Questions from an emigrant from the McIntosh and Antique Radio forums
 

Good day all! I've been lurking here for a little bit and learned a lot! I've been mostly into old McIntosh equipment and tube radios; gonna jump into TVs now.

I'm currently deployed in the middle east, I'll be home in May. I have an old Zenith floor model TV set--not sure of the exact #--that my wife got from her mother while I was gone. As I remember it works great!

Anyway, I've requested my two converter boxes from the FCC and I've been thinking about getting rid of my Verizon FIOS TV service and just using an outdoor antenna. I actually watch very little of the channels Verizon has available--don't see the need to keep paying for it.

NOW to the questions: Can I run all the TVs in my house from one antenna? I was thinking about running the cable from the antenna to the junction box that the FIOS uses to send a signal to the different rooms in the house. I'm thinking of getting one of those omnidirectional 'flying saucer' looking antennas from Radio Shack. I live in Riverview Florida; from my back yard I can see several broadcast towers that the local stations use. According to AntennaWeb I'm less than 20 miles from 31 transmitters, about half of those I'm less than 5 miles away from.

Assuming I can use just one antenna, do I need a converter box for each TV? I'd imagine I need a good RF amp...

Man this has been a long first post!! I'll quit for now, thanks for any help!

Cheers--Steve

First off, God bless you and everyone else who is serving in the Middle East!

Yes, you will need a converter box for each TV.

You will be able to use one antenna as long as you use a quality splitter and cables. You may need a signal amplifier as well. That will be one of those situations that you'll have to experiment with.

Unless all the transmitters you want to receive are in the same direction from your house, you'll also want a rotor for your antenna. This lets you adjust the antenna to the direction of each station, without having to climb onto your roof each time.

If you want to watch different channels on each TV, you will need a converter box for each TV. However it could be possible for one amplified antenna with spllitter to supply all the converters. It would depend on the distance of the sets from one another and the number of sets supplied.

However, if you, as I am , are just connecting your antique TVs to a converter and watching them one at a time, you may be able to drive more than one set per converter(with a splitter). I have no trouble driving 4 TVs using one Antenna/ASTC tuner/RF converter/splitter combination. I have not tried the coupon eligible converters yet as I have not received my coupons.

Thanks for the answers! I've been reading a bit of the 'TV-101' in the B&W TV forum. I'm looking forward to getting home and starting work on my Zenith!

Go to avsforum.com and click on their "Local HDTV Info & Reception." Then go to the Tampa thread and someone will help you there also. That thread has just about every local TV market listed and someone can help you. I'm just north in Pasco County and there are some real experts on OTA antennas, pre-amps, rotors and whatever; great bunch of people use AVS forums. An omni-directional may do you just fine there in Riverview, only thing is to try and see how it does for you. I see a number omnis here in pasco but don't know how they perform up here. I'm an outdoor antenna nut myself and so have a 30 ft. telescoping mast and Terrestrial Digital 91-XG for UHF digital channels. I haven't finished the install yet because still need a rotor and pre-amp cause I'm also into DX. But AVS forums should help you tremendously.

Thank you sir! I'll check out that forum. I'm thinking an omni might work OK for me, turns out that my house is less than 5 miles away from a lot of transmitters. You can see the towers from my street.

If I had my way I'd have a tower in back of my house with a large directional antenna/rotor and an AM outrigger loop antenna also with a rotor. Plus an outrigger scanner antenna and maybe, just maybe an HF dipole! Two reasons why I don't have that setup: homeowners association, and "she who must be obeyed". :nono:

:D Cheers--Steve

Hoa's Can't Stop You From Putting Up An Antenna
 

Be assured that as of the Communications Act of 1996, no HOA can stop you from putting up an outdoor antenna array; the only thing they can regulate is the size of a SATELLITE dish. If they say you cannot then they better catch up with the times; this one thing those nazi organizations have lost out on and that was 12 years ago; if they aren't aware of it tell them to check it out at the FCC website. then tell them to take a hike!

"She who must be obeyed" trumps everyone though. Even the FCC. :)

Bill R

--THAT's good to know...if I remember right the best line of sight to the broadcasting antenna farm will put my antenna on the side of the garage between my house and my neighbor's--visible from the street.

GO FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!!!