48' TV Antena attached to house, can I use for Radio?

tucker1003

10-07-2008 11:39:03

My house has one of those nice 48' - 50' TV antennas attached,
problem is I don't use it for TV, I got cable! I want to use the coaxial
cable that runs to several rooms in the house from the antenna, to hook
to my receivers for nice Radio reception. I thought it would work no problem.
it turns out I get more interference then without connecting the coax.

Here is how it is connected, One coax running from top of antenna, and
Satellite dish (not in use) runs half way down and into the house where it splits. So I disconnect the dish at the base of antenna and run the antenna line to the splitter to get to the room I need radio reception in.

would the loose ends of the splitter cause all that interference?
Cable is completely seperate from all this.

dmorris68

10-07-2008 11:49:03

Yes it will generally work. Although TV antennas are tuned for different VHF/UHF frequencies than FM radio, many offer FM connections. I would check the cable connection at the top of the antenna, unless it's a newer antenna with a direct coax connection, it will probably be using a 300ohm to 75ohm adapter to convert the dual-terminal flat wire to coax, and that could be the problem if it's old or corroded.

The splitter could also be causing some of the problem, as would certainly any high-frequency LNB feed from the satellite dish when it was connected. Or it could be a bad cable issue. You could eliminate that possibility by going on the roof and replacing the old cable with a short length of new cable connected to a portable radio with external antenna inputs. Be sure to use a new 300-to-75 ohm adapter too, if necessary. You might also discover that the TV antenna is directional-only, rather than omni-directional, and may need to be rotated to fine-tune reception.

When I was a kid, I used to climb our old TV antenna mast. It's how I got on the roof of our house to work on stuff or do stupid things like jumping off. ) I rewired it many times over the years (yes I was a gadget geek even in my youth).