[bobsgarage]

Originally Posted by blackstone

Thanks, Bob, for your input.

I'm a techno-dunce and don't understand this stuff very much.

Do you have an example of a product that is a tuner so I could learn about them?

If I understand, my Channel Master and my DB 8 E are dissimilar antennas.

If I combine them with the right pre-amp I may have success?

Right now, my UHF antenna is powered with an Antennas Direct PA 18 UHF/VHF pre amp kit.
I'd had thought of connecting both antennas to it but didn't have the cables on hand when I hooked the antennas up

Good morning Blackstone.

So, you asked about tuners. The tuner is merely a box that your RF cable will go into and has an output of RF or HDMI or others like the red yellow and white RCA connections that would go to your TV. During the digital transition of 2009 the government was giving out coupons for the digital converter boxes for free.

Those were very basic, they were called converters and allowed people with non digital, old tube type TVs and inputs to be able to receive digital television. Now, you can buy a "tuner box", that will record your shows for you. TiVo, HomeRun, Channel Master, Homeworxs and others. Most modern television sets are digital ready and don't need any type of box, you can just screw the coax cable directly into the TV and the TV receives digital perfectly.

In the case of my new flat screen HDMI 4K TV there are no RF connections! I have to use a tuner with a HDMI outputs. Actually, I have two tuners but that's another story for another day.

I may not have made myself clear but those two antennas are completely different and will not combine without failure. Actually, in the case of the CM 5020 it is a UHF VHF combination antenna and is a standalone unit. You should try to just use it all by itself. Do not attempt to combine any antennas with it because it has everything you need. as a matter of fact if that antenna doesn't pick up your signals you have some serious work to do.

If you absolutely have to combines the two antennas then you need to do it with a pre-amplifier that accepts separate UHF / VHF inputs. but, before warrant it will block DHL from one antenna and the UHF from another so choose wisely. What a waste that would be to block the UHF from that 5020. since the DB8E is UHF only you would put that into the UHF input and screw the 5020 into the VHF input.

I was where you are at 3 years ago. So, it's still fresh in my mind, I received a lot of good advice here and I'm on some of the other forums. I'd like to say I've made some good friends here. I ignored some of the advice just to see for myself. I know it's irritating to those who are giving advice when somebody doesn't follow but I wanted to learn. In your case if you like to experiment have fun with it.

Since you have two completely different antennas (dissimilar), and I mean as different as you can get, you are better off running separate outputs to each TV if you have two TVs. You can always pre-amp your signal and split the signal to each TV. In other words since you already have two antennas, route the 5020 signal to the TV that needs UHF/VHF. Route the DB8E signal to a TV where you only care about UHF.

Or, if you want UHF and VHF from the other antenna you can get the Stellar labs VHF antenna and combine them with a UVSJ.

I like to mess around I took a break from it for a while and now I'm back on it.