiming of the antenna.

The real breakthrough came when I added the Silver Sensor,
and a second Terk log-periodic in a configuration where
the driven antenna was "parasitically" enhanced by two
other antennas. This dramatically improved the reception
of the digital signal. I found the configuration through a
trial and error process, and it looked something like this:


preamp-terk1 -------------------->

zenith <------------------ station

terk2 -------------------->

Notice that the middle Silver Sensor is aimed in roughly the
opposite direction to the station. (Actually, it is at a slight
angle that I discovered by trial and error.) Of course, each
of the antennas is horizontally oriented.

I also got a jointenna from ChannelMaster that allows me to
mix the signal from this arrangement with a more conventional
antenna for getting the regular strong nearby stations. The
reason is that my specialized antenna above actually fails to
receive some strong nearby stations, even though it gets the
particular station I was interested in. Evidently, it is tuned for
that frequency only.

Paul

--
Email: lastname at best dot com. No spam please.
All spam will be complained to sender's ISP.

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

Then I replaced the CM preamp
>with a high-end preamp from a U.K. company. This was
>a PHEMT preamp with 0.4 DB noise figure. This was
>attached directly to the F connector on the Silver Sensor.
>This improved things a bit more, but still not much.
>


I've been looking for "commercial" and improved preamps.

Can you tell me the name and a US source for this preamp, or where you
went to find out more about it?

I'd appreciate any info.

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

In article <df95q09pag2k715k9ssrhb767t9sldq4um@4ax.com>, Bouncer
<humz@alot.net> wrote:

> Then I replaced the CM preamp
> >with a high-end preamp from a U.K. company. This was
> >a PHEMT preamp with 0.4 DB noise figure. This was
> >attached directly to the F connector on the Silver Sensor.
> >This improved things a bit more, but still not much.
> >
>
>
> I've been looking for "commercial" and improved preamps.
>
> Can you tell me the name and a US source for this preamp, or where you
> went to find out more about it?
>
> I'd appreciate any info.

http://www.researchcomms.com/ is their website.
I don't think there is a U.S. source---I had them mail
it to me in the U.S., paying by international money
order. They will also answer email questions about
their product.

Paul

--
Email: lastname at best dot com. No spam please.
All spam will be complained to sender's ISP.

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004, Jeff Rife wrote:
> D. Stussy (kd6lvw@bde-arc.ampr.org) wrote in alt.tv.tech.hdtv:
> > HOAs cannot ban OTA TV antennas (or small satellite dishes), period. The FCC
> > has a FAQ as a downloadable PDF file on their web site for this topic.
>
> Everything you say is correct, but just to clarify one thing: only satellite
> dishes have a size limit (1 meter). The TV antenna for OTA can be any
> size. Some people get confused by the wording in the rules.

That's why I said "SMALL" satellite dishes. :-)