On Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:11:46 -0500, steveu wrote:>>How is this possible? Or is it a new level of marketing-speak? >> >>http://www.buffalotech.com/products/wireless/wireless-accessories/7-dbi-high-gain-outdoor-omni-antenna/> > Depends on your definition of omni. Strictly omni should mean a even > response across 3 dimensions. In practice all you need is a reasonably > squashed doughnut of response to respond equally to all terrestrial > directions. That's omni for practical purposes, and it offers gain. > > That said, the web pages talks about working point to point. Why would > you want an omni antenna for that? > > Steve1: They're confused. 2: It's pretty common in wide-area voice communications service to have an antenna that compresses it's pattern vertically, so that it's more or less a disk (rather than a sphere). I _think_ such antennas are known as omni-directional; certainly they're good for most such service that doesn't involve spacecraft. -- www.wescottdesign.com
High Gain *Omni* Antenna?!?
Started by ●August 25, 2009
Reply by ●August 27, 20092009-08-27
Reply by ●August 28, 20092009-08-28
On 8/27/2009 11:16 AM, dvsarwate@yahoo.com wrote:> On Aug 27, 12:26 pm, Eric Jacobsen<eric.jacob...@ieee.org> wrote: > >> Yup, and since marketers write the copy it'll probably be that way >> always and forever. >> > > > Some years ago, I remember an advertisement for a rabbit-ears > antenna for TVs which claimed > > "Never pay for cable again! Amazing new invention > pulls TV signals right out of the air. Now you can > watch your favorite shows for free! No monthly > payments, no hassle, no outages, and no one can > ever cut off your free TV service." > > ...and you know what? I bought it and much to > my surprise, the dang thing worked perfectly; that > is, until a couple of months ago, when it stopped > working completely. One day, everything was fine, > and the next day, boom! Nothing, nada, zip! no > free TV anymore. Some of my friends say that the > Federal government pulled the plug on my free TV, > but they are Republicans and will blame the Obama > administration for anything. > > I think my TV antenna just needs fixing. Unfortunately, > the warranty on my antenna expired a long time ago > and the company that sold it to me is out of business > anyway. Does anyone know of a place that might be > able to repair the antenna for me? > > --Dilip TongueincheekYes, it's all gone digital! This means your old analog antenna won't work any more, and you need one of the new digital antennas!! Just look on the box, it'll say so. -- Eric Jacobsen Minister of Algorithms Abineau Communications http://www.abineau.com
Reply by ●August 28, 20092009-08-28
On 8/27/2009 2:48 PM, Jerry Avins wrote:> glen herrmannsfeldt wrote: >> dvsarwate@yahoo.com <dvsarwate@gmail.com> wrote: >> (snip) >> >> < Some years ago, I remember an advertisement for a rabbit-ears >> < antenna for TVs which claimed >> >> < "Never pay for cable again! Amazing new invention >> < pulls TV signals right out of the air. Now you can >> < watch your favorite shows for free! No monthly >> < payments, no hassle, no outages, and no one can >> < ever cut off your free TV service." >> >> If it is the ones I remember ads for, I believe it is just >> a capacitor from the power line to the antenna output. >> The ads say something like "turns your whole house into an antenna." >> >> The plastic is much bigger to make it look like you get more. >> Then sometime later, the added the capacitor to TVs with a little >> wire coming out near the antenna terminals. > > Which of the respondents missed the change from Sarawate to Tongueincheek? > > JerryOn the more serious side of this, IEEE Spectrum had an article many months ago about the state of the art in home TV antennas having been advanced by new digital CAE techniques, etc., etc. I wasn't too worried, as I get the majority of our local broadcasts with basic rabbit ears, plus I have cable. However, a friend living out on the extreme edge of the metropolitan area was having trouble as the transition progressed, and antennaweb.org showed her right on the edge of needing the highest gain antennas. The problem came from the fact that some of our local stations, including PBS, which we both watch, stayed in the low VHF band even after the transition. This is advantageous from a propagation perspective, since material penetration is much better at the low frequencies. The kicker is that ALL of the "new improved" antennas that I could find on the market were only UHF and high VHF. NONE claimed to have any gain at low VHF. Apparently somebody decided that any station worth watching was moving up to either high VHF or the remaining part of the UHF spectrum, because it's gotten awfully difficult to find a decent outdoor antenna that covers low VHF, too. Another friend put up a new antenna for her (that, despite my warnings, only had appreciable gain at high VHF and UHF). Sure enough, after the transition she lost all the low VHF stations, including PBS. It took a lot of effort to find an antenna that had gain at low VHF, but once it was up she got the low VHF stations back. I don't understand why the manufacturers and marketers left such a gaping hole in the product lineup. -- Eric Jacobsen Minister of Algorithms Abineau Communications http://www.abineau.com
Reply by ●August 28, 20092009-08-28
[...]>The kicker is that ALL of the "new improved" antennas that I could find >on the market were only UHF and high VHF. NONE claimed to have any >gain at low VHF. Apparently somebody decided that any station worth >watching was moving up to either high VHF or the remaining part of the >UHF spectrum, because it's gotten awfully difficult to find a decent >outdoor antenna that covers low VHF, too.Low very high frequency. Now there's a term only a marketing dept could love. A bit like "the biggest thing in miniaturisation" :-) [...]>-- >Eric Jacobsen
Reply by ●August 28, 20092009-08-28
>On Aug 27, 12:26=A0pm, Eric Jacobsen <eric.jacob...@ieee.org> wrote: > >> >> Yup, and since marketers write the copy it'll probably be that way >> always and forever. >> > > >Some years ago, I remember an advertisement for a rabbit-ears >antenna for TVs which claimed > >"Never pay for cable again! Amazing new invention >pulls TV signals right out of the air. Now you can >watch your favorite shows for free! No monthly >payments, no hassle, no outages, and no one can >ever cut off your free TV service." > >...and you know what? I bought it and much to >my surprise, the dang thing worked perfectly; that >is, until a couple of months ago, when it stopped >working completely. One day, everything was fine, >and the next day, boom! Nothing, nada, zip! no >free TV anymore. Some of my friends say that the >Federal government pulled the plug on my free TV, >but they are Republicans and will blame the Obama >administration for anything. > >I think my TV antenna just needs fixing. Unfortunately, >the warranty on my antenna expired a long time ago >and the company that sold it to me is out of business >anyway. Does anyone know of a place that might be >able to repair the antenna for me? > >--Dilip TongueincheekThe TV isn't totally free. You need to feed to rabbit, or its ears will sag. They did tell you to feed it properly, didn't they? Steve
Reply by ●August 28, 20092009-08-28
"dvsarwate@yahoo.com" <dvsarwate@gmail.com> writes:> [...] > ...and you know what? I bought it and much to > my surprise, the dang thing worked perfectly; that > is, until a couple of months ago, when it stopped > working completely.Gentle Soul(s), On February 31st, the FCC mandated that all TV stations begin transmitting using COMPLEX MODULATION. This requires a complex antenna at the receiver. If you would simply buy a second set of rabbit ears and align them at 90 degrees to the first, you will receive complex programming. Of course it requires a complex mind to understand this programming, but half of that is imaginary anyway. -- Randy Yates % "How's life on earth? Digital Signal Labs % ... What is it worth?" mailto://yates@ieee.org % 'Mission (A World Record)', http://www.digitalsignallabs.com % *A New World Record*, ELO
Reply by ●August 28, 20092009-08-28
Randy Yates wrote:> "dvsarwate@yahoo.com" <dvsarwate@gmail.com> writes: >> [...] >> ...and you know what? I bought it and much to >> my surprise, the dang thing worked perfectly; that >> is, until a couple of months ago, when it stopped >> working completely. > > Gentle Soul(s), > > On February 31st, the FCC mandated that all TV stations begin > transmitting using COMPLEX MODULATION. This requires a complex antenna > at the receiver. > > If you would simply buy a second set of rabbit ears and align them at 90 > degrees to the first, you will receive complex programming. > > Of course it requires a complex mind to understand this programming, but > half of that is imaginary anyway.So the FCC officially recognizes that intelligence transmitted is not strictly real?
Reply by ●August 28, 20092009-08-28
Eric Jacobsen wrote:> On 8/27/2009 2:48 PM, Jerry Avins wrote: >> glen herrmannsfeldt wrote: >>> dvsarwate@yahoo.com <dvsarwate@gmail.com> wrote: >>> (snip) >>> >>> < Some years ago, I remember an advertisement for a rabbit-ears >>> < antenna for TVs which claimed >>> >>> < "Never pay for cable again! Amazing new invention >>> < pulls TV signals right out of the air. Now you can >>> < watch your favorite shows for free! No monthly >>> < payments, no hassle, no outages, and no one can >>> < ever cut off your free TV service." >>> >>> If it is the ones I remember ads for, I believe it is just >>> a capacitor from the power line to the antenna output. >>> The ads say something like "turns your whole house into an antenna." >>> >>> The plastic is much bigger to make it look like you get more. >>> Then sometime later, the added the capacitor to TVs with a little >>> wire coming out near the antenna terminals. >> >> Which of the respondents missed the change from Sarawate to >> Tongueincheek? >> >> Jerry > > > On the more serious side of this, IEEE Spectrum had an article many > months ago about the state of the art in home TV antennas having been > advanced by new digital CAE techniques, etc., etc. I wasn't too > worried, as I get the majority of our local broadcasts with basic rabbit > ears, plus I have cable. > > However, a friend living out on the extreme edge of the metropolitan > area was having trouble as the transition progressed, and antennaweb.org > showed her right on the edge of needing the highest gain antennas. > > The problem came from the fact that some of our local stations, > including PBS, which we both watch, stayed in the low VHF band even > after the transition. This is advantageous from a propagation > perspective, since material penetration is much better at the low > frequencies. > > The kicker is that ALL of the "new improved" antennas that I could find > on the market were only UHF and high VHF. NONE claimed to have any > gain at low VHF. Apparently somebody decided that any station worth > watching was moving up to either high VHF or the remaining part of the > UHF spectrum, because it's gotten awfully difficult to find a decent > outdoor antenna that covers low VHF, too. > > Another friend put up a new antenna for her (that, despite my warnings, > only had appreciable gain at high VHF and UHF). Sure enough, after the > transition she lost all the low VHF stations, including PBS. It took a > lot of effort to find an antenna that had gain at low VHF, but once it > was up she got the low VHF stations back. I don't understand why the > manufacturers and marketers left such a gaping hole in the product lineup.Look at the first three entries at http://tinyurl.com/y9hqb4 Few stores carry them, but all can order them. Jerry -- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. �����������������������������������������������������������������������
