Amplified OTA antenna using old Directv coax wiring?

[wilson wong]

This question is regarding cabling for OTA antenna for vacation home.

Background info:
The house in question was originally pre-wired with 3 coax cable running from 2 room locations to external cable network box for CABLE TV. I had Directv come in to recable house to support 3 TVs. I allowed the Directv tech to reuse the cable running into the MBR to support the satellite cable requirements. I was using the other 2 pre-wired lines to support cable internet service. The Directv tech located the MBR cable in the garage attic crawl space (ranch home with cathedral ceilings) and made a 2 way split with a Directv 2 way splitter. One end was ran to the MBR and the other end to the GR. In the closet of the guest room the cable is split again with a Direct 2 way splitter. The Directv splitter has 2 ends. The RED connector allows the power inserter to send power to the Directv dish to power the SWM. So you would wire the RED connector to the power inserter which has two connectors and the other connector is hooked up to the DTV receiver. These special DTV splitters allow splits to be made prior to connection to the DTV dish, Most OTA amplified antennas recommend that splitters be connected after the power supply. But the DVT splitters allow splits to be made prior to the power supply connection. The RED connector of the splitter is able to properly route power to the dish regardless of the splitters that are in between the power supply and the dish, .

Question:
If I remove my DTV receivers, can I reuse the existing DTV wiring (with daisy chained splitters) to support an amplified OTA antenna? Will replacing the DTV's power inserter with the OTA power supply allow it to properly transmit power back to the antenna? In other words, will the OTA power ve able to take advantage of the DTV's splitters too?

Current wiring diagram:

Thanks,
WW

 

[harshness]

I'm concerned that 5VDC isn't going to make the trip if there's a lot of coax footage involved.

 

[wilson wong]

I estimate cable run is around 100feet (1800 sq ft ranch). What do your recommend a larger pre-amp & power? Another antenna like the UFO omnidirectional? And do they have a model with greater than 60 mile range? Also is the power supply of the UFO strong enough to propagate power for my wiring system? I have trouble getting NBC in Kissimmee even though it is only 40m miles away using a Clearstream 4V.

Thanks,
WW

 

[harshness]

I'm afraid that at 100', 5VDC probably isn't going to make it unless the power requirement is very low. The resistance of 100' of RG6 is about 4.4 ohms. Something like the popular RCA TVPRAMP1R eats about 130ma so you're going to see about a 6.4% drop in voltage over just the cable and maybe a bit more in the splitters. The Kitz KT200 runs a 12VDC wall wart at half the current and the voltage drop is only .64%. If it is practical to move the inserter closer (while keeping it indoors), you should do it.

Most OTA reception discussions should start with a tvfool.com table. This is mine:

TV Fool

The link appears near the top of the "TV Signal Analysis Results" after you enter in your particulars.

 

[Wireless Engineer]

Virtual 2.1 In Kissimmee is NBC and it is on VHF channel 11 which is likely why the Clearstream won't pick it up and the UFO won't either.
If all your stations are in the sane direction, the Winegard 7694Hd is likely the best choice.

 

[harshness]

Another tip: rather than network names (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, Grit, Telemundo), use the station's callsign. This makes doing research much easier.

WESH presents some interesting results at rabbitears.info.

 

[harshness]

Virtual 2.1 In Kissimmee is NBC and it is on VHF channel 11 which is likely why the Clearstream won't pick it up and the UFO won't either.

Indeed!

While the Clearstream 4 claims VHF capability, it offers only 2.1dBi gain so suggesting that it covers VHF is surely a big reach. The repack is putting some serious hurt on UHF-heavy antennas.

Since most of the stations are coming from one direction, something in a full-range antenna might be good as there will be a couple of VHF-low stations after the repack: WATV and WDTO and perhaps more if Next Gen TV (ATSC 3.0) catches on.

 

[wilson wong]

Thank you for your responses. Looks like I will need to do some recabling whenI lose enough weight to fit thru my attic crawl space. Any experience with Clearstream wireless TV adapter? Reviews I have read have been mixed. But the negative reviews seem to be from mostly users that expected the product to improve their reception (as opposed to its intended purpose).

 

[harshness]

Any experience with Clearstream wireless TV adapter?

If streaming TV across your LAN is the goal, it is hard to beat the Silicondust HDHomerun. The two-tuner version goes for around $80 new and less refurbished. The TabloTV device has a small following but it is a little weird about transferring files.

I have an HDHomerun Duo that I use with Plex and it is slick (commercial auto-skip works pretty well). Plex handles the transcoding from MPEG2 to a format that my Roku supports.

Lee Bosch