Combing Analog Cable With An Antenna

[ontherun]

Can you combine an antenna with analog cable?  I just purchased a Visio tv for my mom who lives in Green Bay and has standard analog cable, no cable box. With the cable hooked up we are able to recieve the cable channels and also able to recieve some of the local ota channels in HD. Iam surprised that we are able to do this but it would be nice if we could combine a set of rabbit ears with the cable because she can't get WLUK in HD.

[WPXE ION]

Go to Radio Shack and ask for a Coaxial A/B switch, should be less than $10. Only drawback is you have to get up and manually make the switch. There might be a fancy remote version out there also, but this will get you started.

[Northern Fringe]

For some reason, Time Warner never "remapped" WLUK to 11.1 on the Green Bay system.  They remapped several other stations that you can probably find on their digital channel numbers (2.1, 26.1, etc.).  However, WLUK can be found on channel 86.13 in HD.  You would have to enter that channel manually to get it.  When the TV scanned for channels, it should have found it unencrypted.  

Give that a try, that is how my parents access WLUK on a digital TV with Time Warner (without a cable box).  Maybe one of these days they might remap it to 11.1 when we will have to re-scan to find it again (possibly in October when they re-align all the digital channels.

[ArgMeMatey]

When I checked a few months ago Radio Shack did in fact have a fancy A/B switch that was remote controllable.  If your universal remote could control this, you would be in good shape.  If not, use double-sided adhesive to stick the switch to something and use a slim pole to push the buttons!  

Another solution would be to tune one or the other through a digital tuner (or a digital tuner in a VCR or DVD recorder) that can use a composite or HDMI output to the TV.  

But if you don't already have one of those, the A/B box is going to be much cheaper.  

I ended up getting a TV with two RF inputs.

[benski007]

I think Northern Fringe was on the best track with just recommending finding the unscrambled local channels with your existing cable connection.  As long as the TV has a QAM tuner built in (which I think is almost every TV now), you should be able to tune in all the local channels in HD with just an analog cable connection.  Time Warner passes the local channels in HD unencrypted.  Then there would be no need to bother with an A/B switch.  Hope this helps.

[LoadStar]

While the other posters are all quite correct, the clear and short answer is: no, you cannot combine antenna and cable television onto one coaxial line. Attempts to do so can cause the antenna signal to backfeed into the cable plant, and will prompt a very quick visit from your cable provider. If they can't contact you, they will immediately disconnect your cable feed to prevent you from interfering with anyone else's cable service.

[ontherun]

Thanks Northern Fringe. We did find WLUK HD at 86-13.
So it appears that we should be able to get all the Green Bay locals  and sub's on just the basic cable. So far I have found 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 5-1, 26-1, 38-1,38-2,38-3, and now 86-13. Question should we able to get WACY and WIWB.

[Northern Fringe]

I'm glad you found it.  WIWB is on channel 86-114 in HD.  WACY is not yet available on TimeWarner in HD, not sure why they don't have a contract worked out by now.  

The other problem that one would encounter with using an A/B switch is that the TV would probably need to re-scan the channels each time the input was switched.  That's because the antenna feed is ATSC video while cable is QAM.  That would get to be a real pain after a while if you needed to switch regularly.  A better scenario would probably be to connect the antenna to the TV directly, and then use a cable box connected to a separate input on the TV (component or HDMI input).  Then, you could switch inputs with the Input button on your TV remote.

[InsulinJunkie]

We did find WLUK HD at 86-13.
So it appears that we should be able to get all the Green Bay locals  and sub's on just the basic cable. So far I have found 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 5-1, 26-1, 38-1,38-2,38-3, and now 86-13. Question should we able to get WACY and WIWB.

SiliconDust has a channel lineup finder for their HD HomeRun ATSC/QAM tuner. Using 54301 to get the GB TWC lineup, here's the clearQAM lineup.

WACY in SD should 85-102, according to the listing.