No. At minimum, youll lose the low channels.1) Can I make the dimensions smaller while maintaining the aspect ratio without serious degradation of performance?
It will hurt. The covering changes the velocity factor of the wire and speaker wire is very hard to keep straight, which will degrade performance. Stripped solid house wire is a much better cheap choice.2) Will the unstripped speaker wire seriously degrade its performance?
Yes, but it doesnt look like you really need it.3) Would a reflector help significantly with performance?
A reflectorless SBGH with NARODs would work well for you with minimum space. Your VHF stations are so strong, you may be able to receive those even without the NARODs.There are 8 UHF and 3 VHF (13.1, 9.1 & 5.1) channels, so I'd like to be able to pick up both UHF and VHF channels.
Yep. But see below.If I did that I'd use a screw and washer to hook the balun to the elements right?
Small bolt, nut, washers is easiest.one with the screws for wires and one with the little Y connectors. When using the stripped house wire, what's the best way to connect the balun to the antenna element if I don't do a wood or pvc base?
I dont know, can you ? heh. If you havent already bought a distribution amp, I would get a quality preamp instead and use a splitter.If I do end up having to climb up in the attic (ick), can I run the cable down into my existing cable distribution center in the closet?
Absolutely, theyre insane.I'm really hacked at our local cable company. I was paying $80 a month and the only way to cut that down was to remove groups of channels. So that's left me with 24 channels that cost around $40 a month. given I can get quite a few of those OTA (at higher quality), I see no reason to pay them anything.
Yep, and you can rent DVDs for $1 that are way newer than on cable. And with a decent high speed internet connection, you have Hulu.com, Crackle.com, PBS.org, Natgeo.com, TheWB.com, CBS.com, Fox.com and many many more places to watch full length movies and shows with less commercial interruption. And the best part is, you choose the time to view.especially since I can buy a Roku box to get netflix for less than $10 a month to fill in the movie aspect and also get pandora.
If your receiver doesnt have EPG, then use the web at sites like zaptoit.com or TVGuide.com.So what's the best way to deal with no longer having a scrollable cable company tv show times/list?
Yep. With digital, a single station can have many sub-channels. In one case in California, there is a station with 15 subchannels.I'm also getting 8 stations not on the list that have #.2 or higher in the channel number. Those are digital right? What's up with that?
You probably should get NM(db)=45.3. Rescan. A full rescan isnt necessary if your TV receiver has an add channels function.It's not picking up ION tv and that's one I want darnit. NM(db)=45.3 and it's in the right direction. Do you think rescanning the channels again would help? I'm going to have to rescan each time I dink around with how the antenna is aimed?
Post pictures of what you have now.Do you think it would be worth it to break down and get the house wire? or figure out a way to mount the elements on something and use foil on the foam as a reflector? I really don't want to do either, but if you think it will help significantly I will. lol
Yep, I like the format of zap2it.com better than any EPG anyway.Right now I'm using zap2it.com
With RG-6, figure 1db every 18 ft. With the older RG59, the loss is a bit more.What kinda loss do you get by lengthening the cabling?
Youll have to study your TV manual for the audio outputs it has and study the audio receiver manual for the inputs it has.Any ideas on dealing with the audio quality when cabling the TV to my audio receiver?
Yeah, it looks like the dimensions are half way correct, so it should work.But it works!
