Old Antenna on Roof

[pgajeski]

I have an old antenna  my roof. I have no idea how old it is, but I know it needs new wiring for the hook up. Am I better off getting an new antenna or trying to hook up the old and see if it works for pulling HD OTA.  Do old antenna's pull HD single?

Thanks for any advice

[waterhead]

Before doing anything, I would try it out first.

My father has an old yagi type antenna, and when I hooked him up with a digital tuner it worked great. He has a coaxial cable feed from the antenna. If you have the flat 300-ohm antenna, you may need to replace it with 75-ohm coaxial RG6 quad shield cable.

[Blitzburgh]

Does the antenna have UHF elements?

You will need them to get HD.

[pgajeski]

How do you figure that out?

[jjallou]

Can you upload a picture of it so we can take a look?

[waterhead]

Does it currently get the SD UHF channels in clearly? If yes, then it is most likely ok for digital.

[pgajeski]

The thing has never been hooked up, while I have been at the house. I can post a pic this weekend. I just made the switch to D*, so getting the hooked up is a need.

[waterhead]

If you're planning on replacing it if it doesn't work, then run some new coaxial cable to it first. You will need to do this with a new antenna, and if it works, you won't need a new antenna.

Leave some extra cable for easier install of a new antenna. You will need to buy a few tools for making cable connections. The cheap crimpers are crap, so pay a little more and get a better one.

This type of crimper is crap:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2104050&cp=2032058.2032236.2032310&parentPage=family
I have this one, much better, but I'm sure there are even better ones:
http://www.idealindustries.com/prodDetail.do?prodId=30-503

[pgajeski]

Here are the pic. I hope this helps.

[Talos4]

Run some new coax and hook that baby up, it should work just fine.

The small end is the front of the antenna which should be pointed towards the towers.

Most of the towers are located within a couple miles of each other on the NE side of Milwaukee, Around Capitol drive and Humboldt. (Estabrook park)

12 and 58 are located in Lincoln park around Silver Spring and Green Bay Road.

Just so you have an idea on where to point it if it's not already.

[waterhead]

Make sure you use RG6-Quad shield cable.

I see that you also have a rotor. If you also have the control box, you can run a new wire for that at the same time. The wire is not too expensive, I got mine at Menards (the rotor too).