TV Antenna for FM

[braxus]

What if I put a splitter at the antenna output and put the preamp board and PS after that? Or another option is a switch box from the antenna and then switch to the output jack I will be using. Would either option be viable?

 

[Sandy G]

Uhh...Why not just order a purpose built FM antenna & be done w/it, & not hafta worry w/all this foolishness in the 1st place ? They're not THAT expensive, prolly cheaper than trying to redneck engineer a way to make a TV antenny work right...Why take a narrow, twisty, 2-lane road up a mountain when you've got an Interstate that'll get you there sooner, w/less drama ? (grin)

 

[JBL GUY]

A splitter will cost you at least 3dB of signal loss. Not a good thing.

Braxus you can try any configuration that you want to. Any thing that you try will be less effective than ,as Sandy stated, purpose designed antennae.

Have you tried to see if you can get good TV reception with the antenna in it's original configuration and final mounting location?

 

[braxus]

No I didn't try the antenna for tv as it originally was. I wasn't planning on using it for tv when I tried this. But since I do have a HDTV, I decided to test it to see if I could pick up channels. Anyway the antenna is used in a room and not a roof, since I don't own the place I live. So this is why I can't buy one of those big antennas and put it on the roof.

 

[Oerets]

Just pick up a old set of rabbit ears from a thrift, they work surprisingly well.

I have picked up some nice ones from the 50's that look cool and work great.


Barney

 

[titanstats]

Well for fun I plugged in the Radio Shack amp to the antenna and plugged the output of that into my HDTV. Set the tv to antenna and programmed the channel selection. I picked up only 1 station in digital and it was in the US. It was KVOS Bellingham which is 46 miles away from us. Signal kept breaking up at times, so its probably a bit too far away. But when the signal was ok- the picture was pretty good and clean. Im surprised I got no Canadian stations in digital since we are switching over to shut off the analog signals soon and I know a couple stations already broadcasting in digital.

Hey there Braxus. I'm in Point Grey, and can pick up 9 OTA HD stations using just a piece of wire about 6 feet long. Most of the local stations broadcast pretty strongly from Mount Seymour, with pretty good line-of-site for the whole Lower Mainland -- I'm surprised that you aren't getting them. Check out TVfool.com; there's a similar site for FM called FMfool.com. Both are pretty cool sites, and should be able to help you a bit.

Get rid of the antenna, or play around with placement -- you should get a bunch of stations. BTW, the quality of the OTA signals beats to death what comes out of my Telus HD box.

 

[braxus]

I put it all back together again. Im wondering if the heat from the soldering iron fried part of the amp board. Im getting less channels now then before and the only difference is KVOS comes in better now. But CBC still is fuzzy and the tower is only 6 miles from here. Doesn't make sense. Rotating it doesn't make much difference. I might end up converting it back for FM and forgetting tv use.

 

[JBL GUY]

I put it all back together again. Im wondering if the heat from the soldering iron fried part of the amp board. Im getting less channels now then before and the only difference is KVOS comes in better now. But CBC still is fuzzy and the tower is only 6 miles from here. Doesn't make sense. Rotating it doesn't make much difference. I might end up converting it back for FM and forgetting tv use.

Probably not. Check for a solder bridge where you resoldered it to the the F-59 RF connector.

Are you using the power inserter and does it have a good power supply connected to it?

It is possible that the preamp board has a problem.

 

[MelodyMaster]

Yes, this is what I have said all along in all of my posts.

The reason for the experiment is the inclusion of an FM trap in the internal preamplifier.



It would also be good to know if all of your signals are in the UHF band or if some of them are in the VHF band. That will be of a help of you decide to replace your current antenna.

Remember that anything that you try will result in a decrease in performance. So if your current antenna does not work well in its original configuration, it will not work well in any alternative configuration.

If it works well in it's original configuration, then you could experiment with different configurations.

And to the OP. Just to be clear as you are experimenting. The circuit board is the preamp. The thing that you call the preamp box is merely a circuit that sends operating power to the circuit board. I mention this because holding the circuit board in your hand or having it on any type of RF conductive surface may affect it's operation.

And remember, any small form factor antenna is going to be a compromise in performance.

Even the antenna that Melody Master referenced is considerably less sensitive than a simple half wave dipole in the VHF television bands and only shows a small amount of gain in the UHF television band and that may be offset somewhat by the noise factor (the amount of noise the electronics in the antenna add to the already weak signal) of around 3dB in the UHF television band.

Edit...From the specs for the antenna that Melody Master referenced it is not clear if the antenna performance includes the affects of the amplifier or the gain of the amplifier need to be added to the antenna specifications. If so that would make it a some what better on the VHF bands and considerably better on the UHF bands.

Melody Master does your antenna pass FM signals? IF so it might be of interest to the OP.

As I remarked, the Mini-State antenna did offer bettter performance than a twin bowtie UHF antenna as regards ATSC fringe reception. VHF performance seems good, getting channel 6 analog snow-free from 40 miles away, but of course I didn't have a yagi with which to compare. The Mini-state already wins for size versus a yagi for VHF gain though.

No it doesn't pass FM, except for surprisingly good reception of a Buffalo college station immediately above the channel 6 sound carrier. I do believe that the purpose here is to maximize gain in the lower and upper VHF bands, and not waste electronics on the FM band, which is a similar logarithmic passband to channels 7-13.

Yah, I wouldn't second-guess the design of the OP's circular antenna. The corporate R&D departmant that designed it probably knew what they were doing. That board is the preamp and antenna loading/tuning, not just a "trap" for a band for which the antenna design isn't at all optimized.

 

[MelodyMaster]

Hey there Braxus. I'm in Point Grey, and can pick up 9 OTA HD stations using just a piece of wire about 6 feet long. Most of the local stations broadcast pretty strongly from Mount Seymour, with pretty good line-of-site for the whole Lower Mainland -- I'm surprised that you aren't getting them. Check out TVfool.com; there's a similar site for FM called FMfool.com. Both are pretty cool sites, and should be able to help you a bit.

Get rid of the antenna, or play around with placement -- you should get a bunch of stations. BTW, the quality of the OTA signals beats to death what comes out of my Telus HD box.

For reference, when rotated and stations added manually after the TV does its initial search, my Mini-State on a 7th-floor balcony in South West Mississauga, when Great Lakes Tropo is NOT occurring, receives 18 primary ATSC, 29 total ATSC with subs, and 8 analog stations with usable pictures. That's Buffalo, Hamilton, Toronto, Burlington, Paris, and Kitchener. With Morning Tropo inverts it's 58 to 66 total ATSC stations (Rochester, Syracuse, Erie, and Watertown pop in. One Erie station is always receiveable but with regular breakup) WBBZ Buffalo with its 3 subs is only rarely receivable, I believe that's because it transmits on actual channel 7, VHF, rather than the UHF of all the other fringe-area ATSC stations, but it could also be due to transmitter power and transmitting antenna directionality.

Yes ATSC OTA beats cable or satellite, that's why I make the effort to get the antenna right, and chose an apartment with a balcony facing the correct direction to begin with.

Oh and the Hauppauge tuner in the media server always receives more channels than the Samsung plasma. It's either more sensitive than the Samsung, or better handles reception errors. This DOES point out that the electronics in the antenna does not add significant noise, but is actualy working with the antenna elements to provide gain.