Here’s a story that happened a while back, but I was recently reminded of it.
This guy complains that he’s not getting very good reception with his large antenna. He explains that it’s one of the large flat ones like our HDB8X. I thought maybe he had distant VHF stations, since the HDB8X and other antennas like it don’t have really great VHF performance. Pretty much any antenna will get some VHF reception unless that reception is intentionally blocked. In the case of our HDB8X, it does surprisingly well on VHF-High considering its initial design spec was for a UHF antenna. That’s one of the reasons it’s been a top seller for over a decade.
It didn’t take long to realize that the real problem was aiming. There wasn’t a VHF station anywhere near him. I saw that some of his stations came from one direction and some from another, so I asked him how the antenna was aimed.
“It’s pointed east,” he told me. The stations were due south and due west. I told him I was confident that I’d found the problem. Reaim the antenna southwest, and you’ll have a lot more success.
“I can’t…” he told me. “My wife didn’t like the look of it, and there was no way to put it outside, so I drywalled over it. East is the only direction I can point it. Is that a problem?”
Oh, dear.
Don’t drywall over your antenna, and if it’s inside, don’t mount it in such a way that you can’t aim it toward the towers. That’s just not going to work.
I remembered the above story when I went down a reddit rabbit hole the other night. I found this image in the “Mildly Infuriating” subreddit. I’d call it a little more than “mildly infuriating.”
What you see there is a TV mount that’s attached to a sewage line. Obviously that’s not going to stay up vey long. It’s a fairly heavy-duty mount and my guess is that the TV is heavy too. At some point it’s going to break the pipe and raw sewage is going to come flowing out. Of course, you could just unscrew the mount. At least at that point you’d know when the raw sewage is going to come at you. At any rate this is a time bomb waiting to go off and I feel bad for the person it happened to. Apparently they actually paid for professional installation.
Doing it yourself can be really gratifying, but it can also be fraught with peril if you make mistakes. Pretty much every DIYer has a story about something that went horribly wrong and how they learned from it. The best thing to do? Take the time and learn as much as you can before attempting a DIY project.
Shop at Solid Signal. We have the best stuff for DIYers who want to improve their home theater, cell reception, or just make things look better. If you need help with a project, call us! We’re here during East Coast business hours at 888-233-7563. If it’s after hours, fill out the form below. We’ll happily get back to you.
The post DON’T DO THIS: Wall up an antenna appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
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This guy complains that he’s not getting very good reception with his large antenna. He explains that it’s one of the large flat ones like our HDB8X. I thought maybe he had distant VHF stations, since the HDB8X and other antennas like it don’t have really great VHF performance. Pretty much any antenna will get some VHF reception unless that reception is intentionally blocked. In the case of our HDB8X, it does surprisingly well on VHF-High considering its initial design spec was for a UHF antenna. That’s one of the reasons it’s been a top seller for over a decade.
Here’s the real problem
It didn’t take long to realize that the real problem was aiming. There wasn’t a VHF station anywhere near him. I saw that some of his stations came from one direction and some from another, so I asked him how the antenna was aimed.
“It’s pointed east,” he told me. The stations were due south and due west. I told him I was confident that I’d found the problem. Reaim the antenna southwest, and you’ll have a lot more success.
“I can’t…” he told me. “My wife didn’t like the look of it, and there was no way to put it outside, so I drywalled over it. East is the only direction I can point it. Is that a problem?”
Oh, dear.
Don’t drywall over your antenna, and if it’s inside, don’t mount it in such a way that you can’t aim it toward the towers. That’s just not going to work.
This isn’t the only problem you can have
I remembered the above story when I went down a reddit rabbit hole the other night. I found this image in the “Mildly Infuriating” subreddit. I’d call it a little more than “mildly infuriating.”
What you see there is a TV mount that’s attached to a sewage line. Obviously that’s not going to stay up vey long. It’s a fairly heavy-duty mount and my guess is that the TV is heavy too. At some point it’s going to break the pipe and raw sewage is going to come flowing out. Of course, you could just unscrew the mount. At least at that point you’d know when the raw sewage is going to come at you. At any rate this is a time bomb waiting to go off and I feel bad for the person it happened to. Apparently they actually paid for professional installation.
Just one of the many perils
Doing it yourself can be really gratifying, but it can also be fraught with peril if you make mistakes. Pretty much every DIYer has a story about something that went horribly wrong and how they learned from it. The best thing to do? Take the time and learn as much as you can before attempting a DIY project.
The second best thing to do?
Shop at Solid Signal. We have the best stuff for DIYers who want to improve their home theater, cell reception, or just make things look better. If you need help with a project, call us! We’re here during East Coast business hours at 888-233-7563. If it’s after hours, fill out the form below. We’ll happily get back to you.
The post DON’T DO THIS: Wall up an antenna appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
Continue reading...
