Long range options without rotor

[jsb]

Hi,
I am located about 30km north of Kingston Ontario and have been looking into the OTA route for a while now. However the biggest hangup is the rotor requirement to use a very long range antenna. As I have multiple TV's in the house, turning the rotor is very inconvenient.

TVFool calculates the following channel info based on my location.
http://blackbox.cissec.com/Stations.png


Based on this, I need a pretty good antenna rig to pull in any significant number of stations as a good bit of distance is involved on many of them.

What I would LIKE to do is combine multiple directional antennas to point at as many regions as is practical. As you can see in the image, there are 4 major areas where stations are situated. But I know combining antennas is challenging, I'm not sure how to best tackle this. I don't care about the physical appearance of antennas, big and ugly is ok if it works.

Of course there is also the issue of a broad mix of channels across both VHF segments and UHF.

It just seems like a big can of worms to do what I am thinking. Any thoughts?
I would like to avoid spending much more than 1K on a setup if possible, though I would consider more expensive setups if that makes much difference. After all, I'm currently paying close to $800/yr for satellite, so the savings would be regained quickly. I would like to do it right (if there is actually a right way to do it).

Thanks for any input that can be provided.

[Terryl]

The big problem with trying to run multiple TV antennas into one is that if the combining is not done just right you will loose signal.

What happens is if the two (or more) antennas are not exactly in phase with each other they will subtract signal instead of add signal, a signal 180 degrees out of phase with the other will totally cancel both, one 10 degrees out will loose3 dB (1/2 your RF voltage) on the total RF signal.

The only way to do this is to not use multichannel TV antennas but antennas cut to the exact channel frequency for the stations your trying to receive, then the coax has to be cut to exact lengths into the multiplexer and amplifiers, all this has to be done to minimize the phase attenuation and has to be done with a spectrum analyzer.

So in the long run your going to need an electrical RF engineer (someone who has setup a MATV* system would be best) to set it up for you, the best case is your back to the rotor but you could setup several antennas with A/B/C switches to select the correct stations.

*MATV= Master Antenna TeleVision system, like for a trailer park or small town.

[jsb]

Thanks for the info.
I do have a spectrum analyser actually for some other work I do, and am very familiar with phase measurements and alignment from the audio side of things, just not with higher TV frequencies.

Is there some sort of filter system that can isolate various frequencies from each antenna and mix them down into a single output, rather than having to have the antennas themselves customized?

In the pro audio world, this is possible using crossover filters, IIR or FIR. You can adjust level and phase to align nicely with other signals. I could chop up a signal into pieces and combine them however I wish. There are a number of digital audio products on the market, however they are designed for use between 20Hz to 20Khz. If something similar existed for working with higher OTA frequencies that would be ideal.

I'm having no luck searching for such devices, if they even exist at all. Maybe they don't.

[Terryl]

If you want to try, here is a place to look for some MATV equipment.

www.starkelectronic.com/pico1.htm

Pico Macom has MATV equipment for just waht your looking for.