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how to get this Smart Antenna

A

ATM

Jan 1, 1970
0
I used the $40 coupon to purchase a RCA Digital TV Converter box. Model
DTA800. In the back of the box, there is a "Smart Antenna" connector socket.
This socket is very much similar to a Ethernet connector plug socket - 6
pins RJ11 phone plug. But there is a notch at the top side of the socket.

Can you tell me more about this Smart Antenna connector and how to find out
more about this type of antenna? Where to buy it and how much it costs?

Thank you.
 
B

Bert Hyman

Jan 1, 1970
0
[email protected] (ATM) wrote in
Can you tell me more about this Smart Antenna connector and how to
find out more about this type of antenna? Where to buy it and how
much it costs?

I'd never heard of this 'til you mentioned it, but a Google search
(maybe you should try one) turned up information about an EIA/CEA-909
standard for electronically steerable TV antennas.

More looking turned up two commercial models, ChannelMaster CM3000, and
DX Antenna DTA-5000, both of which cost about $80.
 
A

ATM

Jan 1, 1970
0
Bert Hyman said:
[email protected] (ATM) wrote in


I'd never heard of this 'til you mentioned it, but a Google search
(maybe you should try one) turned up information about an EIA/CEA-909
standard for electronically steerable TV antennas.

More looking turned up two commercial models, ChannelMaster CM3000, and
DX Antenna DTA-5000, both of which cost about $80.

Bert, thanks.
Channel Master is now Andrew and do not have any CM3000.
 
A

Albert Manfredi

Jan 1, 1970
0
I used the $40 coupon to purchase a RCA Digital TV Converter box. Model
DTA800. In the back of the box, there is a "Smart Antenna" connector socket.
This socket is very much similar to a Ethernet connector plug socket - 6
pins RJ11 phone plug. But there is a notch at the top side of the socket.

Can you tell me more about this Smart Antenna connector and how to find out
more about this type of antenna? Where to buy it and how much it costs?

The boxes that qualify for the NTIA converter coupon program have
about the best receivers on the market as of today, even if they do
not support HD quality images per se. The demodulators are very good,
though, and capable of withstanding very strong ghosts in the incoming
signal.

The consequence of this happy state of affairs is that the benefits of
an electronically steerable antenna should be diminished now.

The real advantage of steerable antennas is that one can reduce ghost
energy by carefully aiming the antenna. As anyone who ever used rabbit
ears with analog TV knows very well.

But in an ideal world, the receiver would simply capture that ghost
energy and make use of it, reconstructing a stronger signal by
combining the energy from the main signal path with the energy from
the delayed ghost paths.

Although these new boxes aren't perfect, they do work toward that
ideal. You should notice that antenna aiming becomes much less
critical than it was with older receivers, especially in strong signal
settings. Certainly, people living in fringe areas still need a high
gain antenna. But typically in these cases, the distant transmit
antennas appear to be clustered together, in one direction, so aiming
should be a one-time thing.

I'd try first with the simpler indoor antennas.

Bert
 
M

Martin Riddle

Jan 1, 1970
0
I used the $40 coupon to purchase a RCA Digital TV Converter box. Model
DTA800. In the back of the box, there is a "Smart Antenna" connector socket.
This socket is very much similar to a Ethernet connector plug socket - 6
pins RJ11 phone plug. But there is a notch at the top side of the socket.

Can you tell me more about this Smart Antenna connector and how to find out
more about this type of antenna? Where to buy it and how much it costs?

The boxes that qualify for the NTIA converter coupon program have
about the best receivers on the market as of today, even if they do
not support HD quality images per se. The demodulators are very good,
though, and capable of withstanding very strong ghosts in the incoming
signal.

The consequence of this happy state of affairs is that the benefits of
an electronically steerable antenna should be diminished now.

The real advantage of steerable antennas is that one can reduce ghost
energy by carefully aiming the antenna. As anyone who ever used rabbit
ears with analog TV knows very well.

But in an ideal world, the receiver would simply capture that ghost
energy and make use of it, reconstructing a stronger signal by
combining the energy from the main signal path with the energy from
the delayed ghost paths.

Although these new boxes aren't perfect, they do work toward that
ideal. You should notice that antenna aiming becomes much less
critical than it was with older receivers, especially in strong signal
settings. Certainly, people living in fringe areas still need a high
gain antenna. But typically in these cases, the distant transmit
antennas appear to be clustered together, in one direction, so aiming
should be a one-time thing.

I'd try first with the simpler indoor antennas.

Bert


I still have to aim the antenna fairly accurately at the Empire state building, and thats only 25mi.
But I do get the local channel 21 broadside, and 68 off the back side very well.
Thats wit 50' of coax and a mast mounted preamp.

Cheers
 
A

ATM

Jan 1, 1970
0
OK. After looking at all these smart antennas and array antennas
information, I am unable to find and try on one anntenna with this 6 pins
RJ11 plug output so that I can plug into this RCA DTA800 Digital TV
Converter box.
Obviously, email and writing RCA got nothing - zip.

At leaset, where can I find info about this pin out of this 6 pins RJ11
socket? So that I can rig something to try it and see any better pictures?
 
M

Martin Riddle

Jan 1, 1970
0
Michael A. Terrell said:
RCA hasn't existed for decades. It is one of the many former US brand
names that were raped by the French government owned Thompson
Electronics.


--
http://improve-usenet.org/index.html


Use any search engine other than Google till they stop polluting USENET
with porn and junk commercial SPAM

If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in
your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm

See

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=980052&page=2

http://www.google.com/search?q=DTA-...-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

Cheers
 
A

Albert Manfredi

Jan 1, 1970
0
I still have to aim the antenna fairly accurately at the Empire state building, and thats only 25mi.
But I do get the local channel 21 broadside, and 68 off the back side verywell.
Thats wit 50' of coax and a mast mounted preamp.

My bet is that you would not benefit from any smart antenna, then.

The signal from the Empire State Building, at your location, appears
to be low strength enough that it takes a directional antenna,
presumably with some gain, to receive it. But at the same time, the
strong local signals do not require antenna aim. Since the antenna is
not aimed correctly for these local signals, they are probably
received with some ghost energy. Not necessarily so, but it's
certainly likely. You can check easily, by tuning in the analog
version of those local channels, and see what the picture looks like.

So there you go. What would a smart antenna give you that you need?
Typically, they seem to be low gain designs, so they would not help in
receiving the signal from NYC. And they would not help with the local
signals either, since you say these are already available to you with
the one antenna.

Bert
 
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