Install pt.1

Over the Easter weekend, we had part one of the install. This involved mounting the antenna in the loft space of the garage, running a cable down the garage wall and drilling a hole through the garage into my basement cable/panel room.

The antenna (Monoprice HD antenna) is pretty small, but experience says it is also pretty directional. Fortunately one of my TVs has a signal strength meter, so I dragged that out to the garage and set about aligning this for best performance. I had checked out the TVFool Signal locator (enter your post code to get a map of the local transmitters) so that I could get an approximate alignment. I then used the signal strength meter on the TV to improve the alignment. Using the grey bar on the front of the antenna to determine the optimal direction, I ended up with a NE alignment, between the 2 transmitters that I can see. I managed to get 14 channels with this (the maximum I think I can get without a much larger antenna/amplifier combo), but the alignment was pretty sensitive.

I then ran the cable, brought it to the splitter in the cable room and started to distribute it around the house. This seemed to have a significant impact on the TV's ability to receive the channels and (using a 3 way passive splitter) one TV could get 12 channels, but the other could only get 6 reliably. It seems I need to invest in a distribution amplifier to get full channel coverage at all my TVs. That is going to be part 2 of the install, along with adding over the air PVR functionality to my Mac mini to provide timeshifting capability. Watch this space for updates.

Cable cut off date is coming (one week now) and so pressure is on to get this all set up prior to that going... particularly since this is Stanley Cup Playoff time !!