Poor antenna reception of digital tv and old computer
2014-07
Dervin Thunk
I just got an Atari 65xe, and the machine itself works fine. One issue I'm having trouble with with my collection of older computers is that digital TVs do not seem to get the frequencies input just right. In the case of the 65xe, there's quite a bit of static noise in the image, in the case of my older computers (like the ZX80) it seems the TV just "loses" the frequency for short periods of time. This does not happen in CRTs. I'm connecting all these machine through these old antenna switches like the one below. I don't want to mod the machines themselves.
Is there a way to clean the image in these newer TVs?
gatkin
I'm of the same opinion as Dave Tweed - in the old days you could tweak the TV tuning to be "just right" even if it was slightly misaligned with the defined frequencies allocated to the TV channels - this did not matter with old TVs because tuning was analogue.
With modern TVs the tuning is digital and they won't necessarily cater for of a few tens or hundreds of Hz misalignment. You just don't have that control anymore. In the old days, after the modulator warmed up a bit it drifted off-tune and a small tweak to the old-fashioned TV tuner re-aligned it - you don't have that facility in modern PLL digital tuners.
xelco52
I have a "Linksys WRVS4400N wireless N router" that i'm thinking about relocating out of the high traffic area of my home. When I move it with the other networking equipment in the basement, my signal strength drops to inadequate levels in the rooms that I would like to use wireless devices.
I'm thinking about running wires in the walls to an external antenna (like these) mounted high on a wall in the main living area. From my reading, it seems that an external antenna might not work well with a N router, so i'm entertaining the option of switching to a different A/B/G/I access point if need be.
Any advice on designing a working setup to relocate external antennas to a different floor than the AP?
Edit: It seems that the WRVS4400N can operate in B/G mode which is what i'll probably do as its span port and VPN endpoint are nice features. Any ideas if attaching an external antenna to this unit running in B/G mode will work?
Should I expect problems with signal strength to the external antenna if I am to run 20 feet of wiring/cable to the antenna? Is there a certain antenna type/make that I should be using or avoiding?
AndrejaKo
This isn't going to work.
For microwave devices, signal loss in the cable is enormous, so unless your antenna is within several meters of the device, there won't be any signal for it to emit.
Your best bet would be to install powerful antennas in the basement, next to the device or to get a repeater. There are some interesting directional antennas which you could use. If the device is going to be in the basement, you could just point the antenna to emit up.
Also, make sure that the antenna supports frequencies you are going to use. This could be a problem if your router has 5GHz mode.
Kyle
The problem with N routers and antennas is that you normally need more than one for them - 2 or 3, up to 6 in extreme cases - and then the cost of antennas and wiring becomes a problem.. Investigating exactly the same problem myself now and it is not worth the trouble it seems - better to buy another AP/router and connect it to the main one via cable.
By contrast, most A/B/G routers have only one antenna, and then you can easily make it external. Check the maximum cable length though.
In terms of your particular router and its antennas - not sure if switching it to B/G mode will help, it might keep using all of them - or just one but which one? You can try unmounting others, leaving one and see what happens.
quickly_now
Do a web search for Cantenna and see if you can make a directional antenna. You pick up some antenna gain this way. Follow the links, don't use the pringles can, there are some sites out there telling you how to make one from a soup can, its cheap and supposedly extremely effective.