Replace TracVision w/ Shakespeare HDTV

[FLCruiser]

Good morning. The boat I recently purchased has a TracVision Satellite receiver and 3 tuners installed. I'm going to switch to a StarLink receiver and internet TV.

I'm wondering though - can I pull the TracVision receiver and install and attach a Shakespeare HDTV antenna to the coaxial cable, remove the tuners at the end and attach them directly to the TV? With the exception of possibly adding a signal booster, would it be that easy?

Sometimes YouTube TV is funny about my location and the ability to watch sports. It wouldn't let me watch the Gator game last weekend because I wasn't at my home location.

Thanks!

 

[ranger58sb]

I dunno about that Shakespeare "HDTV" antenna...

But in general radio frequency (RF) antennas don't know squat about signal modulation (digital HD, etc.). All they do is grab RF in the range they're designed for, then provide that to the tuner... in your television. The TV tuner is what sorts out HD (or not).

TVs these days generally offer several inputs. RF (Coax), HDMI, maybe even still component or composite video, etc... and you use the TV menu system to select whatever source you want.

So assuming you have your sat connected to the TV via an HDMI cable, and you have a plain ol' air TV antenna connected to the TV via coax... just pick whichever you want at any given time.

-Chris

 

[jgwinks]

I don't know what type coax the old system uses, but if it's 75 ohm (I think that's right) like cable or antenna it should work fine. Biggest job in installing something like that is running the cables and that's already done for you. I have an old Shakespeare TV antenna, came with the boat and no idea how old it is, and it does a decent job of pulling in local stations if there are any to be had. I'm sure it's old enough to have been built for analog tv, but works fine with the newer digital format. At least as well as any other I've tried. Had one on the old sailboat too, and with it at the mast top 50 feet up in Muskegon Mich I was pulling stations from Milwaukee over 75 nm away. That's almost all over water though, you won't see that if there's land in between. I don't get that kind of range in the trawler though, the highest I can get the antenna is about 20 feet and range is more about height than anything else.

 

[tpbrady]

Typically satellite TV uses RG-6 which is perfectly suitable for connecting to an HDTV antenna. One caution is that satellite TV systems sometimes use switching components between the satellite antenna and receiver. These may not pass the frequencies used by off air TV. Be sure the find all the devices in the line and remove them.

Tom

 

[FLCruiser]

Thank you, everyone. Great responses all.