"UCLAN" wrote in message
...
William Sommerwerck wrote:

The reason I quoted it was that (assuming it was an honest review, which
it
seemed to be) it pointed up the fact that amplified antennas don't always
work very well.

As I noted, the antenna comes in amplified and non-amplified versions. The
amplified version can have the amplifier switched off without killing all
signals, a fact the reviewer failed to mention. Methinks it was operator
error on his part more than the failure of the antenna.

It's also worth noting that the five-star review you quote was from
someone
who did not bother to comare the Terk's performance with a pair of rabbit
ears -- which the first reviewer did.


Inasmuch as "rabbit ears" do a horrible job at best in receiving UHF
signals, such a comparison would be useless. *That* is one reason
that the post praising "the TV's rabbit ears" over any indoor antenna
was so laughable.

I don't remember the poster praising rabbit ears over _any_ indoor
antenna -- just the Terk. Are you certain he's wrong -- or lying?

People often have simple antennas lying around. You don't claim an expensive
product is good or superior without comparing it with exisiting products.
That's called a "control".

Some years back, when attending the SCES, I bought, on impulse, a Terk
indoor amplified FM antenna. As I said earlier, it was audibly inferior to a
piece of wire. I need to explain this.

At that time, I lived in Bellevue, WA, around the corner from Microsoft.
This was an area of severe multipath, which (despite the high signal
levels), would have justified a directional antenna. On some stations, it
was necessary to adjust antennas to minimize the multipath, or you'd have
audible distortion and breakup. This was not a problem with the wire, but
the Terk could not be positioned to eliminate the distortion.

Amplification is not suitable compensation for an undersized antenna. (Many
years ago I asked an engineer at Channel Master whether it was possible to
design a "tiny" multi-element antenna that discarded gain in favor of
directionality. He said it wasn't.)


Those that are using their TV's rabbit ears with a converter box to
receive digital transmissions are not getting all of the signals. Period.

You know this as fact?