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.
http://www.antennahub.com/highgainou...-preorder.aspx

Are they better then the old style?
Has anyone tried both?

On 9/1/2010 11:05 PM, 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.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
SPAM?


Antennas come in all flavors. The technology is old.


Are they better then the old style?
Has anyone tried both?

I'm suspicious of the stats for the "new", 35 dB is very high. Built in
preamp?

Check what kind of antenna you need:

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

Jeff

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.

"mm" wrote in message
...
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.

stuff snipped

I'm in the same area and in the same boat and live in the shadow of a hill
that obscures the line of sight with the big TV antenna complex near the
Sears near Tenleytown. The problem I had with the rotor is that my DVR has
no way to rotate the aerial to the proper direction for the channel I want
to record. Since I have two DVRs, I ended up putting two antennas in the
attic: one optimized for DC and the other for Baltimore. I segregate my
recording based on that. Stations coming from Baltimore go to DVR one,
stations from Washington, DVR two. Later this year, I am going to mount a
tall mast on the chimney and put up the rotor again, with the largest aerial
I can find to pull in the stations like 22 that broadcast from Annapolis, 90
degrees away from Baltimore or Washington and some other transmitters that
aren't located with the other major towers. )-:

I still get dropouts, though, from overhead planes, rain clouds and elves.
(IOU, I am not sure what causes them, but I do know they proliferate at the
ends of programs where they're saying "Of course, the killer had to be -
silence, splotches, more silence and finally the picture returns). As fuzzy
as analog was, I don't remember losing key parts of the transmission they
way I do with digital. I've also discovered that there's an incredible
variation in tuners. The Polaroid DVR doesn't get half the channels that a
new, no name 7" portable can pull in off the same aerial. Probably a 7 year
difference in date of manufacture, though. I have noticed that even my
friends with FIOS have problems in rainstorms because the weather affects
the satellite transmissions from orbit to the FIOS dishes.

Still, I'm happy with basic cable, OTA HD and Netflix. And having a DVR
with a commercial skip button. I don't think I could watch TV anymore
without one.

--
Bobby G.

On Thu, 2 Sep 2010 05:44:52 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

Baltimore or Washington.

I'm in the same area and in the same boat and live in the shadow of a hill
that obscures the line of sight with the big TV antenna complex near the
Sears near Tenleytown. The problem I had with the rotor is that my DVR has
no way to rotate the aerial to the proper direction for the channel I want

They never do, do they?

to record. Since I have two DVRs, I ended up putting two antennas in the
attic: one optimized for DC and the other for Baltimore. I segregate my
recording based on that. Stations coming from Baltimore go to DVR one,
stations from Washington, DVR two.

Very clever. I haven't tried this yet but someone on
sci.electronics;.repair said one could use a splitter (combiner, same
thing) to connect both antennas together, implying that there would be
no problem interactino. No one contradicted him but I never asked
further. I figured I would try it, so there wasn't much point to
discussing it. But I havent' got the omni-directional antenna yet.
Still, I do have that 6 or 8 foot wire.

Later this year, I am going to mount a
tall mast on the chimney and put up the rotor again, with the largest aerial
I can find to pull in the stations like 22 that broadcast from Annapolis, 90
degrees away from Baltimore or Washington and some other transmitters that
aren't located with the other major towers. )-:

I still get dropouts, though, from overhead planes, rain clouds and elves.

Dropout is the word! Mine are all elves. I've never seen a reason.

(IOU, I am not sure what causes them, but I do know they proliferate at the
ends of programs where they're saying "Of course, the killer had to be -
silence, splotches, more silence and finally the picture returns).

I've been pretty lucky. It usually comes back when they're on the same
jeopardy clue, or it drops out during commericals or during part of
the news I'm not interested in.

But a week ago, I missed the last 5 minutes of Alfred Hitchcock. I
went to zap2it.com , but it only gave a generic description, good for
all episodes. I was going to search on the description.

So I looked for alfred hitchock full episodes and got
several hits. I thought I would have to start watching each, but they
each had one still shot from the given show, and mine had the back of
a nurse's head with a guy facing her whom I actually recognized from
the show. I rarely recognize anyone. So it took only a couple
minutes to find the show, and I let it play in the background until I
got to the last 5 minutes. It ended just like I remembered from 45
years ago!

As fuzzy
as analog was, I don't remember losing key parts of the transmission they
way I do with digital.

Right. The arrogance with which they asserted that it woudl be better
than analog.

I've also discovered that there's an incredible
variation in tuners. The Polaroid DVR doesn't get half the channels that a
new, no name 7" portable can pull in off the same aerial. Probably a 7 year
difference in date of manufacture, though. I have noticed that even my
friends with FIOS have problems in rainstorms because the weather affects
the satellite transmissions from orbit to the FIOS dishes.

Very interesting. Thanks. I noticed this years ago with analog
tvs, and also with radios, that famous brand doesn't make much
difference

Still, I'm happy with basic cable, OTA HD and Netflix. And having a DVR
with a commercial skip button. I don't think I could watch TV anymore
without one.

I didn't know they made those. A year or two before the switch, a
friend gave me a VCR with commerical skip, but it turned out the whole
machine didn't work. I wonder if I was supposed to know that. Anyhoe
I didnt' get it fixed before the switch. I still plan to connect a
VCR to watch movies I bought for a dollar and never watched, and
things I recorded, but there's no rush.

--
Bobby G.

On 9/2/2010 12:46 PM, mm wrote:
On Thu, 2 Sep 2010 05:44:52 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

Baltimore or Washington.

I'm in the same area and in the same boat and live in the shadow of a hill
that obscures the line of sight with the big TV antenna complex near the
Sears near Tenleytown. The problem I had with the rotor is that my DVR has
no way to rotate the aerial to the proper direction for the channel I want

They never do, do they?

to record. Since I have two DVRs, I ended up putting two antennas in the
attic: one optimized for DC and the other for Baltimore. I segregate my
recording based on that. Stations coming from Baltimore go to DVR one,
stations from Washington, DVR two.

Very clever. I haven't tried this yet but someone on
sci.electronics;.repair said one could use a splitter (combiner, same
thing) to connect both antennas together, implying that there would be
no problem interactino. No one contradicted him but I never asked
further. I figured I would try it, so there wasn't much point to
discussing it. But I havent' got the omni-directional antenna yet.
Still, I do have that 6 or 8 foot wire.

That works fine. On the same pole I think they should be at least 5
foot apart vertically. Also the wires coming to the splitter from the
antennas should be the same length.

On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:40:18 -0400, Tony
wrote:

On 9/2/2010 12:46 PM, mm wrote:
On Thu, 2 Sep 2010 05:44:52 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

Baltimore or Washington.

I'm in the same area and in the same boat and live in the shadow of a hill
that obscures the line of sight with the big TV antenna complex near the
Sears near Tenleytown. The problem I had with the rotor is that my DVR has
no way to rotate the aerial to the proper direction for the channel I want

They never do, do they?

to record. Since I have two DVRs, I ended up putting two antennas in the
attic: one optimized for DC and the other for Baltimore. I segregate my
recording based on that. Stations coming from Baltimore go to DVR one,
stations from Washington, DVR two.

Very clever. I haven't tried this yet but someone on
sci.electronics;.repair said one could use a splitter (combiner, same
thing) to connect both antennas together, implying that there would be
no problem interactino. No one contradicted him but I never asked
further. I figured I would try it, so there wasn't much point to
discussing it. But I havent' got the omni-directional antenna yet.
Still, I do have that 6 or 8 foot wire.

That works fine. On the same pole I think they should be at least 5
foot apart vertically. Also the wires coming to the splitter from the
antennas should be the same length.

Thanks. They're not going to be on a pole but in the attic, which is
about 7 feet high in the center and 6 inches high at front and back
edge.

Any advice about placement in that case??


I figured the big one meant to get DC stations south of here would be
south of the omnidirectional, meant to get stations east and if I'm
lucky north of here. Is 5 or 10 feet between them enough?

I figured I'd hang the antennas from the rafters and have room to put
light-weight boxes underneath.

"mm" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 2 Sep 2010 05:44:52 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

Baltimore or Washington.

I'm in the same area and in the same boat and live in the shadow of a
hill
that obscures the line of sight with the big TV antenna complex near the
Sears near Tenleytown. The problem I had with the rotor is that my DVR
has
no way to rotate the aerial to the proper direction for the channel I
want

They never do, do they?

Two antennas made it theoretically possible to switch back and forth via a
timer, but that was an incredibly complicated solution compared to spending
another $200 on a second DVR and having a two completely separate recording
"chains." It's turned out to be very useful for the sweeps when the only
three interesting programs broadcast all year are telecasted on the same day
and time.

to record. Since I have two DVRs, I ended up putting two antennas in the
attic: one optimized for DC and the other for Baltimore. I segregate my
recording based on that. Stations coming from Baltimore go to DVR one,
stations from Washington, DVR two.

Very clever. I haven't tried this yet but someone on
sci.electronics;.repair said one could use a splitter (combiner, same
thing) to connect both antennas together, implying that there would be
no problem interactino. No one contradicted him but I never asked
further. I figured I would try it, so there wasn't much point to
discussing it. But I havent' got the omni-directional antenna yet.
Still, I do have that 6 or 8 foot wire.

I've done similar things (multi aerial receiver for household X-10 RF
controls signals), but in this case, the antennas are at opposite ends of
the house (Washington signals are strongest on the south side, Balto on the
north) so there didn't seem to be any point to combining the signal. I
suppose it might not be a bad idea to see what happens if I combine them.
Hmmmm . . .

Later this year, I am going to mount a
tall mast on the chimney and put up the rotor again, with the largest
aerial
I can find to pull in the stations like 22 that broadcast from Annapolis,
90
degrees away from Baltimore or Washington and some other transmitters
that
aren't located with the other major towers. )-:

I still get dropouts, though, from overhead planes, rain clouds and
elves.

Dropout is the word! Mine are all elves. I've never seen a reason.

It's pretty annoying. It's like microwave ovens. My old reliable Litton
had nothing but a mechanical spring timer that lasted over 20 years with
only a broken door latch. The replacement has a super-fancy multi-function
"cooking system" (aka "timer") that locked up tight the first time we used
it. Sometimes newer is not better.

(IOU, I am not sure what causes them, but I do know they proliferate at
the
ends of programs where they're saying "Of course, the killer had to be -
silence, splotches, more silence and finally the picture returns).

I've been pretty lucky. It usually comes back when they're on the same
jeopardy clue, or it drops out during commericals or during part of
the news I'm not interested in.

But a week ago, I missed the last 5 minutes of Alfred Hitchcock. I
went to zap2it.com , but it only gave a generic description, good for
all episodes. I was going to search on the description.

So I looked for alfred hitchock full episodes and got
several hits. I thought I would have to start watching each, but they
each had one still shot from the given show, and mine had the back of
a nurse's head with a guy facing her whom I actually recognized from
the show. I rarely recognize anyone. So it took only a couple
minutes to find the show, and I let it play in the background until I
got to the last 5 minutes. It ended just like I remembered from 45
years ago!

That's good detective work. I had a similar experience the other night and
discovered Wikipedia has a lot of synopses for old TV shows with pretty
detailed commentary. I like to watch Hitchcock just to look for actors who
made it to the big time later on. HD OTA is great because I am getting to
watch old movies that used to be available only on AMC or TCM. That and the
Outer Limits where you can see a futuristic looking video-telephone device
equipped with a rotary dial!!!!! There's nothing as funny as old science
fiction where they either got it half wrong or all wrong. I remember when
computers were represented by huge arrays of flashing lights.

As fuzzy
as analog was, I don't remember losing key parts of the transmission they
way I do with digital.

Right. The arrogance with which they asserted that it woudl be better
than analog.

There are so many things that turned out to be better for the sellers than
the buyers. Hell, I like HD for movie viewing, but I don't want to see the
news anchor's nose hairs or acne scars. What ticks me off most is the
aspect ratio issue. I was watching something on Comcast's analog net and it
was a conversation between two people, neither of whom were on the screen in
4: 3.

I've also discovered that there's an incredible
variation in tuners. The Polaroid DVR doesn't get half the channels that
a
new, no name 7" portable can pull in off the same aerial. Probably a 7
year
difference in date of manufacture, though. I have noticed that even my
friends with FIOS have problems in rainstorms because the weather affects
the satellite transmissions from orbit to the FIOS dishes.

Very interesting. Thanks. I noticed this years ago with analog
tvs, and also with radios, that famous brand doesn't make much
difference

I've got almost a dozen different devices with ATSC (HD capable) tuners,
from USB cards to DVR to LCD TVs of differing sizes. The variation in the
number of channels each different device sees when scanning from the same
antenna is pretty darn wild. The best tuner is in my LCD TV, which sucks,
because I can't record from it! The worst is a Samsung DVD recorder, the
best a Panasonic DVD recorder (although the DVD part crapped out one week
after the warranty did after burning less than 25 disks so it's useless).
On the other hand, my older Panasonic DVR with DVD recorder has burned over
500.

Still, I'm happy with basic cable, OTA HD and Netflix. And having a DVR
with a commercial skip button. I don't think I could watch TV anymore
without one.

I didn't know they made those. A year or two before the switch, a
friend gave me a VCR with commerical skip, but it turned out the whole
machine didn't work. I wonder if I was supposed to know that. Anyhoe
I didnt' get it fixed before the switch. I still plan to connect a
VCR to watch movies I bought for a dollar and never watched, and
things I recorded, but there's no rush.

There aren't many DVRs left on the market. I was told is was because TIVO
sues them out of production, but I can't say for sure. But both the
Panasonic DVR and the Polaroid have commercial skip buttons (Panny is 1 min,
Polly is 30 sec). Neither is available new anymore, although I believe
Philips and ChannelMaster are making consumer HD DVRs. My units aren't HD,
but in HQ mode, I really don't notice the difference. OTA HD still has a
lot of SD content.

--
Bobby G.

On 9/2/2010 5:44 AM, Robert Green wrote:
Later this year, I am going to mount a
tall mast on the chimney and put up the rotor again, with the largest aerial
I can find to pull in the stations like 22 that broadcast from Annapolis, 90
degrees away from Baltimore or Washington and some other transmitters that
aren't located with the other major towers. )-:


We also opt for over-the-air reception. We are lucky. At our location (north
of Wheaton, MD) all the DC transmitters are within about 15 degrees of each
other, except for Chan 22, which is about 90 degrees further east. We opted for
a fixed mast on a chimney mount with a high gain, directional, unamplified
VHF/UHF antenna. Although the antenna is directional, we get
4,5,7,9,20,26,30,32,50 and 66 reliably without needing a rotor. Since we often
want to watch a DC station while recording 22, or vice versa, a rotor would not
have been a good solution for us. Our installer agreed to try mounting an
unamplified 8 bow tie UHF antenna on the same mast, pointed at 22, using a
reverse splitter to merge the signals from both antennas into the single feed
wire. Although you can find many web sites that say phase distortion makes that
type of setup unworkable, it works like a charm for us even though we passively
split the download 3 ways. You might want to try it before you invest $$$ in a
rotor.

I still get dropouts, though, from overhead planes, rain clouds and elves.
(IOU, I am not sure what causes them, but I do know they proliferate at the
ends of programs where they're saying "Of course, the killer had to be -
silence, splotches, more silence and finally the picture returns).

Us too. It can be totally clear, sun shining, no breeze and no sound of
airplanes, yet suddenly the signal strength starts fluctuating wildly and we get
drop outs or even short episodes of "no signal" blank screens. Since it most
often happens at about the same time of day for a particular station, I suspect
it may be aircraft activity from BWI and/or national relatively close to the
transmitting tower and too far from the house to hear anything. Of course
there's lots of helicopter traffic in the close-in DC area. As you say, it
usually happens at a critical moment in whatever program is in progress!

"Peter" wrote in message
...
On 9/2/2010 5:44 AM, Robert Green wrote:
Later this year, I am going to mount a
tall mast on the chimney and put up the rotor again, with the largest
aerial
I can find to pull in the stations like 22 that broadcast from
Annapolis, 90
degrees away from Baltimore or Washington and some other transmitters
that
aren't located with the other major towers. )-:


We also opt for over-the-air reception. We are lucky. At our location
(north
of Wheaton, MD) all the DC transmitters are within about 15 degrees of
each
other, except for Chan 22, which is about 90 degrees further east.

Dang, we've got enough DC area posters here to form a local chapter of AHR.
I've been in a few other newsgroups that have "met up" with each other, and
it's always interesting to put a face to the name. Channel 22 is really the
red-headed step child of the DC area, existing out in left field. A friend
that lives in Wheaton gets WTOP radio on her phone lines, the towers are so
close by. (-:

We opted for
a fixed mast on a chimney mount with a high gain, directional, unamplified
VHF/UHF antenna. Although the antenna is directional, we get
4,5,7,9,20,26,30,32,50 and 66 reliably without needing a rotor. Since we
often
want to watch a DC station while recording 22, or vice versa, a rotor
would not
have been a good solution for us.

I've found it's hardly ever a good solution and it's why I'm working with
the two aerial/two DVR system that's working fairly well. But since we're
in a small valley, I suspect that the extra 10 or 15 feet I'd gain with a
chimney mounted antenna would eliminate a lot of the dropouts. I am
surprised you get reception with an amp. How long is the run of cable from
the aerial to the TV set?

Our installer agreed to try mounting an
unamplified 8 bow tie UHF antenna on the same mast, pointed at 22, using a
reverse splitter to merge the signals from both antennas into the single
feed
wire. Although you can find many web sites that say phase distortion
makes that
type of setup unworkable, it works like a charm for us even though we
passively
split the download 3 ways. You might want to try it before you invest $$$
in a
rotor.

Since that same technology works well to give my whole house good X-10 (the
home automation stuff) RF coverage. I got an amplifier, a five way
splitter-combiner and mounted five small aerials at each corner of the
house with one in the middle. They're not even really aerials, just
sections of RG6QS peeled back to reveal the central wire stripped to a
length that's allegedly a multiple of the RF wave). Ever since I installed
them, I get full coverage from my home automation system throughout the
house and several hundred feet away from it. I was also warned about phase
distortion, I've seen no evidence of it. In a plaster/lathe house, one
aerial just doesn't cut it. Now I have only one "slightly" dead spot right
near the furnace underneath the spot where all the ducts diverge. I see no
reason why the same technique would not work on the TV antennas. It would
certainly be easy enough to try. I guess it's time to get the coax and
tools out. I miss not having 22 - ComcASSt dropped it (and WHUT - 19) from
their ever-shrinking basic cable lineup. I read somewhere that DC is one of
the few places where they have delayed the digital switchover because
residents here poll as very price sensitive and likely to leave ComcASSt if
force to upgrade to digital.

I still get dropouts, though, from overhead planes, rain clouds and
elves.
(IOU, I am not sure what causes them, but I do know they proliferate at
the
ends of programs where they're saying "Of course, the killer had to be -
silence, splotches, more silence and finally the picture returns).

Us too. It can be totally clear, sun shining, no breeze and no sound of
airplanes, yet suddenly the signal strength starts fluctuating wildly and
we get
drop outs or even short episodes of "no signal" blank screens. Since it
most
often happens at about the same time of day for a particular station, I
suspect
it may be aircraft activity from BWI and/or national relatively close to
the
transmitting tower and too far from the house to hear anything. Of course
there's lots of helicopter traffic in the close-in DC area. As you say,
it
usually happens at a critical moment in whatever program is in progress!

I also live next to the only multistory building for miles and there's quite
an issue with multipath distortion. While it's not so easy to spot with a
digital tuner, when I had analog, and a plane flew overhead (we're on the
approach to both BWI and Andrews AFB) you could see a second image appear,
shift left, then right, then slowly vanish. I only wish digital did
something like that and not the "picture gone" or "sound gone" problems I
see. Another slight annoyance is that channel surfing is much, much slower
as most of the tuners I have take a second or two to "lock" in the channel.

--
Bobby G.

On 9/3/2010 12:20 PM, Robert Green wrote:
wrote in message
...


We opted for
a fixed mast on a chimney mount with a high gain, directional, unamplified
VHF/UHF antenna. Although the antenna is directional, we get
4,5,7,9,20,26,30,32,50 and 66 reliably without needing a rotor. Since we
often
want to watch a DC station while recording 22, or vice versa, a rotor
would not
have been a good solution for us.

I've found it's hardly ever a good solution and it's why I'm working with
the two aerial/two DVR system that's working fairly well. But since we're
in a small valley, I suspect that the extra 10 or 15 feet I'd gain with a
chimney mounted antenna would eliminate a lot of the dropouts. I am
surprised you get reception with an amp. How long is the run of cable from
the aerial to the TV set?


I'm sorry if I gave you the impression that I have an amp in my antenna circuit.
I thought I would need one, but I don't. I've got the high gain (but
unamplified) VHF/UHF joined with the 8 bow-tie array through a reverse splitter
feeding a 3 way splitter that serves my master bedroom, den, and kitchen nook.
The longest run is to the kitchen nook, probably about 75-100 feet. Except when
the gremlins are active, almost all the stations max out the signal strength bar
graph on the TVs or are only 1 bar less. I suspect that an amplified splitter
might have over-driven the RF front end of the tuners.

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?
Has anyone tried both?

I just noticed the dimensions.

Dimensions: 22.8" x 17.7" x 25.8"

I'm not sure which dimension refers to what, but all but one of the
elements are smaller than the maximum in the same direction. They
are folded over, but I'm not sure that's good. Let's assume it's not
bad. It still leaves those elements at about 3/2 the dimension, ad
most 38", and 5 of the 6 of them are the same size. (or 7. One or
two things are reflectors)

The antennas they have been selling for 60 years have elements of
different lengths because there are channels of different wavelengths.

The better antenanas have more elements, each of a different length.

Let's assume it could be bad to have the element folded over. It
could be because the same tv signal will induce a current in one
direction in one half of the element and in the opposite direction in
the ohter half of the element. Or maybe not, but it seems that way to
me.

Ah, but it probably has an amplifier. It's much better to have a
strong signal from the antenna, than a weak signal that is amplified.
Amplifiers are recommended when there is a long distance from the
antenna to the tv. Of course maybe that used to be more true, because
the antenna would amplify the "noise" too. Now most noise is filtered
out in the process of digital detection. Maybe. I'm no techie.

That said, I'm dissatisfied with my big antenna and I'm going to buy
an amplifier on the hopesw that it will help.

The first week the antenna was in the attic, I got channel 26, and
channels 30.1 to 30.5. Teh channels 30 are even farther from me than
DC, but I hven't gotten them again except in the middle of the night.
So I do have a signal but maybe it is too weak.

On 9/2/2010 2:59 AM, mm wrote:
On Wed, 1 Sep 2010 20:05:02 -0700 (PDT),
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?
Has anyone tried both?

I just noticed the dimensions.

Dimensions: 22.8" x 17.7" x 25.8"

I'm not sure which dimension refers to what, but all but one of the
elements are smaller than the maximum in the same direction. They
are folded over, but I'm not sure that's good. Let's assume it's not
bad. It still leaves those elements at about 3/2 the dimension, ad
most 38", and 5 of the 6 of them are the same size. (or 7. One or
two things are reflectors)

The antennas they have been selling for 60 years have elements of
different lengths because there are channels o
f different wavelengths.

That's a LPDA (log periodic dipole array).

A popular choice for UHF are bow tie.

This antenna has large diameter closed loop elements which leads to a
wide frequency range.

That won't work well on VHF as the elements, particularly in the low
range are small compared with the wavelength. Ditto on the reflector
which becomes smaller than a wavelength.

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/types.html

I'd probably choose a different antenna, although if the OP know what
stations and where this may work well. Most stations are now UHF but
there are a few VHF.


The better antenanas have more elements, each of a different length.

Let's assume it could be bad to have the element folded over. It
could be because the same tv signal will induce a current in one
direction in one half of the element and in the opposite direction in
the ohter half of the element. Or maybe not, but it seems that way to
me.

Ah, but it probably has an amplifier. It's much better to have a
strong signal from the antenna, than a weak signal that is amplified.
Amplifiers are recommended when there is a long distance from the
antenna to the tv. Of course maybe that used to be more true, because
the antenna would amplify the "noise" too. Now most noise is filtered
out in the process of digital detection. Maybe. I'm no techie.


That is my take also.

Note if you take the number of elements and do a rough gain
calculation, the numbers don't add up to all antenna gain. My rough
guess is about 8 dB or so.

That said, I'm dissatisfied with my big antenna and I'm going to buy
an amplifier on the hopesw that it will help.

The first week the antenna was in the attic, I got channel 26, and
channels 30.1 to 30.5. Teh channels 30 are even farther from me than
DC, but I hven't gotten them again except in the middle of the night.
So I do have a signal but maybe it is too weak.

Might need to get it out of the attic.

Jeff
(used to hold a ham license, still remember something.... or part of
something!)

On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:56:08 -0400, Jeff Thies
wrote:


That said, I'm dissatisfied with my big antenna and I'm going to buy
an amplifier on the hopesw that it will help.

The first week the antenna was in the attic, I got channel 26, and
channels 30.1 to 30.5. Teh channels 30 are even farther from me than
DC, but I hven't gotten them again except in the middle of the night.
So I do have a signal but maybe it is too weak.

Might need to get it out of the attic.

Everyone says that, but I just don't want to do it. Plus I'm very
close to having all I can reasonably expect. There are a cou
amplifier or the

Jeff
(used to hold a ham license, still remember something.... or part of
something!)

I had a novice license for a year in 1960, but didn't have to know
much to get that. I was trying to learn what I need for a general
license, but couldn't get my code speed up anyhow, so I didn't work
much on the theory.

But about 4 years ago I got a license, general I think. No more code
requirement, and the tech stuff is mostly about antennas and safety, I
guess since few people build their own oscillators anymore.

On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:56:08 -0400, Jeff Thies
wrote:


Jeff
(used to hold a ham license, still remember something.... or part of
something!)

While we're talking about stuff like this.

Long ago when I was in high school I had a Hallicrafters reciever, 4
bands from ?? the table radio band up to shortwave.

And I was listening to the sound from one of the tv stations (even the
radio was AM and tv sound is supposed to be FM, but it matched the
sound coming from our tv on one channel) and every couple minutes I
would have to tune the radio higher. This went on for 40 minutes or
more, with me eventually tuning the radio much higher than it was, so
high I went off the end of the band.

I think there was a higher band so I started at the low end of that,
but couldn't find the same station.

What the heck was going on?

On 9/2/2010 11:51 AM, mm wrote:
On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:56:08 -0400, Jeff
wrote:


Jeff
(used to hold a ham license, still remember something.... or part of
something!)

While we're talking about stuff like this.

Long ago when I was in high school I had a Hallicrafters reciever, 4
bands from ?? the table radio band up to shortwave.

And I was listening to the sound from one of the tv stations (even the
radio was AM and tv sound is supposed to be FM, but it matched the
sound coming from our tv on one channel) and every couple minutes I
would have to tune the radio higher. This went on for 40 minutes or
more, with me eventually tuning the radio much higher than it was, so
high I went off the end of the band.

I think there was a higher band so I started at the low end of that,
but couldn't find the same station.

What the heck was going on?

Could you have been picking up the IF harmonics from the TV itself?
Did your reception go away when the TV was off?

TDD

On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:38:16 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

On 9/2/2010 11:51 AM, mm wrote:
On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:56:08 -0400, Jeff
wrote:


Jeff
(used to hold a ham license, still remember something.... or part of
something!)

While we're talking about stuff like this.

Long ago when I was in high school I had a Hallicrafters reciever, 4
bands from ?? the table radio band up to shortwave.

And I was listening to the sound from one of the tv stations (even the
radio was AM and tv sound is supposed to be FM, but it matched the
sound coming from our tv on one channel) and every couple minutes I
would have to tune the radio higher. This went on for 40 minutes or
more, with me eventually tuning the radio much higher than it was, so
high I went off the end of the band.

I think there was a higher band so I started at the low end of that,
but couldn't find the same station.

What the heck was going on?

Could you have been picking up the IF harmonics from the TV itself?

Would the IF increase in frequency like that, maybe as the tv got
warmer. But before you answer look at my next answer.

Did your reception go away when the TV was off?

I think the tv wasn't on when I started. My older brother never
watched tv and I don't think my mother or I was until the signal
sounded like a tv show and I turned the tv on.

Maybe one of our next-door neigbhors' tvs? The lots were 100 feet
wide so his tv was 100 feet away more or less. The tv was in t he
middle of the house, about 40 feet from one property line and 60 feet
from the other.

TDD

On 9/2/2010 12:51 PM, mm wrote:
On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:56:08 -0400, Jeff
wrote:


Jeff
(used to hold a ham license, still remember something.... or part of
something!)

While we're talking about stuff like this.

Long ago when I was in high school I had a Hallicrafters reciever, 4
bands from ?? the table radio band up to shortwave.

And I was listening to the sound from one of the tv stations (even the
radio was AM and tv sound is supposed to be FM, but it matched the
sound coming from our tv on one channel) and every couple minutes I
would have to tune the radio higher. This went on for 40 minutes or
more, with me eventually tuning the radio much higher than it was, so
high I went off the end of the band.

I think there was a higher band so I started at the low end of that,
but couldn't find the same station.

What the heck was going on?

I'll guess that you had to chase the tuning up the band because the
superregenerative oscillator in the Hallicrafters was drifting as the tubes
warmed up the resistors and capacitors in the circuit. I don't know enough to
even guess how you were picking up an FM audio signal on an AM receiver unless
the transmitter was broadcasting some sort of spurious subharmonic that was
amplitude modulated or unless the FM signal and the IF section of the receiver
created a beat frequency (analagous to tuning in a single side band audio signal).

On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:56:08 -0400, Jeff Thies
wrote:

On 9/2/2010 2:59 AM, mm wrote:
On Wed, 1 Sep 2010 20:05:02 -0700 (PDT),
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?
Has anyone tried both?

I just noticed the dimensions.

Dimensions: 22.8" x 17.7" x 25.8"

I'm not sure which dimension refers to what, but all but one of the
elements are smaller than the maximum in the same direction. They
are folded over, but I'm not sure that's good. Let's assume it's not
bad. It still leaves those elements at about 3/2 the dimension, ad
most 38", and 5 of the 6 of them are the same size. (or 7. One or
two things are reflectors)

The antennas they have been selling for 60 years have elements of
different lengths because there are channels o
f different wavelengths.

That's a LPDA (log periodic dipole array).

A popular choice for UHF are bow tie.

This antenna has large diameter closed loop elements which leads to a
wide frequency range.

That won't work well on VHF as the elements, particularly in the low
range are small compared with the wavelength. Ditto on the reflector
which becomes smaller than a wavelength.

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/types.html

I have to take time to read this. It looks complicated.

It is, however, the first thing I've read that at all addresses what I
asked about elsewhere, about waves received by elements that bend and
go in the oppoosite directino, about the waves cancelling each other
out.

Well, actually they refer to this in a much different context, iiuc,
but I'm please that it says anything at all. I only have a little
bit of theory and a tiny bit of practice, and when I get an idea, I'm
glad to see it's not crazy.


Nonessential reading:
Question: How does the energy collected by the directors get to the
cable?
Answer: It is re-radiated to the driven element as normal radio
waves.

Question: Why don’t the re-radiated waves go backward or laterally?
Answer: Because all the directors cancel each other in those
directions.

Question: Why don’t these re-radiated waves prevent the diffraction
of incident waves inward toward the boom?
Answer: Because the phase of the re-radiated waves has been changed
by about 90 degrees, so they neither subtract nor add to the incident
waves.

Question: How did the director currents get changed by 90 degrees?
Short answer: The element lengths control this. The director
currents are shifted -90 degrees while the reflector current is
shifted +90 degrees.

Long answer: This graph shows how the current induced in a rod is
affected by the length of the rod. The phase changes quickly with a
small change in element
.....

Ah, but it probably has an amplifier. It's much better to have a
strong signal from the antenna, than a weak signal that is amplified.
Amplifiers are recommended when there is a long distance from the
antenna to the tv. Of course maybe that used to be more true, because
the antenna would amplify the "noise" too. Now most noise is filtered
out in the process of digital detection. Maybe. I'm no techie.


That is my take also.

Note if you take the number of elements and do a rough gain
calculation, the numbers don't add up to all antenna gain. My rough
guess is about 8 dB or so.

Not sure what you mean here. Are you talking about the antenna the OP
brought up. It does have an amp after all.

If you're not talking about that, pelase explain a little.

On 9/2/2010 1:08 PM, mm wrote:
On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:56:08 -0400, Jeff
wrote:

On 9/2/2010 2:59 AM, mm wrote:
On Wed, 1 Sep 2010 20:05:02 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

snip

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/types.html

I have to take time to read this. It looks complicated.

I Googled a bit and that seemed about right. It does seem to cover a
lot for one page! I'll have to read it now myself!

It is, however, the first thing I've read that at all addresses what I
asked about elsewhere, about waves received by elements that bend and
go in the oppoosite directino, about the waves cancelling each other
out.

Well, actually they refer to this in a much different context, iiuc,
but I'm please that it says anything at all. I only have a little
bit of theory and a tiny bit of practice, and when I get an idea, I'm
glad to see it's not crazy.


Nonessential reading:
Question: How does the energy collected by the directors get to the
cable?
Answer: It is re-radiated to the driven element as normal radio
waves.

Question: Why don’t the re-radiated waves go backward or laterally?
Answer: Because all the directors cancel each other in those
directions.

Question: Why don’t these re-radiated waves prevent the diffraction
of incident waves inward toward the boom?
Answer: Because the phase of the re-radiated waves has been changed
by about 90 degrees, so they neither subtract nor add to the incident
waves.

Question: How did the director currents get changed by 90 degrees?
Short answer: The element lengths control this. The director
currents are shifted -90 degrees while the reflector current is
shifted +90 degrees.

Long answer: This graph shows how the current induced in a rod is
affected by the length of the rod. The phase changes quickly with a
small change in element


Those are some answers!
....

Ah, but it probably has an amplifier. It's much better to have a
strong signal from the antenna, than a weak signal that is amplified.
Amplifiers are recommended when there is a long distance from the
antenna to the tv. Of course maybe that used to be more true, because
the antenna would amplify the "noise" too. Now most noise is filtered
out in the process of digital detection. Maybe. I'm no techie.


That is my take also.

Note if you take the number of elements and do a rough gain
calculation, the numbers don't add up to all antenna gain. My rough
guess is about 8 dB or so.

Not sure what you mean here. Are you talking about the antenna the OP
brought up. It does have an amp after all.

Without the amp. Probably just a couple dB on VHF.

Jeff

If you're not talking about that, pelase explain a little.

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?
Has anyone tried both?

"Any Color Code - This large directional antenna can be used in any
color code specified on AntennaWeb.org "

Yeah, you can use it, but will it work? I wish they had phrased this
differently, or maybe they knew exactdly what they were doing and
phrased it just so so they couldn't be charged with lying.

I forget what the 7th color is but if this antenna will bring in
signals from that range, I'll eat my hat.

This is all they say about tmiles.

"This long range digital outdoor HD TV antenna has been known to pick
up stations that are around 150 miles away. We have had customers call
and tell us how happy they were with their antenna because they were
able to pick up stations up to 150 miles away. We have even had
customers tell us they were able to pick up US broadcasts from Canada.
So we are very confident that this antenna will work for you."

Baloney. Because of the curvature of the earth, no one can get tv from
150 miles away unles somewhere there is a transmitting antenna many
times higher than any near you. They amaybe talking about people
who live 150 miles from the CN Tower, which is the 3rd highest tower
(that is, including tall buildings) in the world, 1815 feet. Do you
live within 150 miles of Toronto? If not, forget it.

It's getting late for me, butyou can check this out.

http://www.google.com/#num=100&hl=en...7271bf8 9c8c4

mm wrote:
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?
Has anyone tried both?

"Any Color Code - This large directional antenna can be used in any
color code specified on AntennaWeb.org "

Yeah, you can use it, but will it work? I wish they had phrased this
differently, or maybe they knew exactdly what they were doing and
phrased it just so so they couldn't be charged with lying.

I forget what the 7th color is but if this antenna will bring in
signals from that range, I'll eat my hat.

This is all they say about tmiles.

"This long range digital outdoor HD TV antenna has been known to pick
up stations that are around 150 miles away. We have had customers call
and tell us how happy they were with their antenna because they were
able to pick up stations up to 150 miles away. We have even had
customers tell us they were able to pick up US broadcasts from Canada.
So we are very confident that this antenna will work for you."

Baloney. Because of the curvature of the earth, no one can get tv from
150 miles away unles somewhere there is a transmitting antenna many
times higher than any near you. They amaybe talking about people
who live 150 miles from the CN Tower, which is the 3rd highest tower
(that is, including tall buildings) in the world, 1815 feet. Do you
live within 150 miles of Toronto? If not, forget it.

It's getting late for me, butyou can check this out.

http://www.google.com/#num=100&hl=en...7271bf8 9c8c4

Getting stations from more than 150 miles away reliably and repeatedly
may be impossible, but it DOES happen. E-layer reflections, IIRC, is
what allows it. Under certain conditions, the cloud layer creates a
tunnel of sorts that can carry signal past line of sight. I used to get
it often in analog days, but have only noticed it once since the switch
to digital. And that was with one of those powered indoor antennas,
placed in a window. I'm in SW MI, two counties in from the big lake. I
was playing with the converter box, and told it to auto-search. For
about 4 hours, I was getting a station in Milwaukee WI, clear as a bell.

I also need to replace what is left of my rooftop antenna, but have been
procrastinating it for several years, since it would involve crawlspace
time replacing cable runs. So when BigLots had the powered indoor
antennas on sale for 20 bucks, I figured 'what the hell', and actually
have had surprisingly good results with it. I can't get all the stations
I want to get, but I can get the big 4 networks reliably, with a little
trial and error turning the camera tripod I have the antenna sitting on.

(No, no SWMBO lives here. Why do you ask?)

--
aem sends...

On Sep 2, 2:15*am, mm wrote:


Baloney. Because of the curvature of the earth, no one can get tv from
150 miles away unles somewhere there is a transmitting antenna many
times higher than any near you. * * They amaybe talking about people
who live 150 miles from the CN Tower, which is the 3rd highest tower
(that is, including tall buildings) in the world, 1815 feet. *Do you
live within 150 miles of Toronto? *If not, forget it.


Not necessarily true. If you live on a hilltop 300' higher than the
average terrain around you, you have greatly increased your line of
sight distance to the horizon. Therefore you could pick up stations
your friends below you could not receive. That is why these antenna
range sales pitches do not tell you what the conditions were.

On Thu, 2 Sep 2010 08:12:58 -0700 (PDT), Red
wrote:

On Sep 2, 2:15*am, mm wrote:


Baloney. Because of the curvature of the earth, no one can get tv from
150 miles away unles somewhere there is a transmitting antenna many
times higher than any near you. * * They amaybe talking about people
who live 150 miles from the CN Tower, which is the 3rd highest tower
(that is, including tall buildings) in the world, 1815 feet. *Do you
live within 150 miles of Toronto? *If not, forget it.


Not necessarily true. If you live on a hilltop 300' higher than the
average terrain around you, you have greatly increased your line of
sight distance to the horizon. Therefore you could pick up stations
your friends below you could not receive. That is why these antenna
range sales pitches do not tell you what the conditions were.

Okay. My error. But you could get the same results in this unusual
situation with any good antenna, maybe any antenna at all.

On Sep 1, 11:05*pm, 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.
*http://www.antennahub.com/highgainou...hmotorrotorax-....

Are they better then the old style?
Has anyone tried both?

IF IT IS A ROOF TOP OR EXTERIOR MODEL
YOU CAN JUST ADD AN INLINE SIGNAL BOOSTER TO YOUR EXISTING ANTENNA
THE MORE DB GAIN THE BETTER
AN ANTENNA ROTOR PLUS THE AMP WILL KICK BUT
BECAUSE YOU CAN ROTATE THE ARRAY AND HONE IN THE SIGNAL

INTERIOR RABBIT EARS WITH OUT AMPLIFICATION ARE INSUFFICIENT
THOUGH SOMEWHAT EFFECTIVE
DEPENDING ON SIGNAL STRENGTH IN YOUR AREA AND HOME

IAP

On 9/1/2010 10:05 PM, 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.
http://www.antennahub.com/highgainou...-preorder.aspx

Are they better then the old style?
Has anyone tried both?
It all depends on your situation. If that one is expensive
it probably isn't worth it. I have 2 antennas in the attic.
I have a largish yagi that pulls in the main local channels
just great. They are all in about the same direction. But
it does a poor job on channels to the side. So I made up one
with a folded dipole vhf antenna and a bowtie uhf antenna.
I mounted them in the attic with the folded dipole pointed
at the main stations and the bowtie pointed at 90 degrees,
so it could pick up the college station at Claremore. That is
about 35 miles away, and it comes in fine. I do get an
occasional drop out, which I suspect is a plane flying
through the pattern. The folded dipole pointed at the
major channels gets a good signal, but has more drop outs.
I suspect that is because the signal path is right over
a busy freeway, and trucks stick up high enough to
cause reflections. You may have some or all of these
conditions.

I have cable so I didn't really need these, but I wanted
to be able to get the signal off the air for bad times when
the cable might be down (bad weather and such). Then I
wanted the Claremore station because at the time they were
showing Classic Arts Showcase 24 hours a day on the sub
channel.

Bill

Here're my three cents - until you read a review of that antenna
where someone puts it through its paces against a better known model,
and shows that it does a good job, you should probably avoid it.

Here's a place that has been in business quite a while, and provides
good customer support. They also put up a decent amount of technical
info about most of their antennas, and have fair shipping prices. I
bought a Winegard 9095 ($69 plus ship) from them a while back, and was
able to pull in stations from Cincinnati and Columbus here in Dayton, as
well as a few from Indiana. Pretty cool pulling in twenty some
stations. That was with an amplifier, though, and a lot depends on your
tuner. I was getting about 8 fewer stations with another digital tuner.

specs:
http://www.starkelectronic.com/wca9095.htm
(averages about 15db gain up to channel 50, then down to about 12db


BTW, the Channel Master 4251 parabolic antenna is widely viewed as
the best UHF antenna ever made. They sold for between $150-$200 new,
and were discontinued in 2001. Some info:

http://www.rocketroberts.com/cm4251/cm4251.htm



I'm suspicious of the stats for the "new", 35 dB is very high. Built
in preamp?

I agree - those numbers seem so high that I'm guessing it is just
"technospeak" to reel people in, and not realistic. What you need is a
graph showing the actual dB gain at various channels. Good
manufacturers make those available, so that people can see the actual
gain and decide if an antenna is right for them.


Regarding not being able to get a TV station from 150 miles away - it
really depends. I live near Dayton, Ohio. While a few years back I had
my antenna mounted up above the roof, for the past year or so I had it
mounted off the lattice on our front porch. Yes, it was about 10' off
the ground. I was able to occasionally pull in stations 50 miles away.
One day, in the middle of the night, I was getting in a station from
Louisville, Ky. That's right about 150 miles, and it was crystal clear.
When I was a kid living near Lima, OH, my dad could use the antenna
rotor and pull in a station from Toronto a lot of nights.

On 9/1/2010 11:05 PM, 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.
http://www.antennahub.com/highgainou...-preorder.aspx

Are they better then the old style?
Has anyone tried both?


The old style antenna will work (with HD and digital) just as good today
as it did 50 years ago. Actually they seem to work much better with the
switch to digital. The ones the link points to... well they might work,
but none of the ones I tried (and returned)worked well. Now an old
fashioned type with a pre-amp out near the antenna and possibly another
amp near the TV, that will work better that that *gimmick* one at the link.

On 9/1/2010 10:05 PM, 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.
http://www.antennahub.com/highgainou...-preorder.aspx

Are they better then the old style?
Has anyone tried both?

Antennas, the 20/80% rule applies. You can get a lot of results with
not to much work when it comes to antennas. In your case a lot depends
on what channels you are going to want. UHF antennas are the ones with
the short elements. VHF is the long ones. Work backwards, find where
the signal you want to catch is coming from and the strength and then
you get the antenna that will do the job. The wiring from the antenna
to the TV is also very important and the number of splitters on the
line. Catch the signal and get it to the TV is what it's all about.
The antenna you found is actually rated quite good but it is UHF
only, I read somewhere it was made for the Australian market and now
it's imported to the US. If you go this way they are a lot cheaper on
e-bay. There must be 100 dealers selling them.
There are a lot of how to do clips on youtube. If the signal is
strong enough in your area you can make your own.
I recently dropped DISH and now use OTA and the cable modem to stream
to the TV. The towers are 70 miles from my house. I get about 30
channels OTA and watch CNBS, Bloomberg, CNN and a few others with live
streaming.
Here ya go, one of the better sites I found when I was putting up my
antenna, which is a beat up old one my neighbor gave me but it gets the
job done. Most maybe all digital TV's have a signal strength meter use
that to aim the antenna.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trk...All-Categories
and must reading for the home TV antenna enthusiast, links to tower
locations and signal strength from them.
http://tvfool.com/