I have a couple of Winegard powered antennas. The power injector has developed an intermittent failure, so I took it apart to see what was going on.
It looks like there is an invisible break in the circuit somewhere. I could try to fix it, or I could build a new one and address some other issues.
So...
The injector consists of two RF jacks, one for the TV and one for the antenna.
The power portion of the injector looks really simple. It's a transformer with a diode, a cap, and a resistor in series going to the antenna jack.
There is a 'mystery component' that connects the TV jack to the antenna jack. It must be some sort of isolator so that the power doesn't get to the antenna. Physically it looks like a tiny 1/2 length 1/8 watt resistor. I'm guessing it's a capacitor that would pass the RF frequency but not the DC power. It's too tiny to make out any lettering or marking.
Anyone know what value/type this cap would be?
Second, I have two antennas and two TVs. Right now, I have both antennas going to a splitter in reverse, combining the two signals, then through an amp, then back to a splitter. (The two antennas in parallel work well because of my fairly unique location.)
There is also a ground block.
All that makes for a bit of a mess, and I have problems with the splitters and signal strength, as the amp I have now is after the ground block and the first splitter.
I'd like to power the antennas and deal with the amplified signal. The powered antennas provide 20 dB boost, which overpowers the tuners. I need about 6-12 dB boost, so I'd like to have attenuation capability.
I'd like to eliminate all of that, and build a single box that would allow
- Power injection to the antennas
- Combine 2 antenna signals
- split two TV singals
- Provide a ground block
- Provide attenuation if necessary.
I've googled a bit but most of the hits are for wifi and gps, which doesn't really apply.....