I live in Calgary and here we get Channels 2,4,5,9,13,16,32,38,44 OTA.

I have a Herringbone Pattern on Channel 2 and Vertical Rainbow looking banding near the left\centrer of the picture on all other channels. I am looking to find an FM trap to see if it will help with the picture distortion. Has anyone had any luck with these? Where do you get them locally?

FYI, I am using a SBGH ganged with a DIY Folded Dipole antenna Tuned to Channel 2 (5m folded= 2.5m wide) My location is Beddington in Calgary.

Thanks in advance!

I have a Herringbone Pattern on Channel 2 and Vertical Rainbow looking banding near the left\centrer of the picture on all other channels.Hi, the presence of herringbone on analogue stations almost always means too much signal, so in this case I'm assuming that your Channel 2 folded dipole is doing too good a job! :D

You need to attenuate your VHF antenna. Is it on its own balun and coax apart from your SBGH? The idea is to do just the VHF and not the UHF antenna. You can put attenuators in line one at a time to see if the herringbone goes away, and you can get them quite cheaply at The Source. Either that or pick up a couple of splitters at a dollar store and use them as attenuators just for testing.

http://www.user.dccnet.com/jonleblanc/images/attenuator.jpg

Hopefully this will clear up all the channels too, but let us know.

I am using a SBGH ganged with a DIY Folded Dipole antenna Tuned to Channel 2
There's the likely problem.

The two antennas are probably interfering with each other. This is normal when just combining two different antennas together without any band filtering.

About the only easy combination to do is pairing a UHF antenna with a VHF antenna, where a common "UVSJ" (Uhf Vhf Splitter Joiner) band combining device can be used to interconnect them. This is *not* a common splitter/combiner, but rather a (cheap) specialty item made for exactly this purpose.

cheers

thanks mlord
Where can one find a VSVJ?

read ya l8r,
Al

Al, do a Google for these similar devices and you'll find sources and prices:
Pico Macom UVSJ
Winegard CC 7870 2-Way Antenna Joiner Coupler
Antennas Direct EU385-CF UHF / VHF Antenna Combiner
Also see Post #16 in the OTA FAQ

I tried attenuating the VHF, and then the UHF separately before combining and not much help. Then I tried Amplifying with an FM trap turned on for each separately before combining and no luck.

I am pretty sure mlord is right about needing a special VHF/UHF combiner for my case. I noticed some channels in the upper UHF range are worsened once the VHF is connected and some low VHF channels are worsened with the UHF antenna connected to the 2-1 combiner.

I have read some threads at AVS forum and they say the Pico is the one to look for. I will try to track one down and let you know how it works out.

Here is a pretty decently feaured amplifier with FM trap with adjustable gain at home depot. Seems to work pretty well. Leviton 48210-VA

Don't go overboard on cost. These UVSJ things are worth perhaps $2-$3 max. I'm using an old generic one I found at an electronics surplus shop (Active Surplus, Queen St.W in Toronto) for CDN$1.50. :)

a pretty decently feaured amplifier with FM trap with adjustable gain at home depot. Seems to work pretty well. Leviton 48210-VAThat amp is discussed in this thread:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=42426

When you go into that thread just use the Search This Thread tool to the upper right beside Thread Tools and put in the search term "leviton" to see the previous posts about it.

I was given 2 VHF + UHF combiners

Now hopefully they work,
Al

i've just installed outdoor hd antenna, now problem is cables from outdoor with Dish and OTA Antenna runs into basement.... that;s where i installed a diplexer and as only one cable into living room from basement to tv... so i used another diplexer in living room and cables go to fta receiver box and ota antenna direct to tv.... problem is... when i turn my sat box on ... and all ota hd channels are gone.... when i turn it off and i am able to see it again.... will some one suggest something..... thanks....

i've just installed outdoor hd antenna, now problem is cables from outdoor with Dish and OTA Antenna runs into basement.... that;s where i installed a diplexer and as only one cable into living room from basement to tv... so i used another diplexer in living room and cables go to fta receiver box and ota antenna direct to tv.... problem is... when i turn my sat box on ... and all ota hd channels are gone.... when i turn it off and i am able to see it again.... will some one suggest something..... thanks....

Without knowing exactly what type of satellite system you have, I am speculating that by turning on your receiver it provides power to something at the dish head causing interference on the OTA frequencies. Could it be that the electronics at the dish down convert C or Ku band into the UHF frequency band? I'm just guessing.

I have a similar setup with StarChoice Ku band system; I see no problem receiving OTA broadcasts while the Satellite receiver is turned on.

i am also using KU Band , but now what's the solution???? i have coolsat 6100 receiver. should i hookup ota cable to receiver and then to tv???

phantom5, there is an explanation of how to use diplexers for Satellite and OTA in Post #73 (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=375791&postcount=73). Also see the diagram in Post #77 (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=375795&postcount=77).

Can you please read through the comments and the discussions and then let us know if your system is different than that?

it's similar but except i do not have preamp and preamp's power injector. it's like Antenna in and Dish in --> goes to --> ant in to diplexer ant in and dish goes to switch 4x1 first then output from switch goes to diplexer sat in part --> then out from diplexer goes to single cable upto living room --> then again output goes into diplexer --> and saperates into ant goes to TV and SAT goes into Satellite receiver in.

it's similar but except i do not have preamp and preamp's power injector. it's like Antenna in and Dish in --> goes to --> ant in to diplexer ant in and dish goes to switch 4x1 first then output from switch goes to diplexer sat in part --> then out from diplexer goes to single cable upto living room --> then again output goes into diplexer --> and saperates into ant goes to TV and SAT goes into Satellite receiver in.

Sounds like what you're doing is correct. I'm using a 5x8 satellite switch that includes the diplexer built-in. At each location around the house I use a stand-alone diplexer to split it to a satellite receiver and an FM radio or OTA TV input.

I assume your Coolsat to TV connection is by component, s-video, or composite video and not by RF ch 3or4. What exactly happens? You're watching OTA digital TV when the Coolsat is powered off. You turn on the Coolsat and poof the TV picture goes blank?

What does it do to analog TV signals? Are they blank too?

This is purely speculation here, but could it be that they aren't diplexers that you have, but some type of switch that diverts all the signal to the satellite receiver when its power is on? A diplexer on the other hand will send all signals below about 800MHz to the TV tuner and everything above about 1GHz to the satellite box.

Good point - what is the make/model number of the units you are using, phantom5? I hope they're not diseqc switches.

Is there any performance gains between a regular 5-1000mhz video signal splitter and a 5-2400mhz satellite splitter ?

For OTA they both will cover the frequencies identically. As for loss and "clean" splitting, generally you get what you pay for. There are pro brand splitters that are noticeably better than dollar store splitters.

Is there anything that can replace a high isolation A/B switch when I want to watch OTA and dish on one TV ?

I already have a separate coax line coming for the dish and OTA antenna so a diplexer isn't the answer, basically I need something that can isolate the signals from crossing or is an A/B switch the best solution ?