Things were going swimmingly until I got to the last step.
The stupid inner wire of the coax will not insert into the antenna jack on the TV.
Mrs ERJ, who has much to say about the priorities around here, suggested that we might want to have the ability to access commercial, broadcast TV now that we have a grandchild.
Given the budget "OK" I sunk a 10' 4-by-4 into the ground* and then added a 1" diameter, steel conduit to that. Given the amount of post in the ground and the overlap between the two parts I have a 16' mast.
The antenna was installed. Coax run beneath the overhang and a hole drilled in the siding. Nothing very complicated.
Looking at the end of the jack on the TV, the hole in the plastic guide does not line up with the hole in the metal contact beneath it.
I am thinking of getting a coax connection, greasing it up and using a little bit of brute force. I don't want to ball-up the part that came with the antenna but maybe a little bit of grease in the right places will ease things.
Right now the antenna is aimed south-southeast. We have the local FOX and NBC affiliates about seven miles away and a Christian TV station about 60 miles out.
The antenna was dirt cheap at about $40 and it promises 30dB of gain (a factor of 1000) and a 30 degree arc in the horizontal sweep where the gain is maximum.
*Shrink-flation alert: Ready-to-go concrete bags have been downsized to 50 pounds. I remember when they were 80 pounds, then more recently 65 pounds....
I hear that digital signals require you to be right on the source. A rotor unit might be in you future.
ReplyDeleteThe data may be digitally encoded but it is the same analog signal as before. We used a traditional fishbone UHF/VHF antenna on our roof and got good results. The tiny digital antennas aren't nearly as sensitive
ReplyDeleteThe concrete bags were probably downsized to accommodate the increasing number of limp-wristers.
ReplyDeleteLimpwristers don't pour concrete, might ruin the
Deleteman-icure. Hardware cloth 4'x25' has gone from $62-$91 over this year.
They still have 60 and 80 lb sacks around here, but since I last bought it in 2018 it has doubled in price.
DeleteUsed to be able to pick up 100 lbs of cow feed. now cant hardly do 50. Born in 46. Daddy came home from the war. Woody
ReplyDeleteI'm totally with you on that. I used to go load the pickup with 100 lb bags of feed and take it home and stack it head high in the barn. Bought 8 50 lb bags of chicken feed Saturday and after putting that in the barn I was whipped. Getting old sucks. ---ken
DeletePicture of the offending antenna jack, please? Or drop me a line...
ReplyDeleteUse a needle to line up the holes. Be gentle when prying. I had a bnc that did that once upon a time. Use lots of light.
ReplyDeletei ditched the dish about a year and a half ago...don't miss it...watched maybe 3-5 channels...the same channels i can get for free ota...
ReplyDeleteInspect the end of the lead for any burs. A small bur can have a large effect on the ease of connection as well as the quality of the connection. If the end is bad, cut it off and replace it. The tools to replace coax ends are very affordable as are the replacement ends. I personally use the style that collapses longitudinally as opposed to the crimp style. And don't even try the style that threads into the insulation, you won't like the results. I can tell you some horror stories about coax connections...
ReplyDeleteIf you must lube it use a very small amount of dielectric grease.
Also, I've found that a final little tweak past hand tight is more than sufficient and is very beneficial for a continuous shield connection. Just a few degrees past hand tight. Needle nose pliers are more than sufficient or the plier end of my wire stripping tool.
"*Shrink-flation alert: Ready-to-go concrete bags have been downsized to 50 pounds. I remember when they were 80 pounds, then more recently 65 pounds"
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a callow youth mixing such stuff a bag was a Hundred-Weight; 112lbs or 20 to the unshrunk Ton.
When Radio Shack was still in business, they used to have little signal booster boxes that was inline from the antenna signal and upstream of the TV. I got one once and was amazed at how many more stations I started pulling in, some at quite a distance. I wonder if those are still a 'thing' in this case. It was pretty cheap, back then.
ReplyDeleteYes, they're still available. The best ones mount AT the antenna, and you feed the DC power up the coax. BTW....I *only* use RG-6 quad shielded cable with a solid copper center conductor. The old RG-59 coax had a copper-plated steel center conductor, and was known for problems if they weren't properly weather sealed.
Deleteyou can sometimes use a small bit of stiff wire to make the connection line up.
ReplyDeleteAlternatively, get a pre-made coax and see if that lines up. If so, use a barrel connector to connect that to your antenna wire
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