Thread Number: 79319
/ Tag: Other Home Products or Autos
TV antennas |
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Post# 1032465 , Reply# 1   5/12/2019 at 12:13 (1,808 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine)   |   | |
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Post# 1032466 , Reply# 2   5/12/2019 at 12:50 (1,808 days old) by RP2813 (Sannazay)   |   | |
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When we had some roofing work done at our previous house, I had the early '70s Radio Shack antenna taken down. I sawed off the front section of it that included the UHF portion and placed it in the attic. Reception was greatly improved compared to the set of rabbit ears I was using with a bowtie UHF antenna attached to it. Channels didn't go blank anymore when fog engulfed the transmitter tower 45 miles north in San Francisco, and I didn't have to get up and adjust all the time. I got more stations, and like Bud, I deleted the Asian and religious ones to make surfing easier.
In our current house, only my 1950 Admiral isn't connected to cable. Using the rabbit ears/bowtie rig, I get only a few stations because the set is on the ground floor. It's not worth it to me to buy an old school antenna and put it in the attic. The Admiral is a novelty item and isn't used for serious TV viewing.
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Post# 1032500 , Reply# 4   5/13/2019 at 00:58 (1,808 days old) by kb0nes (Burnsville, MN)   |   | |
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Indeed the form of modulation has NOTHING to do with the antenna. RF is RF all that matters is the frequency... If the antenna is touting that it is a "Digital" antenna to me that is a red flag.
Now back in 2007 when the transition hit, all the stations had to move into UHF frequency channels. This created issues for many as lots of areas didn't have UHF stations prior to that so the users didn't have UHF antennas. About 5 or so years after the DTV transition the FCC allowed some of the old VHF high band users to tack back their original channel frequencies with the new digital signal. So indeed if you had an old antenna that was VHF/UHF it will likely serve you just fine. The old antennas are much larger then the new VHF/UHF models as they had to cover down to 50Mhz (ch 2) which makes the longest elements on the antenna nearly 10 feet long overall. Since they aren't using any of the lower VHF channels now the modern antennas are much smaller. The website www.tvfool.com... is a GREAT resource where you can enter your address and it will generate a list of all your local stations. The list will tell what real and virtual channel they are on as well as predicted signal strength and heading. A great resource for those looking to optimize reception |