Showing posts with label ota. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ota. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Antennas Direct Micron & Micron XG

Antennas Direct now has available the Micron and soon the Micron XG.   Can be used on a table top, or mounted to the wall.  The XG version will also have a reflector screen for improved gain and directivity.  Looks pretty sharp.

Word on the street is that it is basically a ClearStream1 Convertible with a different skin that some may find more aesthetically pleasing, however the Micron is not designed to be used outdoors like the ClearStream1...and that is good news, because the ClearStream1 is a great small antenna that performs well with its tapered wide surface area loop!

Another great product from Antennas Direct!

Mircron 


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Monday, January 25, 2010

Gizmo of the Day

Today EV is starting a new recurring installment, known as Gizmo of the Day.  

And the First Gizmo is...


Balanced 3 Way Splitter

These are relatively rare, and you will have to specifically seek them out.  Often times you wont need such precsicion and a regular 3 (or 4) Way splitterwill suffice.  

What do they do?

A regular 3 way splitter splits the signal once, and then from one of those splits, splits the signal again, to produce 3 outputs.  However the first split, that is not split again has only 3.5 dB loss or so.  The split that was split again into two, has an insertion loss on each output of 7 dB or so.  So the output ports are 3.5 dB down, 7 dB down, and 7 dB down from the input signal.  This can often be advantageous as you run the lowest lost (3.5 dB) output port and thus highest signal to your longest run of coax (which has correspondingly higher losses) or where there is another split down the line, or to your weakest tuner.   But sometimes you will be working with slim margins to dropout or would prefer the precision of Balanced 3 Way Splitter, which equalizes the loss to each of the 3 output ports to 5.5 dB or so.  

As I said it's uncommonly used and thus uncommonly found.  But now you know it exists! Pictured is a Regal Balanced 3 Way splitter.  Note that its looks exactly like a typical 3 Way splitter.

And that is the Gizmo of the Day! 


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