[Damon459]

Originally Posted by dmfdmf

I didn't read the whole thread but skimmed it a bit.



I know earlier in the thread you were bemoaning buying the ANT751 but as others have mentioned it never really was the right antenna for your situation. I happen to be a big fan of the ANT751 and it works well in a lot of situations and I think it can be had for under $40 these days.

Also earlier in the thread you mentioned you are in an area requiring "extreme measures" which is why I want to share my story, even though I am not in an "extreme measures" area I thought you could gain from my experience. The balun that shipped with my antenna (an ANT751, of course ;-) was bad out of the box. I didn't bother getting a replacement, I just picked one up local. It was one of those cheap $2 jobs from HD or RS, I don't think its really outdoor rated but it would actually pass signals unlike the bad one. The antenna was working great for almost a year when, just before the Olympics, I lose all my stations. I poke my head up on the roof and I see that the flimsy spade connector that attaches to the antenna broke and I was dead in the water until I could climb on the roof to replace it. I had to wait a few days for the rain to subside but picked up another cheap balun and swapped it out so I could watch the Olympics.

I realized that the replacement balun wasn't going to last any longer than the old one (its very windy on my roof). I thought about getting one of those outdoor rated, heavy-duty baluns from Winegard and others but didn't really want to spend the money. So while I was watching the Olympics I modified the broken balun that I had removed with a 24" extension of heavy twin-lead wire (Radio Shack carries it) instead of the stubby, flimsy 3-4" piece it came with. I added heavy duty spade connectors and soldered and shrink wrapped everything. The twin-lead extension would allow me to move the balun down to the J-pole and keep it from swinging in the wind and stressing the connectors. I was admiring my work and watching the Olympics thinking that I would probably install my modified balun sometime in the spring after the storms subside. Fate would have a different plan.

So I come home one Friday night, looking forward to watching the Olympics and some Burn Notice but when I turn on my TV and all my UHF stations are GONE and the VHF stations are looking pretty bad. I poke my head up on the roof and this time the balun connectors are still attached. I figured I got a bad balun that had failed internally. The rain clouds were rolling in, it had already started to sprinkle but I couldn't resist and decided to put my modified balun into action despite the risks. I donned a coat and broke out my ladder and went up on the roof as rain was just beginning to fall (fyi, lightning is very rare where I live so it was a calculated risk :-) I swapped out the bad balun with my extendo balun, tie wrapped it to the J-pole and hit everything with some e-tape and got off the roof as quickly as I could. I plugged my distribution amp back in and fired up the TV and was thrilled to see all my stations return. Later I took apart the failed balun and it looks like that this time the wind had twisted the coax cable, which twisted the coax connector stub of the balun which turned the ferrite core inductor which cause the twin-lead input wires to short out.

So here is the moral of this story, for those who have followed so far. After installing the twin-lead extended balun the quality signals on virtually every station, UHF or VHF, went up 10% (whatever that means on a Vizio Tuner). Stations that were at 50% were now coming it at 60+%, stations that were coming at 75% were now coming in at 80% and even 90%. I was shocked by this result but was glad because I had a few stations that were a bit flaky and was planning on re-aiming this spring but everything is fine now and I won't mess with success, on the principle that if it ain't broke don't fix it!

I am not familiar with the other antennas you have (and you seem to have quite a collection :-) but if they have external, dangling baluns (like the ANT751) I would try and modify them with twin-lead extensions so the balun (and twin-lead) is not near the boom and the twin-lead can drop straight away from the boom for a good 5-6" before running toward the mast. I had read that from RF principles and antenna design the best configuration for the balun on an antenna like the ANT751 is angled 90deg from the boom and my experience is consistent with that. Also, even a vertical UHF antenna might squeak out a few more dB if the drop line is twin-lead and not coax with a mongo balun sitting in the middle of the element grid. So is breaking out the twin-lead, shrink wrap, soldering & heat guns too extreme for your situation? Only you can answer that question.

I do understand you situation but in my case I have already put the good outdoor Balun's. Must of my signals are actually on the VHF band except NBC, ABC, and FOX. ABC/FOX are on the same station IE substation for FOX, they only come in during the summer months with the Antenna in just the spot. That will change the the station owners get permission to add a repeater tower. My other UHF station actually comes in using my high band VHF antenna. The RCA antenna is a good antenna just not the best in my area with 2 edge signals in a very deep valley. All I'm trying to figure out at this point is whether I should go for a $45.00 120" boom antenna or the cheaper 60" boom antenna. They are basically the same but one has higher gain to do the larger size, however they both have similar gain on channel 11? I will keep in mind the idea of longer amounts of twin lead though for the Balun's since I have two of them in my 3 antenna system. My question is though is did you twist the twin lead at all? I have heard you need at least one twist per foot of twin lead, some even say 2 twists per foot for better shielding.