I’m seeing some pixelation tonight so I’m gonna give the fm trap a try. I will try and find one used maybe I don’t know. Maybe pony up the 25 on amazon for one. Or order the Kenable one from amazon.
One of these two. Unless someone on the forum has one they are willing to part with. If they have one laying around.
The Kenable is not an FM trap - it is an LTE filter.
I’ve seen some Radio Shack FM traps on eBay going for $16 or so.
Got it. I’ll check out eBay.
How about this one?
Yes that looks OK.
The first one from Amazon (RTL-SDR) has this comment:
“Not for FM blocking of OTA signals on COAX. Does not fit COAX wire.”
Regarding the pixelation - that 300 ohm long wire (all 144") strung out across the attic from rafter to rafter may still be worthwhile to test now that you got the signal by disconnecting the distribution amp. Also try to put that 300 ohm wire antenna thru the RCA preamp (which has an FM filter) and seeing what that does.
If I had to deal with a lo VHF channel, my inclination now would be to try first the long 300 ohm wire antenna… I’d string that sucker from rafter to rafter to rafter and also use it as a clothes line in a hot attic!
https://packetradio.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1768
Was thinking of ordering from the site above. Going to order the 50’ spool.
Mark, when I receive this, how much of a gap am I leaving on the bottom wires? Still 2”? Connect two runs to the balun right?
Doesn’t have to be precise in this type of antenna - between 1.5 to 2 inches.
Twist one end of the antenna with the left balun wire and the other end with the right balun wire. Then connect the coax to the balun.
Now remember you can make this antenna more powerful with additions since you will have a lot of wire. You can make a reflector behind it (check that article you mentioned - it mentions these things) and also an additional director in front of it. You can add as much as another 30% power to it with a reflector and director.
In fact for the reflector, just unfurl a roll of aluminum kitchen foil about 5% longer than the antenna and tape it some 28" behind the full wave dipole (or 14" for a half wave dipole) for channel 6’s frequency at 82 MHz. That’s the reflector!
No go on the 144” dipole antenna. Again it would not pick up anything. Even using the rca preamp with the fm trap. I have officially suspended my attempts at picking up 6abc in the philly area with an antenna.
I’ll wait til the repack is done and we move to 3.0.
Going gigabit with the evil empire Comcast, and unlimited downloads. Gonna direct my attention to wiring the tv’s and a few other projects.
It’s been a fun project and I’ve learned a lot. Thanks for the help!
I’m keeping my antenna for sure. I am only using internet from Comcast. No way I’m going back for cable.
I have my plex server running with sonarr and radarr now. I also have a Clearstream 2 in my attic connected to hdhomerun duo and I record direct to plex and remove commercials. Works really well.
Love my Tablo, just wish it was easier getting shows from Tablo to plex. We are a Mac family and There aren’t many apps for Mac that are homegrown like Tablo ripper and whatnot.
I also have vue for soccer matches with my boys and for getting 6abc when I want to watch something. I have also determined I am in a no data cap area for Comcast. But my internet bill went up 20 dollars and they won’t budge on the price. So I’m going gigabit to get a lower price and I’ll start wiring the house to get the tv’s off power line adapters.
All in all I am pretty happy with my setup. Disappointed my Mac mini can’t be upgraded to Mojave’s. It’s a 2011. So a decision will have to be made at some point, either a new mini or ill build a new plex server. But I should have time until that Ned’s to be done.
Hopefully atsc 3.0 will improve 6abc, but who knows where I’ll be by that point!
These types of standards are usually not both designed by Washington and approved by Washington.
They are usually designed by an industry consortium.
My Mac Mini ran out of steam and I reloaded it with Lubuntu. Now it flies.
What are some of the differences you have noticed after changing your OS?
Lubuntu is Linux streamlined for older computers that have 512 meg of memory (I have 2 GB). It runs fewer processes and has less apps. It is a very thin OS which yet runs all the Linux apps.
I replaced the Mac Mini’s native OS from Apple when the Safari browser started choking up and freezing consistently. The Mac Mini would take a long time to load an app and if the app used too many resources it would crash. It also was starting to have problems when more than two apps would be running simultaneously.
The very first thing I noticed is that Chrome runs beautifully under Lubuntu and does not freeze on the Mac Mini. With Safari I could barely have two tabs open - I have no problems having six tabs open now under Chrome.
I couldn’t run the Tablo app at all previously but have no problems opening up the Tablo now on the Mac Mini.
No apps crash now at all. I can be playing music, editing a photo and downloading a file in parallel without any hiccups or lag.
A neighbor’s laptop had Windows XP and was crashing all the time. He couldn’t load Windows 7 because the laptop had limited resources. We put Lubuntu on it and voila he had a new laptop. Granted he doesn’t do any heavy lifting on it - just browsing the Internet and writing emails and documents. But it saved him having to buy a new laptop for a few additional years.
I can’t vouch for running heavy apps such as Plex but I have no problems editing and transforming MP4 files from Tablo with Avidemux or Handbrake on the Mac Mini under Lubuntu. I use the Java based Tablo exporters from this forum to run under Lubuntu.
There are other Linux variants that are similar to Lubuntu (e.g. Mint which is more polished but also uses more resources). I wanted the absolutely slimmest OS possible that had a GUI. I had originally gotten the Mac Mini so I could just do some iPhone programming. When that ended for me, I tried using it as a general purpose computer and two years later it started running out of steam… That’s when I started looking how to keep it going. It is also my main interface to my Raspberry Pi that I use as a media server.
Just came across this in another forum - lo VHF build:
I have to be honest, the wife will not be happy if I start fiddling with another antenna. I’ve been planning all week for my upgrade to gig internet, new switch is in and everything is already wired.
Have the evil empire coming tomorrow and hopefully some wiring plans for the weekend. Not that I’ve given up, even though I kind of have. I have some other sure things to get to. I experimented for a good 4 to 6 weeks and while my investment so far is minimal.
I need and want to tackle something that I can get done. Right now the plan is to get 2 tv’s and the kids Xbox on Ethernet. After that, it’s back to some job hunting and possible plex server changes.
That and selling off 3 iMacs I have and need to move and about 6 to 8 hp monitors. 24” and bigger. Need some space in the garage.
Im still open to ideas and possibilities. Just back burner for now.
Understand the wife factor - mine would wonder many times why I was up in the attic or on the roof when I could be in the garden…
In fact I’m off to get the tiller repaired this aft.
I was doing some research on another issue, and quite by accident came across this article (regarding ch 6 WPVI) from someone in the Philly area:
http://www.hdtvexpert.com/i’ve-got-the-low-band-dtv-blues…/
Interesting reading - file it away for future reference. I’ve read this HDTV blogger before who’s quite adept at testing OTA equipment.
Interestingly enough, he had to KNOCK DOWN his signal quite a few notches because of the strength of the WPVI signal! Just the opposite of what we might expect…
I had been having the same issue for a while now. One of the channels that I lost had reset they are frequency (channel 26 in Green Bay WI) and so we needed to rescan all of our TVs to get the reception again. That made me think of the following fix, which worked for me, at least at this moment in time:grin:. I went into settings. Next into channel lineup. Then hit rescan. Then hit Add to guide. And the channels I lost are now found:+1:
Interesting article, I wonder if I need to knock it down some more. The more I think about it. I think my solar panels could be interfering as well. Maybe mounting the antenna higher on my roof with a tripod mount would be an improvement.
Then again, if I start mucking around with the antenna again. She will flip out…
Got all of my outlets cut in the walls for the Ethernet project. Wife does not see why this project could be deemed higher priority than some other projects. But hey, this all about removing power line adapters and using that gig internet to its max potential.
And I am setting up my velop for a wired bachaul instead of a wireless backhaul. Should help improve WiFi upstairs.
Doing the entertainment room, where I have my bar will a days worth of work. Long Ethernet run and a drywall ceiling to cut, patch and paint… all in the name of gig speed.
Then I can stack her firewood on the porch for the fires I’ll have to make for the family over the winter!!!
Memo to self, next time have the house wired when you build it!
Where are your solar panels in relation to the attic location where you place the VHF dipole? Where are the solar panels with respect to the rooftop antenna?
Here is a discussion of antennas and solar panels: