Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums banner

Splitters, Attenuators, Filters, Diplexers, Other Signal Gear

Tags
antenna dtv
539K views 2K replies 284 participants last post by  Gibsons 
#1 ·
Sounds to me like that channel 2 signal is very strong and just overdriving your system. I would add a channel 2 band stop filter http://www.tinlee.com/MATV_Filters.htm

CR7-Series: Semi-Adjacent Bandstop (any channel 5 to 800 MHz)


Tin Lee is a Toronto based company thats the best source around for traps and filters http://www.tinlee.com/
 
#2 ·
I have had a similar problem here in Hartford with OTA channel 3, whose transmitter is less than 4 miles from my house, and I have found the a simple attenuator from radio Shack (catalogue #15-623) solves the problem.

PS I just ordered a channel 3 bandstop filter from TinLee Co. I am curious to see how it does...
 
#3 ·
Fortunately, I don't have an adjacency problem with VHF in Hartford, just a very strong channel 3 that seems to overload my analog tuner. The UHF stations here are also very strong, so I don't anticipate much of a problem: I will report back on how well the TinLee channel 3 trap works after it arrives
 
#5 ·
Combining OTA signal with satellite signal

Hi Folks,

Is there anyway to combine the OTA signal with the satellite signal so that I only need to run one cable into the house?

Here's what I'm suggesting:

(1) Outdoor OTA antenna.
(2) DishPro Plus LNBF (please note that this is DishPro Plus)
(3) Mix OTA Feed and the LNBF Feed into a single RJ6 cable into the house. Call this the Mixed Feed.
(4) Demix the OTA Feed and the LNBF Feed from the Mixed Feed after the cable is in the house.
(5) Take the OTA Feed and connect to the OTA input on my 9200
(6) Take the LNBF Feed and using a DishPro Plus separator, connect into SAT1 and SAT2 inputs on the 9200.

If this is possible, what would I need on the outside to "mix" the OTA and LNBF Feeds in step (3) and what would I need to "de-mix" the two singles into the OTA and LNBF Feeds. The important thing is, is that I'm using DishPro Plus and need to use the DishPro Plus separator to split the signals for my two tuners.

If this isn't possible, then I'll be stuff without an OTA antenna (can't run another cable and no way will she let me keep the "ugly" antenna over the TV).

- dvdrat
 
#7 ·
CTVdude said:
yes.. you didn't say where you are from...
You folks should go into your "User CP" and add your town, city, province to your personal data so it shows up in every post.

Regarding combiners I have no expericence with the DishPro Plus but with other DBS systems this is commonly done so I'm guessing you should have no problems with it.
 
#8 ·
Diplexor?

Angelfish said:
I have just recently installed a BEV 6100. I would like to hookup an indoor antenna and see what off air channels I can pull in. Unfortunately I can't install an antenna outside (don't want to drill another hole in the wall). And my system is located in my basement. Any suggestions as to which antenna might give me a resonable result?
TIA
I was wondering if I could use a couple of diplexors instead of running another cable into the house and then split the cable at both the dish
side and the receiver side? If so does anyone have any specific suggestions
on how to go about this?
 
#9 ·
Sorry guys, I've updated my location in my profile (more information to follow when I get a chance).

I'll try these diplexers (there's a Sayal close to me in Mississauga). Maybe I'll buy a hobby box as well, so that I can hide the diplexer and DPP separator while I'm there...

Thanks guys!

- dvdrat
 
#10 ·
Is there any degradation of signal strength from duplexers ? I am thinking of doing the same thing, but my Sat signal is already marginal to begin with due to a long run.

Also, how sensitive is the OTA signal to long cable runs on RG6s ? If you need to split a OTA UHF signal, what frequency splitter would you need ? I guess a better phase question is, what is the frequency of the UHF signals from OTA ?
 
#11 ·
UHF TV is 470-806MHz. Sat out of the LNB can be 900-2150 MHz. A plain splitter will lose 3dB, half your signal, every time you split it. With a diplexer that is made for the purpose of splitting or combining TV & sat, it is frequncy selective, so you loose much less than a plain splitter. Normally, you'll loose .5 dB at every connection. Long runs of cable will loose the high freq first.
 
#13 ·
Diplexers will work fine with Dish pro plus. The only problem you might have is you can not use a mast mount amplifier for the OTA antenna. The reason being is that the one cable can only carry one DC power feed (Up to the roof) and the Diplexers pass DC only on the satellite side of things since the LNB's need DC power. If you must use an OTA amp then you will have to run 2 cables down, one for satellite and one for the OTA, run them into your garage or basement... have the power supply for the OTA amp in the line before the Diplexer then you run the one coax to your homes wiring and up to the TV's and there you have the other Diplexer take the signals apart... one to Satellite and the other to OTA.
 
#14 ·
I am going to do this in the next couple of days when the weather gets better. Basically I have a 5x8 multi-switch already, which has a port for OTA antenna signals. My plan is to mount an outside antenna and take it into the multi-switch port, and the have duplexers at the other ends of my Sat dish receivers. Essentially I will have one cable going to all the receivers with both OTA and Sat signals from the multi-switch which also acts as a duplexer, and the a 2x1 duplexers on the other end.

I have gathered that the duplexer will only pass DC power from the Sat Dish receiver only, and as well it does not degrade the Sat Dish frequenct too much (900Mhz-2400Mhz ?!?). Apparently OTA UHF signal is somewhere between 400Mhz to 850Mhz........

The other reason I haven't done it yet is due to the fact that my masked antenna has a built-in power amplifier, which means that somehow I need to feed it DC power with a indoor wall wart before feeding it into my multi-switch which is located outside the house........ It is kinda complicated but I have my game plan already.

If you don't have a multi-switch then you will need a duplexer to combine the signals before sending it inside the house.....

I hope this helps. I will let you know how it work out for me once I have it installed.
 
#15 ·
Splitters 3 way vs 4 way signal loss

I currently have a 2 way splitter and its says 3.5db loss per output.

Iam getting a dish 811 rec that has a built in off air hdtv tuner and looked on a 3 way splitter that I have and noticed one output is 3.5db loss and the other two are 7 db loss.

Is there a 3 way that the loss is only 3.5db on the outputs and it not 4 ways all 3.5db ?

As a test last night I used the 7db output in my bedroom and did not notice any loss on the receiver signal meter, actually I thought the weaker NBC and Toronto one went up one bar. The cable from the power supply to the splitter and to the receiver is no more than 3 feet.

I used the 3.5db output to the family room and terminated the other 7db output.
 
#16 ·
I think you are asking do they make a 3-way splitter with 3.5dB loss on all legs. The answer is NO as it is impossible. If you split the signal in half you get 3.5dB. Do it again and you have 7dB. What they do is split one leg twice thus giving you two 7.0db legs and one 3.5dB leg. 4-way splitters are 7dB all around.
 
#18 ·
On a related question, what happens when you stick an OTA antenna output into a powered multi-switch ? I know that in my case with a Perfect Vision 5x8 I actually get the UHF across all 8 outputs from a single input, and I also know that the powered part only compensate for insertion loss (i.e. it does not boost). What kind of signal loss would I be looking at then ?

The reason I am asking is that on a long run from the multi-switch I am losing signal. I guess if I don't use UHF on all eight outputs I should just duplex it to the ones that needs it rather than sticking it into the 5x8 multi-switch........ (i.e. Just stick a duplexer on the feeds that need UHF......).

Also, when you boost the signal, it should be close to the antenna, rather than the receiver, right ?
 
#21 ·
The antenna has a built-in pre-amp for 10db......So if the 5x8 switch is taking out 11db, I am basically on a non-amp antenna as far as the output is concerned.

Would I be better off take it off the 5x8 multi-switch or should I boost it with some in-line 900Mhz booster ?



Actually just check the specs.....900Mhz and under is only 5db loss which is pretty good. Wonder how they do it with a 1x8 split ? They must boost before splitting.
 
#22 ·
Combining indoor and outdoor signals

Is this possible ? I have an outdoor antenna and was wondering if I can combine the signal with an indoor antenna before feeding it into the set-top. Would they cancel each other ? If not, can I just use any run of the mills splitter/combiner to do this ?
 
#24 ·
Its a bit of a "long" story.... I have an outdoor antenna that picks up all the Toronto stations, but for some strange reason, when I try to hook up to a really long run to my bedroom, only Toronto1 and CTV shows up. CBC and CityHD somehow doesn't get thru. I check and replace the cable and it fixed my Sat problem (I had the same problem with the cable with my Sat signal.....CBC Toronto doesn't come thru but I think it was simply a coincidence).

I know that if I stick an indoor one I will pick-up CBC Toronto and CityTV as well and hence the question. Myabe the better question is how to boost the weaker signals so that it will go thru the long cable one. My antenna has a built-in 10db pre-amp already, and the the OTA feed is pump thru a powered 5x8 multi-switch so there shouldn't be much insertion signal loss. What else can I do ?

Do you know if I can just use normal cable splitter to do the combining ?
 
#26 ·
I was playing with the set-up today and realized that my Sat in-line booster is only from 900Mhz to 2050Mhz, but it must done something to the lower frequencies since once I removed it, I got all of the OTA channels back. So I am all set again, although with weaker Sat signal which is no showing any ill effect even with the relatively long cable one (100' from Sat Dish to the multi-switch, another 90' from the switch to my receiver). The OTA antenna is only 50' from the switch.

The in-line booster I have is the usual non-powered little adapters that you can get at The Source or Home Depot.

By the way, there is already a pre-amp on the antenna, can I still add an amp to it ? I am not getting any US channels now, is there a way to know that if I add an amp it will get some US channels as well ?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top