Mother Nature gave us some unseasonably good weather, with three days near 80 degrees in this area. So, I could not make any excuses to not get this work completed. I successfully moved the Channel Master CM-2018 to my alternate mounting location, without a helper too!
The new location involved installing a new 8 foot grounding rod (much easier and cheaper than I thought), plus installing an a/c outlet to accommodate the power source for the preamplifier. The antenna location required approximately 60 feet of cable to run to the house interior cabling interface. I pointed the antenna in the correct direction ~44-45 degrees and locked it down, then I ran my ~60 foot or RG-6 Quad Shield from the antenna balun directly to the tv tuner input (temporarily moved the TV). The results were very good. Then I connected the FM Filter, and Preamp plus this required using a couple of short cables. The results were better yet! Then I finalized the installation by connecting the 60 foot cable to the interior cabling and put the power inserter just ahead of the splitter. The results were outstanding on both TVs!
My current setup is:
- CM-2018 antenna --> (mast is grounded with #8AWG solid copper wire to house utility ground)
- short coax (the black coax that came with Juice Preamp) -->
- FM Filter -->
- male to male f type connector -->
- Juice Preamp -->
- 60 feet of RG-6 QUAD shield cable -->
- TII network technologies TII 212 in-line coax surge protector (grounded in old cable interface box) -->
- ~10 feet of RG-6 Cable (penetrates exterior wall) -->
- Power Inserter for preamp -->
- male to male f type connector -->
- 2 way splitter --> From the splitter approximately 25 feet of RG-6 to wall plate at my primary TV (with signal meter function built-in) then 6 feet of coax to TV input. Basement TV has about 40 feet of RG-6 (w/ one in-line cable to cable connector) to the TV input. (Total runs of: ~ 101 ft of cable to primary TV, ~ 110 ft of cable to basement TV)
Attached are two photos of the installation. The close-up photo best shows the one "tree variable" that I control; and that is a cherry tree next to my driveway. That cherry tree can/will be trimmed if necessary. The more distant trees can be seen in the other photo and are about 150 feet distance. These trees are my main concern going forward. I am anxious to see how these will impact my reception. We will see over the next couple months. . .
With this antenna relocation and the addition of the Juice Preamp I can say "awesome" improvement was achieved. Attached is my pointing and testing results record. This record shows the preamp is boosting the received signal strength as seen by the television. This record shows that I currently have very good quality reception on all of the desired channels. Now, I am missing "cable TV" very little. The total cost of this installation is completely covered by less than 4 months of the old cable bill.
I will continue to work on the interior cabling, to ensure Quad shielded runs throughout. I suspect this will/may limit some transient interfering signals. Any thoughts?
Questions:
- Should I have used a Quad Shielded Cable between antenna balun and FM Filter?
- I installed a Radio Shack FM Filter #1500024 and did not pay attention to direction (in/out). Did I just get lucky and by chance correctly connect the antenna feed to the "input port" of the FM filter? Are these filters directional?
I would like to thank you folks for your insight and suggestions. This forum is a great resource for those who want to receive their TV without paying exorbitant Cable TV Fees, or for those that do not even have that option. For those who contribute regularly and occasionally to this "discussion", Thank You!