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#1
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MATV system at my Mom's house, some DTV DX
During the thanksgiving week, I did some clean up on my mom's house's master TV antenna system. She is located in Oradell NJ, about 14 miles north of NYC's Empire State Building (where NYCs OTA TV signals are transmitted). We have two antennas, your usual Radio Shack VHF antenna for VHF work, and I also have an antenna intended for the 440MHz ham radio band pointing towards Long Island, so we can get channel 21. We also can get channel 55, which IIRC is from the eastern end of Long Island. To merge the tow antennas, I used a special "splitter" sold by radio shack, which has one port for VHF and a 2nd port for UHF. Idea being that it rejects any VHF riding into the UHF port, and UHF into the VHF port. Cuts down on ghosting, which can screw up DTV reception if the converter box's echo canceler can't deal with it. This VHF-UHF combiner then feeds a 4 way splitter to feed 4 sets all over the house. Of course, the set closest to this master splitter is the one that gets channel 21 and 55, as long runs of coax attenuation kills weak UHF. We have on VHF channels 7, 11, 13 and a low power DTV station on channel 2 (WKOB), virtual channel 42 (the RTV station I posted about last week). My old Samsung ATSC HDTV receiver box doesn't get this channel, but the newer boxes and the flat panel my brother bought last summer does get it.
![]() I originally put the 440MHz ham antenna to get TV signals from the Alpine radio tower (the one Armstrong used to transmit FM from way back when) after 911 happened. The bow tie isn't being used right now.
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#2
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What do you do for all of the UHF stations in NYC? Does the 440 antenna receive them ok (slightly off the side) ?
jr |
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#3
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I have cable feeding seven TV's but the splitters were wreaking havoc after our system went digital. I bought a Motorola amplifer with four outputs from Amazon which made all the difference. Bet it would help pump UHF to your more remote sets.
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Reece Perfection is hard to reach with a screwdriver. |
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#4
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Yes, and plenty of signal strength. Seems the ghost cancellation processes in the receiver boxes easily copes with it. The TV set in the living room is located near the antenna feedlines and its converter box gets plenty of VHF and UHF on this system. Only thing is that UHF doesn't get real far in the hundred foot runs of coax. VHF seems to have little problem, though. But there's a significant difference between channel 13's 210MHz and channel 21. s 500MHz carriers. At the more remote sets, I used more of those radio shack VHF UHF combiners with the coax on the VHF port and a UHF hoop on the UHF port.
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#5
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Nice antenna setup.
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Chris Quote from another forum: "(Antique TV collecting) always seemed to me to be a fringe hobby that only weirdos did." |
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#6
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So what is this "Skimlinks" thing that is inserting web links into AV posts? Is it a virus? I click it and it calls up a web page at eBay for a search on "Alpine Radio", a list of car stereos. Below is a screen capture when I put the mouse to the "Alpine Radio" link (it didn't grab the mouse icon though).
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#7
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Not showing on my machine. Maybe it's some kind of spyware?
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AUdubon5425 Youtube Channel |
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#8
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Quote:
![]() http://www.skimlinks.com/ If the powers that be here at VK are finding a way to make money to support it, I have zero objections.
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Tom Last edited by OvenMaster; 12-04-2010 at 11:50 PM. |
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#9
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I'm pulling in WKBN-TV out of Youngstown, Ohio right now, I'm a little less than 50 miles from the transmitter. I'm using a set of conventional Philips rabbit ears, a DTT-900 converter box and a 1982 Zenith system 3. I'm watching Fox on 27.2, the last "Rocky Balboa" movie made in 2006 since I'm a huge Rocky fan. Signal is strong. Maybe not a huge feat but there are times Youngstown does not come in very well here.
My aunt gave us a 1999 36 inch Sony Trinitron set so the 1982 Zenith is semi-retired, but I use her almost everyday for an hour or two.
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Mom (1938 - 2013) - RIP, I miss you Spunky, (1999 - 2016) - RIP, pretty girl! Rascal, (2007 - 2021) RIP, miss you very much |
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