julstride said:
rkp - ingenious, thank you. 8) My husband totally understands what you're trying to do, however, execution is another. So can you kindly walk us through the details on how you did that?
We have a box in the guest room upstairs that connects to the main line outside, a cable outlet in that room also with a guest tv, another in the office loft upstairs, another in the master upstairs and another in the living room downstairs where our main tv is.
I understand that you basically used the house wiring as an antenna "extension cord "
Thanks! Will wait your instructions
sorry for delay in posting more. first and foremost, try connecting antenna directly to TV and see what you get. if you get all the channels, then you are done! if you dont get them all, move the antenna around the area and keep trying. either its very unsightly or at least you want to know the optimal direction for the antenna.
then find a jack that is near a window and you dont mind an antenna displayed there and stick it in. if you have a TV near it, test it out before messing with the main lines. typically, closer to window or on the window and higher floors are ideal.
as far as making the house the extension, you have to find where the cable comes into the house and splits throughout the house. its usually tucked away in garage or a closet and has a metal panel covering it. when you find what looks like a nest of cables, yank it out and see whats in it. most likely, you will find many of these connecting a bunch of cables:
http://www.hardwarestore.com/media/product/116331_front500.jpg
trace back every "IN" until there are no more to trace. you are now holding the main line from the house. you dont want that connected to any thing any more as you are circumventing that line. put some masking tape on it and mark it as MAIN
now the rest of the wires...if you are lucky, they will have a little label like "master bedroom". if they dont have labels, this will be a lot harder as you have to identify each line with its corresponding jack - i can show you how but lets hope it doesnt get there
once you know which jack you will connect the antenna to (lets assume guest bedroom), then all you have to do is connect the guest bedroom wire to the "IN" that was originally occupied by the "MAIN". basically, you are treading the guest bedroom jack wire as incoming and everything thats outgoing from it will utilize the antenna
this is a bit kiddish but this is what you are trying to do - the cable colors are just for explanation. the blue is the new connection - see first image
caveat, if you have a cable modem for highspeed internet or get a phone line through your cable provider, make sure you connect that "MAIN" line to the cable modem directly or to a jack where the cable modem goes. second image is how it looks in my place
