# Outdoor antenna for basement



## heisman6183 (Jun 4, 2008)

I recently moved my main tv (HDTV with DirecTV HD-DVR) to the basement. DirecTV provides the local CBS and KWWL in HD but not ABC so I was hoping to use my internal QAM to pick up whatever I could locally as it did a great job upstairs. I noticed, however, that it picked up hardly anything and ABC was not one of them so I bought an external antenna that has 2 rabbit ears and is sitting on my floor. It picks up the ABC affialite in HD but I know I could get a lot more channels, especially with the digital transition coming up, with an outdoor antenna but I'm not sure how to connect it to the TV without geting a pro to run wires and everything which I'm not really willing to do. Is there any way around this? FYI, we still have cable internet and the hub for all the cable connections in all the rooms is in the basement.


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## Kansas Zephyr (Jun 30, 2007)

heisman6183 said:


> I recently moved my main tv (HDTV with DirecTV HD-DVR) to the basement. DirecTV provides the local CBS and KWWL in HD but not ABC so I was hoping to use my internal QAM to pick up whatever I could locally as it did a great job upstairs. I noticed, however, that it picked up hardly anything and ABC was not one of them so I bought an external antenna that has 2 rabbit ears and is sitting on my floor. It picks up the ABC affialite in HD but I know I could get a lot more channels, especially with the digital transition coming up, with an outdoor antenna but I'm not sure how to connect it to the TV without geting a pro to run wires and everything which I'm not really willing to do. Is there any way around this? FYI, we still have cable internet and the hub for all the cable connections in all the rooms is in the basement.


First, by "internal QAM" do you mean the HDTVs internal ATSC digital tuner? QAM is used by cable companies for digital cable. It is not for over-the-air broadcasts.

Second, yes there is an unsupported way to diplex, or combine, both the D* and OTA signals on a single cable. Then "un"diplex them for the D* receiver and your HDTV. If you have a HR20 you can also DVR your OTA. For the HR21 you'll need a AM21 to add OTA to the DVR.

I need more info about your setup.

1) Receiver model number
2) How many total D* receivers are in the house?
3) How many coax runs come off of the dish? Do they run directly to the receiver, or do they pass through a grounding block, or feed existing wiring in the home first?
4) How many coax runs go to the D* HD DVR?
5) Is/are there little gray box(es) (labeled SUP-2400 B-Band Converter) attached to the sat input(s) of the D* HD DVR?

Then we can see what options there might be.


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## heisman6183 (Jun 4, 2008)

I should clarify, with my cable internet and my HDTV connected to the coax in the living room, doing a channel search provided some channels, something that didn't happen when I moved it downstairs. I'm thinking there's really no easy way to do this and I'll have to live with the setup I currently have.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Isn't "Outdoor antenna for basement" some sort of technological oxymoron? :

Let it wave proudly high on your roof where it belongs :grin:


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