You can get a DVR regardless of whether you have sat, cable, or OTA, which is what the OP apparently uses. And I agree, it;'s highly recommended and does totally change the way you use your TV. I've had a Tivo for a long time now and love it.
Yes. The wavelength at satellite frequencies is just an inch or so. The disk isn't an antenna but a reflector. The antenna itself is located at the focal point and will already be far enough from things.
Specifically 22,300 miles directly above the equator. Considering the Earth's rotation and axial tilt, this is the only location where a satellite can stay in one place relative to the ground without constant thrust.
Yes, DVRs do make a lot of difference. Once you use one, it'll be hard to live without it. I generally find ReplayTV DVRs to be the best, but there are a couple of problems:
They're available. Wrap it in a blanket and tie it to the roof of your car, and have a friend keep a hand on it to feel it shift around. Without a hand kept on it, there's a good chance cargo can fly off undetected, judging by the number of brand new mattresses I've seen next to the road.
Radio Shack at least used to sell lots of antenna mounting hardware:
Eaves mount:
I'd be worried about attaching two shorter masts to make a single long one, unless they overlapped a lot and were secured to each other with screws.
Most non-commercial, non-military, non-telescoping antenna masts are sold in sections, maybe 8-10 feet long (whatever the longest length trucking companies will carry as standard parcels.) One end is necked down (or flared) to fit into(over) the section above (below) it, and they are usually predrilled for bolts or retaining pins. Overlap is maybe 8-10 inches or so? In the old days, using sticks of 2" galvanized water pipe, sometimes linked end-to-end with a union coupling, was not unknown. Those had a bad habit of rusting off where the cut threads broke through the zinc layer. They would also rust from inside, since people seldom remembered to cap the top, and put bottom end right in the dirt.
For a typical residential TV antenna, that only weighs 20 pounds or so and has a small sail area, it simply isn't that critical what you make mast out of, as long as it holds it up there and won't blow away in first stiff wind. The grounding and signal cable is what matters. My antenna (backup for satt dish local channel service), is a little L-shaped piece of shit on a 4-foot mast lag-bolted to the wooden chimney chase for my fake woodburning fireplace. I had to remount on a long scrap 2x4 screwed through the siding into chimney stack framework, because idiot installer had simply screwed it on to cedar corner trim. Under wind load, it pulled right out.
aem sends...
whatever you do insure a lose pole cant contact in any way a powerline in a storm...
theres a large danger of electrocution in varying ways.
pole falls over in wind, contacts power line, turns everything connected to lethal voltages, pole antenna and anything connected to antenna, like tv vcr etc etc
With the typical antenna mast stock, I don't think having it set it concrete, start from the ground and go all the way up the side of the house buys you anything in the way of support. For that to be effective, the mast would have to be of sufficicent gauge metal so that the bottom part is going to be doing anything to help carry the load. In other words, a typical 8ft mast attached to a chimney would be just as effective as a 32ft long one set into concrete and then attached to the side of the house. If it fails because of stress from high wind, both are likely fail by bending/breaking, coming loose in the same place, which is in the area of where the last clamp is placed, whether on the chimney or the side of the house.
If you're going to start from the ground up, you'd need a mast like 2" steel pipe. And I doubt it really buys you anything, or else you'd see it commonly done. I've never seen one attached to a house that started from the ground up.
to do this RIGHT google antenna tower, very pricey but effective. in any case your limited to about 50 miles because of the curvature of the earth. unless you live on the very top of a hill.
its really easier to get satellite or cable tv, all channels on a single intergrated guide, add DVR and your all set.
with no outside antenna to maintain.
the OP is looking at 300 to a thousand bucks for OTA channels, plus will still need satellite or cable.
the reason most people dont have OTA antennas in rural areas? its not cosat effective..
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote: ...
BS. :(
And/or their satellite provider doesn't offer their locals in Hi-Def -- such as DISH network for Tucson. By the time they *do* offer them, it will be too late. My inexpensive directional roof-top antenna pulls them all in crystal clear -- including all of the subchannels. BTW, my antenna is less than 3 feet above the roof.
My Grandfather's house had an antenna on a mast, attached to the house. It was not embedded into the ground or cement. The mast was, as you say about two inches in diameter. It was galvanized pipe that coupled together (insert one into the other) in lengths of about 10 feet or so.
I was the rotator. He would send me out to turn the pole for the best reception and yell "okay" at me.
Black and White console TV. Ed Sullivan Show was on, Wayne Newton was about 16 years old and the Beatles visited Ed Sullivan.
I spent more than a few days with him; watching Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle and the Yankees.... late fifties. :-))
-- Oren
"Well, it doesn't happen all the time, but when it happens, it happens constantly."
if your going to spend 500 to a thousand bucks for JUST the OTA channels and still spend money for cable like channels its just not cost effective. remember were talking about a rural area.
and how many really have high def sets? if you do congrats and obviously costs arent one of your big concerns.
now go get a digital video recorder, live with it a month, its way more important that high def..
I have a large roof mounted antenna which is only a few feet above the roof. I can pull in TV and FM from 70 miles away. I have rotator but never use it. Most of my viewing is with a satellite dish because there are no NBC or FOX stations that I can receive.
---MIKE---
I _AM_ in a rural area (more so than OP by far) and certainly don't spend anything at all like that...
well OP began by deciding for a large high mounted on pole antenna which indicates high costs.
40-ft of well-tubing and an antenna ain't much...
a premium high gain antenna like a channelmaster can easily be a a few hundred with antenna and rotor, now add pipe, mounts to home and hardware......
I had a friend do a install in a poor OTA area he had near a grand tied up, and reception was marginal
incidently marginal analog reception gets you a fuzzy or ghosty or noisey picture.
with digital its perfect...... or pixeled blocky looking or blank screen.
remember the OP said this was for a rural area
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote: ...
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I just replaced the antenna w/ a long range fringe C-M in February after the ice collapsed the old one. Was less than $200 for largest/highest gain. Two sections of 20' tubing from the local used ironmonger aren't more than $20/ea, if that. Set 'em up and you're done. Any other odds and ends of hardware are dime and nickel stuff...
Will last for years, no additional fees/cost. Antenna may suffer damage and need replacement from weather--how frequent depends on severity of local conditions. We're in a very high wind area subject to lots of hail, extreme t-storms, etc., but still antenna typically will last 10 years or more. The tower has been bent over once in 30 years by a combination blizzard/ice, but a torch and it was straightened up at no additional outlay.
Want pictures? Anybody who can't/won't put something like that together isn't much of a candidate for "rural" living... :(
Hi, Any precautionary thing for lightning strike?
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I'd ground it separately if it were mounted on the house, but this is set directly into the ground so nothing other than the arrestor on the antenna leadin. I still on occasion will disconnect the input to the set if there's a real heavy lightning storm real close, just as precaution. It's been in place since mid-70s and no problems to date.
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ALL GROUNDS MUST BE UNIFIED!!! all tied together preferably with a driven ground rod at the pole.
Otherwise grounds may not be equal and touching a VCR say, or TV could give you a nasty or lethal shock.
NOT COMMON BUT CAN HAPPEN!
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