On Oct 10, 7:52 am, (Samuel M. Goldwasser) wrote:
OK, so I'm one of the 6 people in the Universe who don't have cable,
satellite, or fiber-optic TV.

With analog reception, the picture remains viewable even with a weak
signal, with increasing snow, but nonetheless, usable. The sound
would survive even lower signal levels.

A set of rabbit ears and loop antenna sufficed.

Now, as expected, with DTV, it's either there or it isn't, and even with
the built-in signal strength display on DTVs and converter boxes, it has
become a royal pain to tune in many channels.

The assumption today is that one will use a wired connection so DTVs
usually don't even come with any sort of indoor antenna.

Now, this could probably start a lively discussion on the politics and
economics of the DTV conversion and that's just fine.

But, what I would like input on is what sort of indoor antennas might be
best to use in what is basically an area which should have decent signal
strength for the channels I care about.

So far I've tried using old loop antennas and basic indoor antennas (loop+
rabbit ears) from Radio Shack, both unamplified and amplified (though I'm
not convinced the latter was even working properly).

This is a residential location with no high structures nearby. I believe
most of the transmitters are only a few miles away.

For a 10 year old TV with a converter box in one location, a simple loop
antenna seems to be fine. For a similar setup on the floor below,
reception is terrible on nearly all channels no matter how the
antenna is oriented.

For a new HDTV at the other end of the house, nothing I've tried seems to work
very well, with some channels requiring very careful fiddling with the
antenna orientation to be acceptable most of the time.
Reception on analog channels is fine and I believe the TV is working correctly.

According tohttp://www.antennaweb.org/, for most of the channels I
care about, a "small multidirectional antenna" should suffice.
I haven't yet tried an antenna like and would hoping for recommendataions,
or whether it would even work.

I realize this is insufficient information for anyone to suggest a
specific remedy other than "get a wired connection", but figured it
might be worthwhile to hear about others' experiences so far.

Thanks!

--
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I am so surprised that no one has mentioned the (to a bunch of people,
anyway) best site for antennae information:

http://www.tvfool.com/

Both analog and digital information is available along with a .png
file for either, or after the February 2009 cutover. The Kw ratings
and db figures are there, along with the actual and virtual channel
numbers.

Someone did a very good job

tom walsh