Long range attic antenna?

[Papa Bear]

Originally Posted By: Lubener
I doubt there is a milliamp of current flow, more like microamps. You can have some situations, have a voltage potential on the braid due to grounding issues between the two ends, it's called a ground loop it happens once in a while and is not good.

I would rather start with a good quad shield RG6 anyday versus an RG59 and an amp. The amp is going to amplify any noise present in the line brought on by using cheap "video" cable. Why not do it right from the begining.


I beg to differ. The amp will amplify the best quality signal available at the antenna head which will give you a better S/N ratio.
The increased signal strength of the amp will also give a person the option to split it for 2 TVs if you wish.

IMHO using quad shield RG6 for an attic antenna is like washing my feet with Perrier .... very expensive and unnecessary.

 

[Lubener]

RG6 is intended for RF, RG59 is for video, pure and simple. The six is not that expensive.

Using an amp with poor cabling is like peeing on someone's head and telling them it's raining.

 

[dishdude]

RG 59 was used by cable companies and antenna manufacturers for years, there is nothing wrong with it. Heck before coax was popular, 300 ohm twin lead cable was used with no shielding at all and it works just fine to this day.

 

[Papa Bear]

Originally Posted By: Lubener

Using an amp with poor cabling is like peeing on someone's head and telling them it's raining.


59 is not poor cabling.
My analogy (using quad shield RG6 for an attic antenna is like washing my feet with Perrier) is far more pertinent than yours...

In the OP's case "Good enough is best by far".

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
RG 59 was used by cable companies and antenna manufacturers for years, there is nothing wrong with it. Heck before coax was popular, 300 ohm twin lead cable was used with no shielding at all and it works just fine to this day.
Perhaps, but remember: Most TV back then was on VHF. And as stated earlier, RG-59 is quite lossly as frequency increases, particularly with long cable runs. The main thing is match cable type to the frequency used, losses due to splitters, taps, etc. and do a gain calculation to ensure that sufficient signal arrives at the display, far above the noise floor.

Twin lead is a balanced line. Different Z and characteristics than coax, which isn't balanced. Works fine with HF, as many hams use it (ladder line) in that band. But it isn't suitable for use in the 2M or 70cm band.

 

[Rand]

Keeping in mind this is for an attic antenna not outdoor... is pertinent to the analogy.

 

[Digital2k2]

Even though the instructions said only to add the optional reflectors for VHF-LOW reception, is there any way they could make a slight difference in reception for the VHF-HIGH channels?

They screw into the last three reflectors of the antenna and if the last three pick up VHF-HIGH while being that short, I keep thinking that the VHF-LOW kit would only help reception of the VHF-HIGH channels too...