crappy outdoor antenna mod ...

[TBone]

Based on this recent superb tutorial ...
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?17885-How-to-Solder-An-Illustrated-DIY-Guide-to-Making-Your-Own-Cables&highlight=solder

... figured I'd document my little morning project:

Of all my HT friends, I'm the only one who does NOT use cable. The reasons are numerous, used cable for +2 decades, but today, I can DL most of what I require. Nor do I miss the $$$ cable fees. And besides, whatever I gave up in channel selections (1000 chs, basically the same thing on all) , I gain in pic.quality. Over the Air picture quality is much superior to our local cable quality, even using the very best HD box/cables. To demo this, all I need is a POS crappy outdoor antenna (TERK, purchased on sale for $7.)

When friends first see my setup, they notice the increased picture resolution. Assuming it's my calibrated Sharp that's setting the pace (even tho some of these guys have better TVs) they don't first realize it's the over-the-air signal quality they're seeing, as compared to their crappy cable signal.

This simple demo is convincing enough to have them questioning their situations. But unfortunately, every home is different, and the stock 6 foot length of cable radius is very prohibitive of antenna positioning in their rooms/houses. To demo my results in others homes, I needed a mod ...

So is decided to put together the following mod-antenna which can use variable length wire.

This TERK outdoor antenna comes with a 6 foot cable and a booster. The booster is near useless and adds noise. The cable / connection quality is also ridiculously poor, and built to fail ...

notice the tiny ground/shield wires ...

... crappy tiny material; so brittle, as to be near useless. They can snap simply by looking at em.

In time, these will fracture internally, and the antenna will fail.

Bypassed as much of the crappy coax as possible, added an external ground ...


... and even managed to utilize & solder their crappy connecter ...


This is the final result ... 30 feet of quality cable.


Testing signal strength - without any care of unit placement - (pre mod, ~ 45 to 55 on a good day) ...


Simple little project using basic soldering tools/skills.

 

[amirm]

Nicely done. I too until recently was determined to stay with antenna and not get cable. Alas, I was paying $110/month for 15 mbit/sec DSL in our somewhat rural area from the phone company. Comcast ran their cables and I called to get their Internet service and they gave me 150 mbit/sec but only if I subscribed to their cable and phone package. With all of that combine for 2 years, it is the same price as that slow DSL!

Back to antennas, I bought a Trek once for my boat and immediately returned it. A piece of wire worked better than it. Didn't think to open it up and improve it.

Prior to getting cable, I had a dual antennal stack on a 15 foot mast. Separate UHF and VHF antennas, each optimized for the stations they pointed at. This got me about a dozen channels on a good day, and half as many on not so good. This was with a very sensitive tuner, good amplifier, etc. We are pretty far from the stations and I was lucky to get this. It was liberating though to know that you can get that reception even if there is a power failure (we have a generator) and no bills.

Where our main house is, a piece of wire gets me 40+ stations.

 

[TBone]

thx ...

Back to antennas, I bought a Trek once for my boat and immediately returned it. A piece of wire worked better than it. Didn't think to open it up and improve it.

It's a hack product that deserved my hack job, i mean, if I'd screw'd it up, big deal. That's precisely the reason I mentioned it here, b/c these kinda jobs are good practice for novices, without much risk.

The build quality of the terk is considerate of cost. Crappy fit together plastic casing with truly awful wire. The main board tho, was good. For my friends homes, it's only a means to an end. If I can achieve good reception, that simply provides a point of comparison. If they decide to go OTA route, they'll need more appropriate antenna's. The PBS stations near me are wonderful examples of quality OTA reception. NOVA/NATURE type docs look awesome on my set, much superior to any cable version, these represent the majority of my favorite TV shows so I really appreciate the increased picture quality.

edit: Hanna, and perhaps her horse, also look stunning.

 

[amirm]

Speaking of PBS, in both of our vacation houses they have been the hardest to pull in, and our most desirable station unfortunately. I failed at our previous house but here, after a lot of heroic work, I managed to pull it in 95% of the time. On the other hand the religious stations come in with just a piece of wire where nothing else does!!! I guess there is more money in religion than public broadcasting .

 

[TBone]

On the other hand the religious stations come in with just a piece of wire where nothing else does!!!

lol ... they've divine intervention on their side.

 

[mep]

Speaking of PBS, in both of our vacation houses they have been the hardest to pull in, and our most desirable station unfortunately. I failed at our previous house but here, after a lot of heroic work, I managed to pull it in 95% of the time. On the other hand the religious stations come in with just a piece of wire where nothing else does!!! I guess there is more money in religion than public broadcasting .

I was going to respond to the bolded statement of yours, but I quickly realized that we would be talking about religion which is verboten. Your statement is true however.