Combining two antennas into one?

[bigcheeshead]

So I have a bowtie and a "community antenna" on the apartment roof. Community antenna gets TMJ4 flawlessly. Bowtie gets 10, 58 by positioning the antenna southeast and 4-1 by positioning the antenna southwest. I was wondering if there is a way to combine the two antenna signals to get the best of both worlds? That way I would get perfect reception on 4-1 from community and perfect reception on 10 and 58 from the bowtie without repositioning the bowtime every time I want to switch channels.

[ReesR]

Get a "T" connector from Radio Shack.  Tell them what your trying to do and they should find the right kind.  But be prepared that the experiment does not work.  Depending on alot of technical factors it may or it may not.  Also, make sure you purchase the T connector which is rated to work to 900 mhz (mega-hertz).

------------------
Rees Roberts
Racine, WI
reesr@wi.net

HDTV Receiver:  Sony KD-34XBR2 16X9
Bi-directional AntennaCraft VHF Yagi Model #2260P
+
2 Winegard PR9022 UHF yagi's pointing N & S
Antennas at about 30 feet
Samsung SIR-TS160 HD Directv receiver

[Tom Snyder]

Obviously, the best hookup actually would be not to combine antenna feeds at all.

At my old place, I needed to combine Satelllite feed and an antenna feed into the same cable. The T connector didn't work for me at all... it couldn't cleanly separate the signals back out at the other end.

An engineer friend of mine suggested that I use a high quality 2-way splitter "backwards". He warned of a potential interaction problem between signals from both feeds (which didn't happen for me), but there was still a loss of signal.

At the new place, I have to run my satellite signal and my DVD out signal through the same cable (don't ask why). Neither option worked, so I'm using an A-B Switch.

If there's a way you can do that for your situation, that would be the best bet.

[ReesR]

I beg the ultimate forgiveness.  My left mind wrote T-connector while my right mind (get it?) meant 2-way splitter used backwards.  Geez.  This is embarrassing.  If I were a gal I would say I had a blond moment.  But alas I am an old fart so I guess I should say I had a "senior moment".

This reverse splitter technique was what I used (with help from Larry) to combine two UHF antennas pointing north and south.

Thanks Tom for pointing out the obvious.

Rees