Roof Ethernet
Yup I now have ethernet on my roof. Why? Well for many years I have tried various antenna preamps, in search of the holy grail - a true low loss preamp. I had three on my test antenna mast. On my everyday antenna I use a channel master UHF/VHF 7777. Otherwise I have been using a CPA-18 and/or a Kitztech KT200. The Kitztech has saturation and/or FM issues. The CPA19 functioned Ok and the channel master was consistant but had the highest loss of the bunch at 3db.
Two of my preamps are fed through HDhomerun dual tuners for use with a Mac Mini used as a HTPC. The preamp is mainly to make up for cable runs, so I decided to mount a HDHomerun as close as possible to an antenna without a preamp.
Two of my preamps are fed through HDhomerun dual tuners for use with a Mac Mini used as a HTPC. The preamp is mainly to make up for cable runs, so I decided to mount a HDHomerun as close as possible to an antenna without a preamp.
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The HDhomerun requires 5 volts so I used cheap passive injector/splitter POE adaptors with my cables. The roll of cheap CAT5 cable I had in my old stockpile could only power the HDhomerun for up to 60ft (I tested it in my house first at 100 and then 75ft). A better CAT6 cable may go another 10 or 20 ft. In my case 60ft was enough to get to my basement where I put another hub. So now I have ethernet on my roof!!
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The antenna used for this test is the CYD-1430 pointed directly at Watertown. It can be seen in the above picture at the bottom below the DB8e and the VHF antenna. Testing has only begun but so far nothing spectacular with only local stations being pulled in. The reception results as viewed by my hourly test scripts can be seen here.
My initial thoughts are that the concept works well but the weak point may be the sensitivity of the HDhomerun. On my other antenna on the same mast, the DB8e, my Vizio TV receives CBS/FOX (28.1/28.2) all the time, yet the HDhomerun on the DB8e only intermittently. Both are on the same coax, just on opposite ends of a 2-way splitter. More investigation/testing is definitely required.
My initial thoughts are that the concept works well but the weak point may be the sensitivity of the HDhomerun. On my other antenna on the same mast, the DB8e, my Vizio TV receives CBS/FOX (28.1/28.2) all the time, yet the HDhomerun on the DB8e only intermittently. Both are on the same coax, just on opposite ends of a 2-way splitter. More investigation/testing is definitely required.
