[soc.college] Dorm room antenna

msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu (Mark Robert Smith) (08/23/88)

Can anyone reccomend a good TV antenna to go inside a dorm room?  I am
going to have a TV in my small single, and I'd like to improve the TV
reception in New Brunswick, NJ, USA.  (not Canada)
Can anyone point me to a cheap TV antenna that fits in a dorm room
safely?  A rabbit ears won't help, the TV already has them.

Thanks

Mark

-- 
Mark Smith (alias Smitty) "Be careful when looking into the distance,
61 Tenafly Road            that you do not miss what is right under your nose."
Tenafly, NJ 07670         {backbone}!rutgers!topaz.rutgers.edu!msmith 
msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu              Bill and Opus in '88!!!

strong@tc.fluke.COM (Norm Strong) (08/24/88)

In article <Aug.22.18.19.23.1988.8888@topaz.rutgers.edu> msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu (Mark Robert Smith) writes:
}Can anyone reccomend a good TV antenna to go inside a dorm room?  I am
}going to have a TV in my small single, and I'd like to improve the TV
}reception in New Brunswick, NJ, USA.  (not Canada)
}Can anyone point me to a cheap TV antenna that fits in a dorm room
}safely?  A rabbit ears won't help, the TV already has them.

I recommend an outdoor antenna on the roof of the dorm.  Do not ask permission
to put it there; the answer will be NO.  (Better to ask forgiveness than
permission.)

I did this in my dorm as well as 3 apartments I lived in subsequently.  I got
caught once.  Hey, 3 out of 4 ain't bad.  The worst that can happen is to have
to take it down.  
-- 

Norm   (strong@tc.fluke.com)

dmk@pilot.njin.net (David Katinsky) (08/24/88)

That isn't the worst that can happen at Rutgers.....


					dmk
-- 
			      David M. Katinsky
			      
	       dmk@pilot.njin.net 	{wherever}!rutgers!dmk

lemke@Apple.COM (Steve Lemke) (08/24/88)

In article <4909@fluke.COM> strong@tc.fluke.COM (Norm Strong) writes:
>I recommend an outdoor antenna on the roof of the dorm.  Do not ask permission
>to put it there; the answer will be NO.  (Better to ask forgiveness than
>permission.)

Another quote:  Never take "no" from someone who doesn't have the authority
                to say "yes".

Anyway, in my dorm (ten story building with LOTS of concrete and steel), I
had little luck with a FM dipole in the room.  I then bought the $13.00
Radio Shack omnidirectional (mast mount) antenna, and hung it from the ceiling
which sometimes worked and sometimes didn't - rotating it (funny, it was
supposed to be omni-directional) often helped.  I also had a FM signal booster
but I wouldn't recommend wasting money on one of those - in a fringe area
or an area with lots of interference, it just amplifies the static and the
interference...  Good luck - the best thing I did to improve FM reception was
to move out of the dorms at the end of the year and into my own apartment
where I could tap the cable and (through a A/B switch) use an antenna conven-
iently installed in our attic.

			===== Steve Lemke =====
Internet (?): lemke@apple.com    UUCP: {sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!lemke
   AppleLink: LEMKE             GEnie:  S.Lemke
All opinions are, of course, mine, and could never belong to anyone else!

woolstar@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (John D Woolverton) (08/24/88)

>>>Can anyone reccomend a good TV antenna to go inside a dorm room?
> 
> I recommend an outdoor antenna on the roof of the dorm.  Do not ask permission
> to put it there; the answer will be NO.  (Better to ask forgiveness than
> permission.)
 
We have a few renagade antenna on the roof of our dorm.  When someone wants
to hook up to it, he just buys ~100 feet of 300ohm antenna cable at the 
stock room and runs it out his window to the antenna.  Since there usually
are about five to eight people connected to each antenna (in parallel) the
reception is not great, but does ok.  During a particular windy week, I
noticed at one point that my reception had improved.  After climbing on the
roof and following my cable, I noticed that it had disconnected from the
antenna and was just sitting there.  I left it like that for quite some time.

Actually, living in the LA area, five miles from two of the network
transmitters (on Mt Wilson), we had to deal with the opposite problem:
too strong of a signal.  We'd have to add series resitors or just
use half of the signal (leave the other side floating or grounded).
The result was one impressive rigged antenna connection :-)

Good luck one way or another...

-- 
--------------
 John D Woolverton                      "Yes it's true..."
jdw@tybalt.caltech.edu
 woolstar@csvax.caltech.edu