Outdoor Tv antennas

[Duane Bozarth]

....

I like the original rotor solution... :)

Your location wrt TV stations is almost identical to ours although our three (the three networks) are all in roughly the N to NW quadrant as opposed to the full compass directions as they could have been. There are no repeaters in the TX panhandle to the south within 150 mi so there's no chance in that direction.

We manage to get the two closest pretty routinely w/ one setting. The third is the farthest distance and also in the most NE'rly direction.

Biggest issue I see w/ the setup as Dad left it (using RS parts as that's the only source in town other than the even worse WallyWorld stuff) is that the sorry RS coax cable is porous enough that it gets saturated w/ water and occasionally shorts out the signal. I've replaced it once w/ what was supposed to be better, but it has developed same problem in only a couple of years.

I agree on the amplifier....the only thing that does is amplify the noise as well as the signal because it's too far down the channel so unless it's essentially a usable signal to begin with, you don't improve signal quality.

[James]

People claiming that there will be a "true" "digital only" tv antenna is ludicrous.

Present day tv antennas will pick up tv signals for the next 100 years.

[George]

Why not? HD uses the same channel assignments as are currently used with the current NTSC system. The only difference is that some of the higher UHF channels were not assigned to HD and will be reassigned to other services when NTSC is turned off.

[Chuck B.]

Bite the bullet and call Directv. $50 a month and you get all the channels. No charge to install the whole thing.

[maradcliff]

Yeah, more useless technology just to make people spend more money and have to keep replacing things. Just like computers, they are obsolete when you buy them. As I age, the less I care about all this nonsense. As long as my 8 year old computer gets on the net, and my tv gets a picture, who gives a rats ass about all this high tech (high priced) junk. I have seen HDTV. It does look nice, but it's still the same old poor programming now on tv. Like I really care to see infomercials in HD. Maybe they should be working on better programming instead of digital crap.

I guess the older we get, the more we learn to just appreciate things the way they are, and get real tired of being forced to spend money. I got lots of vhs tapes, but now I am supposed to get dvd. Either one plays a movie and the advantage to dvd is really not all that noticable. Seems all this technology is made for the kids these days, since they seem to have the money to buy all that crap. Like IPODs. Why do people need those things? Radios cost less than $10 and can play the same songs, and even have speakers. I can not stand having earphones hanging on me.

As far as changing the broadcasting of tv, I think us old timers need to start telling these people to shove their HD, especially those of us in rural areas. Yep, I'm getting ornary. tends to be part of aging while manufacturers keep trying to spend our money, while our fixed incomes never increase. After all, it's a frikkin tv set, not a necessity of life. If I got all that money to waste, I'll spend it on a new tractor before a damn tv that is still mostly advertising.

Mark

[maradcliff]

Trees do not completly block signals, but can interfere. Cant you move the antenna tower to avoid the trees?

I have wanted to place my antanna on top of my 90 foot, (unused) concrete silo, and that would get me excellent reception. Except there is no way I am going up there.... I get the jitters everytime I got to replace the bulb on my yard light pole and thats only 25 to 30 ft.

[Roy Starrin]

How much to chop down the same trees that interfere with outdoor antenna?

[David Martel]

Ransley,

The Radio Shack antennae work OK. Don't pay full price, wait for a sale. There are various sites on the web which will help you choose the right antenna for your location. Unfortunately the sales people at RS will not be competent to assist you in your choice. Get a cheap signal splitter and you can get good FM radio reception off of your TVantenna. When you mount the antenna leave at least 6 ft of slack in the cable and see how the reception is. Then get a rotator if you need one (that's why you left the slack). I installed a rotator recently and it did a great job of improving radio and TV reception.

Good luck, Dave M.

[Tom Quackenbush]

My map puts him about 10 miles inland, if we're talking due east.

R, Tom Q.

[Art]

I've always heard that twin lead wire starts off good but ages poorly from sun,etc.

[Anonymous]

If you read the url's in my prior post you will get all the data you need such as why twinlead has problems, the extra signal signal loss from rg59, why rg11 has the least signal loss. Preamps (mast or antenna mount) are to overcome the signal loss in your coax from antenna to tv. Look for the least distortion and best s/n you can get. Anything over 2.5 is to much. signal strength decreases the base noise floor increases so you get more noise with longer cable runs without the preamp. If your cable was only 20 feet you would get a better picture without preamnp. But every 18 feet you take a significant signal strength loss. Also the higher the frequency the quicker the loss.

Spend the hour or two reading the data at the urls and get scientific fact and not openions.

My experience with antennas is from being a ham radio operater for the last 40 years and building my own. there are ARRL manuals that cover the simplest long wire antenna's to moon bounce installations At your current stage only the basic novice publications would be of use to you. Stan

[ek]

Hi Duane,

A good, and I repeat "GOOD" low-noice, very low temperature pre-amplifer will drop down to freq range of the useable signal and only amplify the signal and not the noice. Unless ofcourse you go to Radio Shack and end up with very inferior quality. Please look into getting a Winegard See:

is the factory link and they show many regional distributors.

I have to bring in the signal for many hotels and motor inns that are alot more distant to the signal tx source than you refer to in Texas. Winegard will get the job done. Stay away from tandy/Radio Shack and you will be very happy indeed..

Good Luck,

Ern

[ek]

Go check with the FCC's site. over the air antennae will only get better and expand. How do you think that Direct TV and Dish Network get the local channels. They pick them up over the air and re transmit them to the sat birds that they use and then down link to the home dish user. Amendments to the US constitution protect us indefinitely to have the right to receive broadcast signals.There are millions of us that would be the first to go to Wash, DC and pull the plug on C-Span I or II if anyone ever tries to deny the US Citizens of free ota tv.

TV going away: "Total BS and hogwash"

Ernie,

The more people that I meet the more that I love my Golden Retrievers. ........

[JimR]

Actually, I think there's a gene that kicks in at a certain age, which most people don't recognize in themself. I've heard it called the COG gene, for Crabby Old Geezer. You just have to be aware of it once it starts up, since it pretty much discredits anything that's said or written after that time --

[ek]

I am sending a test post. the past few days I have posted to some of the questions here and my posts have not appeared. If moderated, how do I joing or become approved, etc? Thanks, Ernie,

[Art]

It is not moderated. There seems to have been a newsgroup problem a couple of days ago and some posts weren't showing up. Also, there is a bug in Outlook and on random days you cannot see your own posts. No one has figured out why as far as I know. Go to

and check out the group page and visit this group there and see if you can see your posts.

[MC]

Best to use a pre-amplifier that is mounted as close to the antenna terminals as possible, one that uses an in line power supply that would be mounted indoors. These will amplify the signal before it picks up much noise induced in the transmission line.

Amplifiers that are mounted down the line somewhere are generally used to boost signal for distributing to multiple locations since each time you split a single you atenuate the signal some.