On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:51:54 -0700 (PDT), Aaron Fude
wrote:

Hi,

I have one of these puppies on my roof (the picture is not of my
roof).

http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecac...tenna_roof.jpg

that is currently serving no function as I have cable. It does serve
as a convenient ledge for birds with all the predictable consequences.
Is there any reason whatsover to keep the antenna there, e.g. for a
broadcast HD tv signal, or can I remove it without any future regrets?

What do you plan to do when your cable isn't working?

And are you sure your cable has all the stations your antenna has?

In Baltimore, that's not the case. When the Orioles or the Ravens
are on tv, and you don't want to watch, cable doesn't have the DC
stations, but my antenna gets them fine.

Thanks!

Aaron

Hi,

I have one of these puppies on my roof (the picture is not of my
roof).

http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecac...tenna_roof.jpg

that is currently serving no function as I have cable. It does serve
as a convenient ledge for birds with all the predictable consequences.
Is there any reason whatsover to keep the antenna there, e.g. for a
broadcast HD tv signal, or can I remove it without any future regrets?

Thanks!

Aaron

No reason whatsoever. You cable provider will provide HD signals. The
only caution I would suggest it to make sure that when you remove the
mast, that you don't disturb something that will cause the roof to
leak. Things will be generally badly rusted, so a hack saw and bolt
cutters are your friends. Don't forget to pull down the feed line, as
well.

/paul
W3FIS

on 7/18/2008 8:51 PM Aaron Fude said the following:
Hi,

I have one of these puppies on my roof (the picture is not of my
roof).

http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecac...tenna_roof.jpg

that is currently serving no function as I have cable. It does serve
as a convenient ledge for birds with all the predictable consequences.
Is there any reason whatsover to keep the antenna there, e.g. for a
broadcast HD tv signal, or can I remove it without any future regrets?

Thanks!

Aaron

No, you can remove it. That way, you can put a few more satellite
antennas up there.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

Aaron Fude wrote:
Hi,

I have one of these puppies on my roof (the picture is not of my
roof).

http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecac...tenna_roof.jpg

that is currently serving no function as I have cable. It does serve
as a convenient ledge for birds with all the predictable consequences.
Is there any reason whatsover to keep the antenna there, e.g. for a
broadcast HD tv signal, or can I remove it without any future regrets?

I'd use it for the free OTA DTV broadcasts.

I have one of these puppies on my roof
http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecac...tenna_roof.jpg

Put it on Craigslist..some will pay you $$ for it, if for no other reason
than its Aluminum

Is there any reason whatsover to keep the antenna there, e.g. for a
broadcast HD tv signal, or can I remove it without any future regrets?

I'd use it for the free OTA DTV broadcasts.

I have The DishNetwork (satellite) I use the antenna for "local HD"
channels and dont have to pay "Dish" for the "locals"

Rudy wrote:
Is there any reason whatsover to keep the antenna there, e.g. for a
broadcast HD tv signal, or can I remove it without any future regrets?
I'd use it for the free OTA DTV broadcasts.

I have The DishNetwork (satellite) I use the antenna for "local HD"
channels and dont have to pay "Dish" for the "locals"


I'm keeping mine, will probably even upgrade it, even though I have
dish. Every time wind blows hard around here, I keep getting the damn
'searching for signal' box on the screen. I need a backup. Plus, like
you said, for the locals. I get the dish local package as part of the
bundle I'm on, but it isn't ALL the locals. Sometimes one station
preempts something I want to watch, but the same network the other
direction doesn't. (Yes, I went out and bought a couple of the cheap
converter boxes with the coupons, but they can't nail all the area OTA
stations- that is why I need to upgrade the roof antenna.)

--
aem sends...

On Jul 18, 8:51*pm, Aaron Fude wrote:
Hi,

I have one of these puppies on my roof (the picture is not of my
roof).

http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecac...rge/files/arti...

that is currently serving no function as I have cable. It does serve
as a convenient ledge for birds with all the predictable consequences.
Is there any reason whatsover to keep the antenna there, e.g. for a
broadcast HD tv signal, or can I remove it without any future regrets?

Thanks!

Aaron

I would keep it for a couple of reasons. If your cable goes out, it
would act as a backup to get the major local channels.
Plus, your cable provider compresses the HD signal quite a bit to
cram all the channels on one cable.
Whereas over the air signals you get from your rooftop antenna
receives clear uncompressed signal from the transmitter directly by
the TV station. And like the other poster said, depending where you
live, your cable provider might not provide all the local channels.
Plus, you might pick up a station far away to get some freebies, for
example an out of market NFL game or an MLB baseball game.

Mikepier wrote:
On Jul 18, 8:51 pm, Aaron Fude wrote:
Hi,

I have one of these puppies on my roof (the picture is not of my
roof).

http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecac...rge/files/arti...

that is currently serving no function as I have cable. It does
serve
as a convenient ledge for birds with all the predictable
consequences. Is there any reason whatsover to keep the antenna
there, e.g. for a broadcast HD tv signal, or can I remove it
without
any future regrets?

Thanks!

Aaron

I would keep it for a couple of reasons. If your cable goes out, it
would act as a backup to get the major local channels.
Plus, your cable provider compresses the HD signal quite a bit to
cram all the channels on one cable.
Whereas over the air signals you get from your rooftop antenna
receives clear uncompressed signal from the transmitter directly by
the TV station.

Uh, HD is highly compressed over the air as well. Fits into the same
bandwidth as an analog broadcast signal, and there are often several
subchannels carrying different programming. The local channels don't
usually get compressed at all.

And like the other poster said, depending where you
live, your cable provider might not provide all the local channels.
Plus, you might pick up a station far away to get some freebies,

Not bloody likely with HD. Picking up the nearby stations is enough
of a challenge. It's not like analog broadast where the signal
degrades by getting fuzzy--with HD the degradation goes from perfect
picture to nothing with no gradations in between.

for
example an out of market NFL game or an MLB baseball game.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

antenna looks like VHF most digital channels are UHF, so existing
antenna may not be useful.

if your dish goes iout when the wind blows you likely have a tree
obstruction......

dish can be relocated to elminate that problem.

I moved my dish from the front corner of my home o the back deck to
clear a tree across the street.

right after that my neighbor cut it down because ti dropped leaves in
the fall. very sad beautiful mature tree......

but my dish on deck is actually better location.

On Jul 19, 8:33*am, " wrote:
antenna looks like VHF most digital channels are UHF, so existing
antenna may not be useful.

You'd be surprised. . It depends where you are and how strong the
signal is. Some people get a lot of stations OTA with just rabbit
ears. The OP would have to hook it up to his TV and do a scan.

And the fact that OTA are compressed might be true, but its less than
what the cable companies do.

On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 06:34:36 -0700 (PDT), Mikepier
wrote:

On Jul 19, 8:33*am, " wrote:
antenna looks like VHF most digital channels are UHF, so existing
antenna may not be useful.

You'd be surprised. . It depends where you are and how strong the
signal is. Some people get a lot of stations OTA with just rabbit
ears.

Absolutely. I've spent many of the past years just using a single
wire 3 feet long or more to get OTA stations. Now that my input is a
coaxial connector, I use a thin wire that will fit into the center
hole and be gripped by the things in there.

A two foot wire is usually too short to get channel 2. Anything
above 5 and the wire doesn't even have to be 2 feet long. My wires
are usually on the floor or dangling down from the tv, but on the roof
would be better.

So I wouldn't be at all surprised if the antenna in the picture worked
well with VHF frequenies. I'm sure some of the elements on the
antennas are specifically for UHF.

The OP would have to hook it up to his TV and do a scan.

And the fact that OTA are compressed might be true, but its less than
what the cable companies do.

Compression was objected to on the assumption that the person was
trying to receive HD. He may be happy with SD for out-of-town games
that he can't get another way.

(I now use a PHillipds DVDR to get digital programs and it receives
either but turns the HD into SD, so I have no idea if they are
broadcast in HD or SD.)

And I mentioned that when a local game I didn't want to watch was on,
I could watch DC stations. As to the reverse, currently, some DC
cable providers have Baltimore stations, but I doubt all do or that it
is guaranteed to last.

Also, I can watch DC teams on DC stations when they're not on
Baltimore stations. All over the air.

Mikepier wrote:
On Jul 19, 8:33 am, " wrote:
antenna looks like VHF most digital channels are UHF, so existing
antenna may not be useful.

You'd be surprised. . It depends where you are and how strong the
signal is. Some people get a lot of stations OTA with just rabbit
ears. The OP would have to hook it up to his TV and do a scan.

And the fact that OTA are compressed might be true, but its less
than
what the cable companies do.

People who have investigated find that the local channels are
generally not compressed beyond what went over the air, it's
cable-only channels such as sci-fi that have the heavy compression.
I'd be real surprised if the cable companies had equipment in their
local offices that could add additional compression in real time to an
MPEG compressed datastream.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)