# Trying to pick up Olympics on a old outdoor antenna



## cheapcheat (Jun 10, 2007)

So, basically we don't have cable or a dish because we don't use it enough to justify the cost. We found an old outdoor antenna on someone's curb that is similar in appearance to this product. The problem is we are not picking up NBC West Palm Beach Channel 5, the channel that has the Olympics. We live in Stuart, FL, which is 35 miles north of West Palm Beach. (map). We set the antenna up in our attic pointing south. It is connected to an APEX DT 502 digital converter box. So my question is are there any cheap products (under 40 dollars) or techniques that will pick up the NBC signal?


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## Basementgeek (Feb 7, 2005)

I think you are going to move it to the out side of the house. I can remember when antenna in the attic would work pretty good, but with digital is different.

BG


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## cheapcheat (Jun 10, 2007)

I moved it around in the attic a little and I picked channel 5 up, but the quality is very poor. Since the Olympics is online I'm going to try to stream my laptop to the tv using a VGA to S video converter box for video and 3.5 to RCA for audio. It would be nice if I could get a better reception, but for right now I'm going with a easier solution.


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## bruiser (Jul 30, 2005)

Go here www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx and see what you need.


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## cheapcheat (Jun 10, 2007)

Thanks, I didn't know about that website and I did some research before posting here.


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## Done_Fishin (Oct 10, 2006)

That aerial you're showing doesn't look like it's powerful enough to pick up signals 35 miles away. The farther the distance the more you'll need to amplify the signal. This is usually done by using aerials with a longer horizontal axis and many more shorter bars along its length. An amplifier will also be necessary to boost whatever signal is picked up. You could start by just adding an electronics aerial boost amplifier since you are getting a picture albeit with poor quality. Normally though for those sort of distances there would be a repeater or two which would pick up the transmission on one channel and re-transmit on a different frequency to avoid killing the original signal.

on the same site they have this product which may also require an amplifier to work properly.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3739597#










These antennae are highly directional and very accurate line of site positioning is required for best reception. That doesn't mean that you have to be able to "see" the transmitter with the naked eye.

Also it is imperative that the cabling is properly matched to the TV and aerial impedances to avoid reflections and "zero-crossing". A length of coaxial wire, if not properly terminated, can reflect signal back up towards the aerial, cancelling part of the incoming downward signal or even worse, act as a filter that will block frequency ranges and any channels transmitting within those frequencies, depending upon the cable length.


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## bruiser (Jul 30, 2005)

Fishin', what you've posted is a high gain UHF antenna. He's trying to pick up channel 5 which is a VHF station. Like a lot of other VHF stations, they could be xmitting on a UHF channel since things went digital. Or, they could be broadcasting on both V and U bands. I think I'd get a high gain VHF/UHF antenna to cover the bases. I'd look at Channel Master and Winegard.


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## Done_Fishin (Oct 10, 2006)

My apologies .. I saw the original link to a mixed link antenna and assumed that he was using it for UHF, since this is where we use those types of aerial frequently. If he's using VHF he'd obviously need something similar that would pick up on UHF. The original aerial he pointed us to would be, IMHO, of little use over a 35 mile stretch. Amplification would be more likely to boost the noise as well as signal and still leave much to be desired in the way of picture quality. The aerial I pointed to was supposedly good for a 100 Mile link so a similar slightly cheaper aerial would probably do the trick.


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## bruiser (Jul 30, 2005)

Yes, noise can be amplified, and that's just as bad as a weak signal. There might be some other over the air signals a good antenna could pick up in his area. An adjustable pre-amp might be the ticket. Unless one wants to go to the trouble of attenuating strong signals that will overload with traps of some kind.


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## cheapcheat (Jun 10, 2007)

I spent a couple of hours fiddling with the antenna and got channel 5 pretty good, but now I don't have CBS. Thanks for the help guys. If I ever decide I want more channels I'll use your advice.


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