If it were me I’d put the amp inside. That short length of jumper cable should make little difference in the signal strength. The dryer and more stable environment indoors would be better for the electronics in the amp.
RubeRad, I think you’re confusing Wifi with internet access. Yes, it only uses the internet for the program guide. It uses your home network, wifi or wired, to stream to your devices. You want as much bandwidth as possible, especially if you’re streaming to more than one device, that’s why you want the Tablo hard-wired.
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Supposedly the what you are calling the amplifier (which is what Mohu calls the amplifier in their manual too) with the Sky 60 is actually just a power injector, the actual amplifier is built in to the antenna itself so you can leave the power injector inside rather than bringing it closer to the antenna.
Can you please confirm? @MarkKindle
Really! I was very confused then, I thought that the tablo had its own wifi router essentially and that devices fed off of that. So you’re saying if the tablo is not on an ethernet cable, it has to broadcast wifi to the router, and then it bounces back out to the devices?
But when you do initial setup via wifi, you have to temporarily switch the device to the Tablo SSID (which was my original question, how do you find out what that SSID is after you accidentally tell the device to ‘forget’ it, it doesn’t show up anymore). So if the Tablo broadcasts an SSID, it does have its own wifi, right?
When do you do the initial setup the Tablo broadcasts its own WiFi network so you can connect to it wirelessly and configure it (this is the Tablo_XXXX SSID). After you tell the Tablo the credentials of your own home WiFi network (the one you were using before you got the Tablo), the Tablo wirelessly connects to your WiFi network. Once the Tablo is on your WiFi network, it stops broadcasting its own SSID (i.e. it is disabled).
All your wireless clients (say iPad, iPhone, Roku, etc), all connect to your WiFi network and access the Tablo through that network (not the Tablo’s).
The Tablo runs on your existing network, it does not create a new one to operate on. The Tablo_XXXX SSID is only for the first time setup, after that it is gone if the Tablo is connected via Ethernet to your router, or it can connect wirelessly to your network.
Yes, keep the power injector inside. The extra 12 feet don’t make much of a difference.
If you need more gain, then a bigger antenna would be better. The Mohu Sky amplifier is rated at 15 db gain though some people have measured it to be as low as 3 db. With a bigger antenna (like a Clearstream 4) one could also get a better preamp (such as RCA or Winegard).
Is the Sky 60 being used as a multi-directional antenna because the stations are scattered in different directions? Or are they all clustered in one direction?
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Kind of clustered. CBS/ABC are about 15mi SW, and NBC/PBS/etc are about 30mi SSE.
(re)borrowed the ladder yesterday, this afternoon will be experimenting with directions in that range, hopefully we can find something that reliably pulls in both towers.
Don’t know if it makes a diff, but the box actually calls this unit an “Air 60”, even though website says “Sky 60”, and it looks identical. Seems maybe the ones they sell through BestBuy are Air instead of Sky. Maybe old stock?
The Sky 60 in reality is the equivalent of a one bay bowtie when you look inside the antenna at its parts and construction. The 60 mile claim is bogus for a one bay bowtie. In their case, the “60 miles” comes from a supposed combination of metal plus amplifier but their amplifier is suspect when actually measured for gain. This is marketing hype pure and simple! A one bay bowtie is equivalent to the old 1950’s Radio Shack bowtie antenna one put on the top of an old TV set when a few miles away from the broadcaster.
In your case, an antenna with a reflector (which the Sky 60 does not have) is better for clustered stations. A reflector adds about 20-30% to the overall antenna performance.
OK, that was a big fail.
Connected the antenna cable to the cable coming into the house, then the little mohu thingy (powered directly into an outlet) and into the Tablo.
Started out with the mohu sky/air 60 pointed basically at the NBC/PBS tower, rotated it towards the CBS/ABC tower in maybe 5deg increments. For a while nothing was changing, everything from the NBC/PBS tower was 5 dots. At one point CBS came in 1 dot while everything else was still 5, but by the time CBS was 3 dots, NBC was gone, and then PBS was gone.
In the end, CBS was gone again, NBC and PBS were long gone, we never saw ABC, and all that was left was Fox (KSWB) and KUSI, which both come off the NBC/PBS tower.
How is it those two channels can stay so strong while everything else coming from the same tower drops off?
And why, on the day that we first put the antenna up, a scan directly into the TV (sony bravia somethingorother) saw everything, but now the Tablo is seeing so much less?
Is it just down to weather? Or because the Tablo is splitting the signal into 4 tuners?
Is there an amp I can put inline (at ground level) that will boost the signal, or do I have to get a different antenna?
Also, noticed that antenna, mounted at the top of the chimney, is still about 2ft below the highest roofline, so it’s quite possible the roof is blocking CBS/ABC. What if we got a little hardware (some u-bolts and such) and a 3-4 foot pole, and raised the antenna up above the roofline? Would that solve all my problems? Would it make a difference what the pole is made of?
Do they make antennas that pick up just across a 90deg range? The only two towers I care about are 75deg apart.
So how long is the cable run? Sounds like your setup is below:
Antenna -> coaxial cable #1 -> coaxial cable #2 -> Mohu power injector -> Tablo
Yes, that’s right. coax#1 is the 30ft cable that came with the mohu. Then there’s about 12ft that comes through the wall into the house. The Mohu power injector adds another 6in. of coax.
Would be helpful for you to supply us with a TVFool report otherwise we are just guessing…
According to the antenna specs, it is omnidirectional and doesn’t require any pointing.
Can you just run one good quality RG6 cable directly from the antenna into the house to the power injector? No need to use the supplied Mohu 30’ cable. You have to use the power injector though.
The coupler between the 30’ and 12’ cable right now can also cause signal problems - rare, but can.
The higher the better. Metal not wood.
TV FOOL report link is up above…
Are you in a valley surrounded by hills? TVFool says all the channels are coming in your direction indirectly as 1-edge and 2-edge. That means they are skipping off ridges in your direction. You don’t have a visible straight line to the broadcast towers even if you are close to them. Are you looking up at hills?
Edge signals are not predictable and will vary from hour to hour and day to day. What came in one day cleanly can fail the next. With hills an antenna has to point above the top of the hill. Otherwise one is relying on reflections which can be unpredictable.
I have a friend in a situation just like that and he actually just laid his antenna on the ground in his back yard and got all the signals. Scooping up all the ground reflections. Putting it on the roof did him no good. In his case the lower the better…
Yup, in a valley, our place sits on a bluff about 15-20 ft above the valley floor.
Picked up a 5ft length of 3/4" galvanized electrical conduit and a pair of hose clamps. Hose clamps affix the new pipe to the old mounting rod, antenna clamp on the new pipe. Hoping if I get that antenna up above the roofline I can get what I need.
What does “2-edge” actually mean – the signal is coming over two rows of hills?
What does “Point” mean for a mohu air/sky 60? Should we angle the bracket back so the face is pointing up a little bit?
Yes. The signal is being diffracted in-by-over-around two obstacles. Each time it hits something and bends over\around it, the signal loses some power. By the time it gets to you it has been weakened.
The solution is usually a more powerful antenna and a more powerful preamp. But first let’s see what going above the roofline gets you. Angling the bracket (tilting) is a good idea.
2-edge also means that the diffracted signals, though coming from the same source may arrive at slightly different angles and directions. (Channels coming from the same tower differ in altitude on the tower). This creates multipath which distorts reception. Can require using a wider antenna or a stack.
I’m not sure what is involved in aiming a Sky 60 type antenna. A yagi would be pointed like an arrow at the hill top with the yagi head tilted upwards. The Sky 60 however claims no pointing is necessary since it is by design an omnidirectional. However I would still aim the face at half way between the two towers.
BTW I have cascaded two preamps in a series successfully (though it is not recommended). If both preamps have a noise figure of 1 or less, the combined NF of 2 is OK and you get double the amplification. Might work to send the Sky 60 thru a second preamp.
PS Be aware that you have two sets of entirely different signal types. ABC and CBS are VHF and come from one direction. These are the 2-edge. The Sky 60 is weaker with VHF.
NBC and FOX are UHF and 1-edge. Coming from a different direction.
There could be another strategy to address this bipolar situation…