Thread: O.T. Macrium
View Single Post
  #93  
Old January 20th 18, 12:54 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default O.T. Macrium

Mark Twain wrote:
Here's my map/report:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...edf2a217378 e

I guess I live in the woods *L*
actually the desert with hills
around me.

I didn't think I would get much.

I'm wondering if it's even worth
it? Maybe stick to my DVD's like
before. There's not much on TV
anyway.

I bought this Terk Tower for the
tuner before it got fried but it
only picked up one more station
although I did notice the signal
was 'cleaner' and didn't drift.

The green light is actually a
adjustment for + or -


https://www.ebay.com/itm/TERK-Amplif...rd!92544!US!-1


Now the weird part of this is,. I
have a cheap clock radio and it picks
up allot of stations as well as my car
radio.

Now how can they pick up the stations
but a dedicated quality stereo tuner
can't?


Thanks,
Robert


I'm not really good with FM, so I can't tell
you why the Clock Radio is better. The clock
radio can use a ferrite bar for AM, but they
probably wouldn't do that for FM. Ferrite does
go up to fairly high frequencies, but I haven't
run into an example of doing FM that way. And
there isn't room for much of an FM structure
inside a radio.

I tried a 300ohm antenna for FM here, which is
really just a "bag full of wire", and I can't
say it was "sensitive" at all. I couldn't receive
like I was running a shortwave radio or anything.

*******

Your TV map has a couple VHF stations (10 and 5) and
one UHF (25). The products you've been looking at which
are mainly UHF band, are going to make getting 25
easier. I can't promise you how the "10 and 5" are
going to work out.

The three stations in question, are all in the same
direction. So you only need to point the antenna
once for the three of them.

The question would be, what kind of smallish antenna
would give good coverage on UHF and VHF. The people
selling them aren't very honest about this.

*******

This is mine, only mine has a completely different
support structure :-) Mine looks like a clothes
dryer rack, with four vertical pipes and sits on
the floor. Mine isn't intended for outdoor use
like this one is. Mine was intended to sit on the floor
somewhere (original intent was in an attic with
a tall ceiling above it). But it just barely fits
in available space in the living room, for testing.
Roughly $200 in materials went into mine, because
I had some "do-overs". I actually made a "drill assist"
for a hand drill, to emulate a drill press in an attempt
to make holes in stuff, with less than one degree of
positional error. I used a foot long drill bit from
the hardware store, sized to drill holes for the copper
tubing. Based on my material cost, I lost money by
about a factor of two, by DIY. I could have bought
an equivalent antenna for less.

http://www.instructables.com/id/GH10...an-TV-Antenna/

It might not be clear there, but that antenna is 3D and
has depth. It's pretty deep from back to front. But it
would pick up your 10 and 5, and with 100% readings.

A more basic one is here. The zigzag parts are UHF. The
top coupled elements are VHF (and probably weren't present
on the antenna Hoverman designed).

http://www.idc-online.com/technical_...TV_antenna.pdf

That one has a gain curve, and you can see the antenna "peaks"
at 660MHz or so. That's a general shape for UHF antennas,
you can't make them exactly flat over a wide range. The
graph doesn't really go down far enough, as it's not
showing us the important VHF stuff (off the graph
to the left). The antenna in that example, should do well
on your channel 25 (maybe 8dB gain over isotropic).

VHF LOW 05 76-82 MHz VHF HIGH 10 192-198 MHz

UHF 25 536-542 MHz

The top of VHF High is 210-216 MHz and that is channel 13.

*******

Back when I got my STB, this was the one people were talking about.
That's an eight bay antenna (UHF part). It claims

8-Bay HD and UHF outdoor TV antenna picks up UHF band
channels 14 thru 69 with a reception range of 80 miles.

CM 4228HD also picks up High VHF signals within a 45 mile radius,
streaming channels 7 thru 13.

https://www.amazon.com/CHANNEL-CM-42...words=cm4228hd

But in fact, the 4NEC2 analysis showed that channel 9 suffers a
phase inversion and pokes out the back of the antenna. And
since the antenna includes the "grid" in the back as a
reflector, the end result is the antenna has no gain on
channel 9 at all. This puts your channel 10 reception in
danger. And that's why the gain graphs are good for
spotting potential problems.

Now, this one, is an example of a flawed concept. Once
the multi-bay antennas get to a certain size, phasing
becomes an issue. The manufacturer cannot control the
constructive and destructive interference between these
well enough, to obtain consistently high gain. So when
the antenna says "17.4 dB gain", well, we don't know
which exact frequency that happened on, and it might only
be 10dB on channel 25 for all we know. The idea with these
duals, is you point one structure on one vector, the
second structure in a different direction, and "magically"
and obediently, the two signals add without screwing
up one another :-/ Well, not really. Even if you point
them in exactly the same direction, the phasing effects
might leave a bit of ripple in the gain.

https://www.antennasdirect.com/store...V-Antenna.html

*******

Getting back to reality then, I think if you can
locate your rabbit ears, and fully extend them and
you have the balun, that's a start at receiving 5 and 10.

If you think 25 is a good channel, then maybe your
small square purchase would be a good idea. And since all three
of the most powerful stations are on the same vector,
the Terk with the "beam" Yagi concept, might work for
that too. But it's hard to tell with that one, whether
it actually has gain on VHF.

Other than that, 50 feet of 1/4" copper tubing, some
CPVC pipe and solvent cement, a drill, a whole month
of your time, and you can make an antenna like I did :-)
I'm really surprised at one point, I didn't dig a hole
in the back yard, and throw all the materials in there :-)

Paul

Ads