Weird high tech problem

[Jeff O.]

(01-12-2016 04:01 PM)TASP Wrote:  One thing I really like about ATSC though, multiple receiving antennas can be combined for reception in different directions without a rotator now.

Not widely appreciated however, when combining antennas, a regular splitter with 1 GHz bandwidth like Radio Shack used to sell for $5 doesn't work all that well as the incoming signal on one leg tends to shoot out the other leg and not appear on the combined tap. Using a 2.4 GHz splitters yields better results as the port to port isolation is better and more of the incoming signals make it to your TV.

When digital TV was rolled out in my location, I decided to see if I could get an adjacent market’s stations in addition to my local market. All of the adjacent market transmitters were clustered within 0.5 degrees azimuth about 37 miles from my home. All of the adjacent market transmitters were UHF, so I got a 4-bay bow-tie antenna and pointed it in the right direction. I installed a low-ish gain amplifier at the antenna. Local transmitters varied in distance from 3 to 9 miles, with an azimuth spread of nearly 30 degrees. All channels but one used a UHF channel for their transitional simulcast station, but due to the one channel that used VHF, I had to get a combo UHF-VHF antenna, which I pointed in the middle of the azimuth spread. (I did not think up this antenna plan on my own, I remember calling an antenna company and talking to an engineer who recommended the plan.) I have always gotten perfect reception on the adjacent market channels, but several of the local ones were inconsistent, dropping out and blocking, which I always blamed on that combo antenna required by the one VHF broadcaster. I don't recall if I asked the engineer about combining the antennas, or what, but I ended up just running the leads into an A/B switch, and switched back and forth depending on which market I wanted to watch. After several years, I finally got HDTV via cable, so the OTA reception was relegated to minimal use, like if the cable went out or a local channel preempted something that I could get OTA from the adjacent market. By the way, when the local channels finally transitioned to all digital after the initial simulcast period, the local channel that first picked a VHF channel moved to a UHF channel. That kind of cheesed me off, I felt like they owed me a new antenna. (Actually I was not so miffed about the cost for the antenna itself - I paid someone to install them in the first place because I am reluctant (read terrified) to climb a ladder to the top of my chimney, so I'll have to pay again to replace it.)

Fast forward to now, and of course my cable company has kept relentlessly raising my rates, so I’m considering cutting the cord. But I have become addicted to DVR service, I cannot do without that. I know that OTA DVRs are now available, but I wondered how I would handle the antenna switching for programmed recording. So, long story short, all I need is a 2.4 GHz splitter to combine my two antenna leads? Any worry about one of those leads going through a little adapter that sends power up the cable to the amplifier on the UHF antenna? If I do cut the cord, I’ll probably replace that stupid combo antenna with a 4-bay bow-tie UHF antenna to hopefully eliminate the inconsistent reception on some of the local channels.

Any help, comments, or advice would be appreciated, from TASP or any other knowledgeable forum members.

Thanks,
Jeff