Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/08/save-over-25-on-this-flat-panel-hdtv-antenna-with-an-80-mile-range.html
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3G and 4G work on completely different bands from OTA tv. TV antennae don’t pick it up anyway.
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Tot exactly. Part of the UHF 4G band was used for broadcast TV channels, and some CATV channels are on the same frequencies of UMTS (at least in europe). So older broadband TV antennas are good to receive LTE signals, and having a strong repeater nearby, with an old antenna system will overload the TV receiver making the reception of other channel difficult. Neqe antenna are made to have al lower gain on the frequencies used by LTE and sometimes have also a filter. Wide band UHF amplifier must have a band pass filter excluding LTE frequencies.
Anyway I think that to get a bettere TV reception more classical Yagi with a reflector are a better choice.
Like this https://www.freetv.ie/black-wideband-uhf-aerial/ rather than a flat panel in a plasic enclosure, especially in a zone with strong winds or when a bit more directional gain is neeeded
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so, the yagi in your link says it’s a UHF antenna with no mention of VHF at all. but the wiki for VHF says yagis are the preferred antenna for VHF.
I’m in the USA if that’s relevant. there are hills and big trees all around me. I pull in many stations, but I know there are a few I can’t get. furthermore, weather, airplanes, and cars pulling into the driveway can cut out my reception. in fact, an airplane pretty well guarantees an interruption. although, my antenna is just some wire that I rigged to the porch and then to a coax cable run into the house. so I’m currently getting OK results just by moving it around until I got results.
do you think something like your link is a good choice for me, or were you speaking specifically about UHF and 4G interference, meaning a VHF antenna would also be needed?
I could really use advice from someone who understands this stuff.
I’m not a scientician or anything, but I do know a proper Yagi-geometry antenna (looks like a fish skeleton) works many times better than a piece of wire or bunny ears.
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It depends where the transmitters are and on what frequencies are transmitting. This photo is an example of a building in Italy in a hilly zone, where there’s a wide band UHF antenna (from top), a low gain vhf, another vertically UHF polarized antenna and another for VHF.
Some stations are transmitted from a transmitter and other by one in the opposite direction.
Anoter site has three high gain antennas, and the lower ones are coupled do get more gain and get a distant transmitter. And all antennas are UHF
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so most transmitters are very near me, they are mostly overlapped on this map in the downtown area.
I receive all but the left purple and the right green-line transmitters with only some bare wires outside my window. but reception is poor sometimes. my gut feeling is that I’m getting “echoes” of some signals rather than line-of-sight.
I don’t care about the left purple stations. I would like to get the right green stations; or if not then at least boost reception of what I receive already.
the website this map is from says a green-colored transmitter would need a Medium multi-directional antenna to pull in the signal.
since I’m getting everything else without any special equipment, I was thinking about getting a Medium multi-directional antenna, mounting it properly above my roof, and aiming it at the green transmitter.
would it be reasonable to assume I would continue to get my current reception plus the green transmitter with such a setup, or would such an antenna be too specialized to receive anything other than what it is built for? my nearest neighboring building is two-stories and due east, so that is probably the problem to receiving the green transmitter. since I pull in further transmitters currently, maybe all I need is an all-purpose antenna but mounted above the building’s roofline to get line-of-sight?
what would you do assuming a limited budget (I’m thinking 2 antennas max, but ideally one) and time? or is this impossible to diagnose over the internet?
sorry to bother you again, but I tried to word my questions as easily as I could.
The fist problem is that one has to know the area, so a hill for an instance will require different solution.
Next one has to know the frequencies used in an area and the direction.
Add to this that I know more about European standards rather than NTSC/ATSC standard, and what specialized TV and antenna shops are carrying and moreover look on other roof what is the situation.
The difficult to receive signal is VHF and the other signal are on UHF? You need a VHF yagi antenna in one direction and a uhf panel or wide UHF yagi.
If the difficult to receive station is in high UHF, and the easily recevable on low UHF and VHF? You need a vhf antenna, a low uhf antenna and a high uhf antenna.
Here antenna manufacurers make alo specialized mixers and sugget the kind of anttena set to buy (like in the PDF).
http://www.offel.it/upload/prodotti/allegati/schede-tecniche/DataSheet_22-176_IT.pdf
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good info, thank you kindly
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