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Default Old antenna for new tv

On Wed, 1 Sep 2010 20:05:02 -0700 (PDT), Jdog
wrote:

I have an old antenna in the attic. When i moved into my house i
hooked it up to the tv. It works ok. Some channels dont come in
perfect some of the time. I've tried adjusting it w/ no luck. I see
these new style antennas for sale on line.


Are they better then the old style?


We don't know what the old style is that you refer to. You don't
describe it.

Take a look at www.solidsignal.com . They don't sell anything like
the one in your picture.

One thing the one in the ad has is a rotor. I have had one with a
rotor and I found it a pain in the neck. I just picked the best
overall direction and I stayed with that. IF the rotors gave good
feedback, so I could tell which way they were pointed for a station
that gave the best signal, that would be one thing, but they give
estmates at best, afaict. Your ad doesn't go into that so it's no
better than the others, I would think.

They don't call their antenna a digital antenna. I'll give them
credit for that (or they're repeating what is on the box and they got
these antennas out of a warehouse where they have been for 5 or more
years.) There is nothing different about a digital and an analog
antenna. However becuase of the deficiencies of digital, one may
need a better antenna.

Has anyone tried both?


I used to use a 6 foot piece of single strand wire, and I got all the
local digital stations, but I wanted to get the DC station, 40 miles
away, so I bought the biggest 7 to 86 antenna I thought would fit in
my attic.

It's pointed at DC and it too gets Baltimore but with the same
interruptions at times.

I plan to buy a second omnidirectional one, and use a splitter
(combiner) to connect both to my DVDR, etc. Also probably an
amplifier, although solid signal sells so many I don't know which one.
I haven't found a good web page about that so I have been meaning to
call them for advice.

Even better than antennaweb imo is TVfool.com It will tell you all
the stations in your area, what channel they are broadcasting on, from
what direction and from how far away. Few tv stations use channels 2
to 6, even if you tune your tv to 2 or 6, they are really on another
frequency. In all but a very few areas of the US there is at least
one major station that uses at least one channel 7 to 13, so you will
need high-VHF. If you don't have even one channel bellow 14, you can
get a UHF only antenna.

If you don't need channels 2 to 6, you don't need an antenna with the
really big elements. I think the longest on mine are 3 or 4 feet,
because I have no stations below channel 7.