[kwlug-disc] Cutting the cord

[William Park]

On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 04:53:08PM -0500, R. Brent Clements wrote:
> As for what equipment seems to work best, our most effective
> installation in SW Kitchener used a pair of our cheapest antennas and
> picked up all of the Canadian content available, plus most of the US
> stations transmitting out of Buffalo as well.  This antenna has a VHF
> element integrated into it, which does help pick up a couple of
> Canadian channels that are unlikely to transition to UHF, which is
> something that all of the US has apparently done.

How do you connect the two antennas together?

I have a 4-bay antenna.  Where I am in Mississauga, CN Tower and Buffalo
are 90 degrees, and I'm getting all CN Tower stations and some Buffalo
stations.  I want to try two antennas, one pointing at CN Towers and the
other pointing at Buffalo.  But, I don't certain how to connect the two
antennas together.  Online reading says just use 2-way splitter with
exactly same cable length.  But, I'm not sure.

> A preamplifier will almost always help.  You can split the signal
> after the amp's power inserter.  If you need to split it more than
> once sometimes a distribution amp can be of benefit as well.  A four
> way splitter is almost always a two way split with each output split
> two ways again.  Three way splitters will usually have outputs labeled
> -3.5dB and -7.5dB.  The signal is stronger on the -3.5dB because that
> one is not split a second time like the other one is.

Right now, I am not using any preamp and the cable length is 30m.
I'm told, this is the reason why I get so few Buffalo channels.

PS.
    Could this be a topic of short show/tell/demo for KWLUG?
-- 
William