tv booster kits

I read this link: http://forums.goodsamclub.com/Index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/24220754.cfm

and bought the Radio Shack #15-2505 Bidirectional Cable TV Amplifier at my local radio Shack. It has helped a lot in pulling in the weak signals on my Jack Antenna. It installs between the antenna and the antenna's booster.

I loved my Jack antenna for a year until it met its fate with a tree limb. No complaints with how it worked, but after picking it up off the ground it could be built a bit stronger. That's the bad news, the good is the plastic insides broke easily, so no other damage to repair.

I have seen 20 dollar set top UHF bow-tie antennas sold for 100 bucks at RV shows as "Digital TV antennas" and frankly I wanted to see the sellers arrested.

Like N7BSN and for the very same reasons, I know a bit about antennas. I mean, I sometimes design and build my own.

Other forum members with the hardware have done the tests. In the world of RV antennas not much compets with the good old batwing, epically if it's Fully Upgraded"... I put the Wingman on mine and it made an improvement.. I also added the Sensar Pro (Which among other things is a 2nd booster, the 1st being in the antenna itself) and WOW. But it is improtant to note that this 2nd booster is specifically designed to work with the antenna I have.

Adding too much boost can cause issues same as too little.


As to directionality

Well, you either get an "Wide field of view" or you get LONG RANGE.. yes, the Jack is not as directional as the basic batwing.. It's also 1/2 the signal strength of the basic batwing on it's best day, 1/1000th on it's worst, Yup, forget VHF if you are not parked in the transmitter's parking lot.

YC 1 wrote:

I See no problem with the Jack antenna being UHF only. The major stations have converted per FCC rules and I am amazed at how many channels I get.

If you ignore the 465 stations still broadcasting on VHF channels 13 and lower, including many big 4 network stations in major cities, than yes, UHF only reception is fine. Otherwise, you're missing out on a lot of programming in areas such as LA, NYC, DFW, Washington, DC, and many other major and smaller cities.

For a complete list of the actual RF TV broadcast channels and their virtual ID's, go here and download the "USA" spreadsheet. Open the file and sort on the RF channels in ascending order.

n7bsn wrote:

YC 1 wrote:
The batwing with the wingman add on is excellent. A bit directional in that your beam is narrow. The Jack antenna has a wider beam and not as much gain but plenty and being able to pick up more signals without turning the antenna is a definite plus for me.

The problem with the King is it's UHF only, yes there are VHF tv stations still

I See no problem with the Jack antenna being UHF only. The major stations have converted per FCC rules and I am amazed at how many channels I get.

Moved from DIY

n7bsn wrote:
A bit o background... I know more about antennas then 99% of the folk around here..

If you don't have a "booster" or "amplifier" adding one is going to help. Adding additional units is not going to help.

Not true if you know what type to buy, and how to use it.

westend wrote:
Got a reference to the disc antenna?
I use this DIY single array Gray-Hoverman antenna on a small mast. It works very well, plenty of gain.

That looks like a broad-side array and they generally work well. It also appears to be UHF only (yes there are still VHF stations)
This is the antenna I got, it works better then the Jensen. The Jensen gets 7 "stations" (parked in my driveway), the disc gets 44 "stations" on top of a six foot step ladder

YC 1 wrote:
The batwing with the wingman add on is excellent. A bit directional in that your beam is narrow. The Jack antenna has a wider beam and not as much gain but plenty and being able to pick up more signals without turning the antenna is a definite plus for me.

The problem with the King is it's UHF only, yes there are VHF tv stations still

if you are talking about one of the $19 in line units I added one to my satellite feed and it did kick up the reading a bit.
bumpy