Antennas 10:51 PM, 0 Comments

I went to radio shack and bought an antenna and mount for my new house (because we don't think we can afford cable or satellite right now). I climb up my steep roof, with all of the goodies, and I notice that no one has antennas up on their roofs. Anne wasn't excited to be the only one with an antenna on the roof. But I already bought the equipment, and I was already risking my life on the roof, so what the heck, I might as well follow through.

I installed it up there, and it seems pretty sturdy. I wired it up on my patch panel and sent it to the TV's jack, and WOW. Check out that reception! I don't think I've ever had such good reception for an antenna! Heck, this looks better than cable, and I know some people with cable that have a lot worse pictures than this.

Then I hear from my neighbor that he has his antenna in his attic. Hmm. That's a good idea, but now that I have the reception that I have, and the antenna is all installed on the roof, to try it in the attic would be a waste of time, especially if the signal gets degraded with all these reflectors and conductors in there. Besides, this guy, who is an antenna expert, it seems, is on my side, with this:

A lot of people locate antennas in the attic. If you do, consider that all attic wiring, wood and roofing material bcome part of the antenna. The antenna is compromised by its being connected to all this stuff lying nearby. Why would you want to do that? OK. Maybe you are lazy and don't want to put it on the roof. That takes more effort. Also, maybe winter winds would rip apart a consumer antenna. Fine, so long as you know a lot of the value of the antenna is lost by being near other stuff.

I found a neat site here that gives you a good idea of the general direction your antenna should be pointing for where you are. I tried it, and mine shows it should be generally between 202 and 212 degrees from magnetic north. That's pretty neat -- that's about where I estimated it should be when I installed it! No wonders!