I'm thinking of giving up cableTV. Can I run my OTA antenna outside via the old coax cable set up to get whole house OTA coverage, the way I used to have with cable? thanks
It will work but depending on the length of wiring in the house, the number of splitters, and how strong/weak the OTA signal is in your area, you may need a pre-amplifier and/or distribution signal amplifier. This site has good info on all this. http/www.hdtvprimer.com/antennas/basics.html
And yes, make sure the cable network is disconnected (there's usually a spot outside the house where the cable TV wire connects to a wire coming from the ground). Cable's frequency band overlaps with OTA so it will obliterate any OTA signals if it's still connected.