ota Outdoor antenna

[Donut417]

LONG POST WARNING

 

I have questions about outdoor antennas. I'm trying to come up with a plan of how to get one in use and to figure out costs. Because if its only a few hundred dollars I can stomach that, if its thousands then I wont bother.

 

Mounting

 

I can not drill thru the siding or the roof (NON Negotiable). We have a back porch that has wooden columns that support the roof above it, tough I'm not sure if that will work. I was looking at mounting options and seen a flat roof, no screw option, but I'm not sure if I can use that on the ground, as I need a long ass pole. We have a sound proofing wall for the freeway, so I need something at least 30 feet if not more. But any ideas are welcome. I want to put the antenna near the back porch because 1) the grounding rod is on that corner of the house. 2) Most of the channels come from that direction.

 

I was looking at channel master and seen they had a 40 foot retractable pole for mounting, but trying to figure out if I can mount that to the house in some way within my restrictions, or mounting it to a tripod or flat roof mount.

 

Grounding

 

For grounding I know for the coax you use a grounding block. But what about for the antenna and mounting, is it just about running a copper wire and connecting it on the grounding block?

 

Wiring

 

I know to use UV resistant wire. I also did some research into MOCA recently. Seeing where the standard is going and such. I noticed that RG11 is what is recommend for outdoors, so I was going to use that. Can I run the coax for the antenna in the same hole we use for our cable service? I was going to dig out the expanding foam and maybe see if we can make the hole slightly larger and just put both cables thru the same hole. I'm probably going to replace the coax for Comcast as well, as its been used for 20 years and cabling standards have gotten better. I figure both can be used with RG11. THese wires will run in to our crawl space then in to our half basement.

 

Accessories

 

LTE Filter: I noticed on Channel masters website they have an LTE filter. I was wondering if that actually helps? I have 5 cell towers within 5 miles. One of which the AT&T tower is less than a mile from the house and the Verizon tower is with in a mile and a half. THe T Mobile tower is within 2 miles. The other two I'm not sure who uses those.  

 

Pre AMP and AMP’s: Not sure where to start. What do I need? If I can figure out how to run new cabling to the second floor the there will be anywhere from 3 to 5 TVs connected. If not then the two TV’s on the first floor will be connected, but I might get a Network TV tuner that operates on WiFI. My hope is I can get cabling to the second floor, we got one room on the first floor with drywall ripped out and I think I might see about putting on conduit in. I just gotta figure out how to get it in to the upper atic. Our house is cobbled together. Parts were built in the 1930’s and others later. But Id have to run 4 coax, 3 for OTA TV and a new one for Internet. As the RG59 cable we are using now is 20 years old. I think Id get better signals using RG6.

 

[Patrick3D]

Goto antennaweb.org and check what your distance is from your local broadcast towers. No one can provide adequate suggestions without knowing the distance.

 

Another question: is your roof metal, wood, or asphalt shingles? You may be able to get away with mounting an antenna inside of the attic, it depends on your distance though.

 

As for splitting the signal inside, just get a SiliconDust HDHomerun which has a built-in tuner and makes the OTA TV stations available to any device on your home network including digital set-top boxes and smartphones.

[EchoRebounded]

Rg11 is not necessary in most cases, it is used for long main cable runs. 250' or greater tap to house. It also is harder to work with as it less flexable and requires special tools. A good quality rg6 cable is perfect for antennas.  

A #6 ground wire is fine from an antenna, but also ground the cable as well.

im not sure as to an lte filter, I have not used one. 

[Donut417]

8 hours ago, Patrick3D said:

Goto antennaweb.org and check what your distance is from your local broadcast towers. No one can provide adequate suggestions without knowing the distance.

 

Another question: is your roof metal, wood, or asphalt shingles? You may be able to get away with mounting an antenna inside of the attic, it depends on your distance though.

 

As for splitting the signal inside, just get a SiliconDust HDHomerun which has a built-in tuner and makes the OTA TV stations available to any device on your home network including digital set-top boxes and smartphones.

Asked the question over at DSL reports.com as well.  Im not going to be able to do any outdoor setup as Im not allowed to screw in to the siding or roof, as they are both relatively new. While we have attic access I dont fit so thats also a no go. Ill just deal with channels dropping out on some days.