TV antenna

[OldHippie]

There is a 50 foot tall unused TV antenna on the property where I just moved. There are no lines or wires coming off of it. What would it take for me to hook my TV up to it and would I run the risk of blowing my TV up if lightning struck it?

 

[wherzwaldo]

To hook it up you only need a regular coax cable, although you'll probably want one that is rated for weather exposure.

If the antenna is grounded and you use a surge protector with coax in/out on the TV then you don't have a lightning problem. See the "Grounding outdoor antennas" section atThe Link

 

[OldHippie]

Thanks for the response wherzwaldo. And how would I hook a coax cable to a bare antenna pole?

 

[brntorng]

You may not even need such a high antenna depending on what you're trying to receive. Chances are the tower precedes modern digital TV transmission which does not require as strong of a signal to provide a perfect picture. Go here to find out what stations may be available to you and what the antenna requirements would be.

 

[OldHippie]

Brntorng. Thanks for the link. I live in central Austin and that website says I ought to have good reception in my house for all Austin stations. But, I have a small house with only limited options to place a TV. My HVAC unit is in the attic and the roof is metal, both of which may interfere with my reception with rabbit ears. That's why I'm thinking about an outside antenna.

 

[14tokihorn]

I cued in to your topic `cause you mentioned Central Austin..... my neck of the woods.

On grounding - this can (emphasis: Can) be an engineering topic on its own. With my flat panel TV less than 1 yr. ago, I looked into proper grounding of the antennae. Personally, the last thing I want is to fry my electronics.

There's the spec. for the grounding wire, the spec.'s for 'bonding' (ie: attaching the down-wire from mast/antennae to a 'grounding rod'), the spec. for the rod - etc. etc. Basically, this calls for a copper grounding rod (I found a reasonably-priced one on the interweb) and hefty gauged (again- copper) wire. In my case, this means ~25 ft. wire... and IIRC, upwards of $70 for the wire itself.

It boils down to some $. IMO, the thing to do is install a earth-ground separate from your household electrical circuit..... anyway, just not-asked-for advice from an somewhat-informed source..

[edit] I've gotten as far as procuring the rod, hammering in a piece of rebar for the earth installation, but haven't purchased the wire. In the meantime, I put the TV on my top flight surge protector (extremely fast over- voltage tripping)... living dangerously, I guess.

 

[brntorng]

If you live in central Austin, all you should need is a simple UHF set-top antenna from Fry's or Radio Shack that should cost no more than $10 to pick up all the Austin stations. That's the beauty of over-the-air HDTV. In fact, this one may work just fine. Give one a try and if it doesn't work, return it and step up to a somewhat better one. I'd say you have an 80% chance of success with a good set-top antenna. The only reason for a 50 ft tower in Austin is for reaching distant TV stations like Waco or San Antonio or if there's a big obstruction between you and West Lake Hills where the transmitters are. Or it may have been put there by a HAM operator.

 

[OldHippie]

Thanks for the information on the coax splitter because I will need that. But how do you actually connect the coax cable to the metal array at the top of the 50 foot pole? There are two metal arrays that have decreasing size parallel bars like a crude arrow, facing two different directions atop the pole. Should there be connections on each of those arrays, and if so, how would one attach a coax cable to that? Do you think Radio Shack would have such a connection?

 

[14tokihorn]

if its outfitted for Coax, then the antenna should have a standard F connector to mate up with the cable - identical to a a wall outlet, or any other inside TV or TV box for - only difference might be being a weather-proof boot.