Digital Antennas (1998)
- Thread starter JosephHolloway1998
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The OTA antenna our then son-in-law installed on our family cottage was tuned for UHF/VHF high only, so I added an FM radio 2-element dipole to it for the local RF channel 6 station.
Are you talking of CBS Ch6 from the Albany area? I'm in Western CT and have been trying to get it with my FM antenna, but no luck. But yeah for ch6 an FM antenna is probably a better match than a VHF-low antenna anyway, as Ch6 is just below the FM radio spectrum
Yes, WRGB CBS channel 6 (RF and virtual) is the one I'm referring to. Our cottage is in the southern Adirondacks, with the tower only about 32 air miles away.
yep I think that's the one I have! (maybe in a different brand but same design). That place seems to be a great place for OTA antennas, very reasonable prices and some nice merchandise!
Probably a me-too thing as much as anything. They could handle UHF as well as VHF that had all but vanished outside of the major population centers. Don't want to be left behind by a bunch of companies hawking antennas that didn't cover all the bases.
Now these broadband antennas will be coming back into vogue.
They've had to get creative with consumer gear since they're doing battle against some giants in the bulk components market in the form of Mouser, Digi-Key and Allied Electronics.
It is interesting that Newark is owned by the company (Avnet) that used to own Allied Electronics. Avnet has their own catalog so that's confusing. The Avnet catalog doesn't include TV antennas.
couldn't you also run a coaxial cable antenna check through the KU receiver (MPEG-4, 4DTV, VideoCipher II, DigiCipher II etc...) for the OTA channels as well? I'm curious.
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No. Different frequency ranges and formats.
no, OTA is between 54 MHz and 698 MHz, and soon to be 54 to 308 MHz once the repack is completed
which is why you can actually multiplex it with satellite on a single cable, since they don't overlap (not a great idea though)
I was speaking of the satellite IF frequencies, not the OTA frequencies.
I was under the impression that IF had always been in the >1GHz range for Ku.
I interpreted the TS's question differently due to the use of odd terminology. There is mention of "check antenna through" (loop through or using the internal tuner?) rather than specifically diplexing the signals as I interpreted.
Satellite tuners available then and now (other than the Orby receivers as noted earlier), typically can't decode US OTA TV signals nor do they provide facilities for measuring signal strength in the US OTA TV band.
Then, as now, you could (if you had to) diplex a satellite and OTA signals together on a single cable and this is perhaps used more commonly where DVB-T is the OTA TV modulation scheme.
If a carrier is within the tuner frequency range, most STBs can measure Signal Strength as the measurement is an expression of the AGC for the tuned carrier.
As the signal cannot be demodulated and/or the data analyzed, the Signal Quality (BER) cannot be displayed.
As the signal cannot be demodulated and/or the data analyzed, the Signal Quality (BER) cannot be displayed.
In the early days of ATSC before I had a capable TV, I used a decommissioned Voom satellite receiver that a built in separate digital OTA tuner for viewing the digital subchannels. It wasn't that great. The aforementioned WRGB from Albany, NY would lock the unit up requiring a reboot if selected.
Yes, a STB with either standalone or combined ATSC tuner capability will receive OTA ATSC channels.
The poster asked if OTA ATSC channels could be received on an 4dtv or DVBS type STB.
No...
The poster asked if OTA ATSC channels could be received on an 4dtv or DVBS type STB.
No...
The same equipment you use to receive local ATSC OTA. ATSC tuner and a quality high gain outdoor VHF/UHF antenna.
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