combining uhf and vhf antennas for DTV

[I_69_98]

I and my neighbor want to split combine signal from the two ant on the roof. How do I go about doing this with out it costing a arm and a leg? Ant poing in opposite directions.

[MrBoylan]

I and my neighbor want to split combine signal from the two ant on the roof. How do I go about doing this with out it costing a arm and a leg? Ant poing in opposite directions.

You can combine UHF and VHF antenna signals with a UHF/VHF combiner into a single coax cable (preferably RG6) and then split this combined signal into a feed for yourself and a feed for your neighbor using a standard coax splitter. If you plan to split that signal again to multiple TVs in each house then keep in mind that you lose 3 dB of signal strength each time you split a signal. So if you are going to do a lot of splitting then consider putting a pre-amp right near the antenna or a drop amp where you do the very first split.

If you are pointing the antennas in different directions, to capture the broadcasts from different towers, then multipath distortion is a distinct possibility on any frequencies where the two antennas' reception overlaps. This can be minimized by using directional antennas, like medium to long range Yagis such as the 43XG. This and the more expensive, longer range 91XG model offer narrow beamwidths and good front to back ratios.

Richard Schneider from Antennas Direct suggests that when combining antennas aimed for separate markets, try and use the same model of antenna (if possible) and make sure the cables from the antennas to the combiner are cut to the same length. That will help minimize phase cancellation. If you do use identical antennas pointed in different directions, then use a standard splitter/combiner instead of a UHF/VHF combiner in order to combine the signals into the one cable.

Also if multipath is still a problem you can try and install some notch filters to block the offending stations on specific frequencies, but this is a bit more advanced as it requires you know exactly where the offending signals are.

I'll include some links below for good quality antennas, a UHF/VHF combiner, high quality splitters and a drop amp with built-in 4-way splitter.

• Antennas Direct 43XG Long Range Uni-Directional HDTV Antenna
• Antennas Direct 91XG Uni-directional HDTV Antenna
• Motorola Signal Booster 4-Port BDA-S4 Cable Modem TV HDTV Amplifier
• UHF/VHF Signal Combiner
• Acoustic Research PR430 High Performance 2 GHZ, 2-way splitter

Good luck!

-Chris