antennas

[granny64]

My friend had an antenna ,which doesn't work now that they changed things with the HDTV. He did buy a new HD television set. What kind of antenna does she need to get all of the channels she no longer gets? That's all the info I have from her. Thanks

[Bearfootfarm]

Check out "antennaweb.org"

It could be location rather than the antenna itself, since nothing has really changed as far as they are concerned

[WisJim]

Some of the channels are now on different frequencies, so that what used to need a VHF antenna may now need a UHF antenna, for example. I have heard of problems with cables from the antenna to the converter, also, either bad connections or damaged cables, that worked with the old system, but didn't work well enough to transmit the didital signal. And I hear that the antenna needs to be aimed better for digital signals than may have been required for the analog signals. With the old analog system, a bad signal might mean snow or some distortion in the picture, but with the new digital signal it is more of "all or nothing", you either get a good picture or none at all.

[WayneR]

Granny,
DTV signals are in a small portion of the UHF band. They are primarilly "line of sight" and can be blocked by interveining obstacles like hills,trees and buildings.

She may no longer be able to receive all of the former stations. Moving the antenna may help. A few feet one way or the other. Higher or lower. Some converter boxes have a signal strength feature to help the viewer acheive the best signal. One of these converters and a portable TV out in the yard to look for a 'sweet spot' with a movable antenna. Programme the converter box with known signals first.

Although it may be futile, a call to the 'missing' station may encourage them to help resolve the problem. They want viewers and need the advertising revenue.

[rzrubek]

Everybody needs to check out this

video

. I have built this antenna and it works great. I used 12 awg copper wire for mine, only because we didn't have any wire coat hangers. We have the magnavox DTV converters that have the signal strength meters and the one with my homemade antenna gets about 70% signal where the box with the store bought rabbit ears gets about 40%. That 30% difference is all the world with digital signals. The antenna can also be made larger and therefore more powerful just by making it bigger. Just be sure to add to it equally in each direction.

[rambler]

Originally Posted by granny64

My friend had an antenna ,which doesn't work now that they changed things with the HDTV. He did buy a new HD television set. What kind of antenna does she need to get all of the channels she no longer gets? That's all the info I have from her. Thanks

Stations are in a state of change, swapping between different 'actual' channels they are broadcasting on - even tho the TV tuner says thewy are still on the old channel. As well they are often broadcasting at 1/2 power at this time, and will boost up to full power when 'the change' happens.

Channels from 2-6 will likely all move up from those VHF channels to UHF channels.

(VHF uses the long thin rods of the anteanna. UHF uses the many very short, or grid, or circle, part of an atennea. VHF is ch 2-13, which will be 7-13 now, and UHF is ch 14 or above. There will only be a handfull of lowpower stations allowed to us 2-6 any more.)

Many 7-13 stations have temporarily moved up to UHF channels, but will return to thier old 7-13 broadcast whenever 'the change' happens.

Digtial signals are _much_ more fussy about the antennea being aimed exactly at the tower you are trying to pick up. The old analog signals could come in on the side of your antennea, or off by 15 degrees without much fuss.

This puts us all in a state of 'who knows' what we will recieve for stations.

If you live within 50 miles of a tower you should be able to get that signal.

If you are 70-90 miles away, weather will affect it, and it will take a tall large antennea probably with a booster to attempt to get it.

Old analog & new digital signals use _THE SAME_ antenneas - however if you have a VHF antennea you might not get the UHF signals that many stations have permanently or temporarily moved to.

Typically you need a better antennea to get the same signals, because they are compressing the signal and broadcasting at lower power with DTV.

So, you need to know what antenea she has, what TV channels she is trying to get, where they used to broadcast, where they broadcast now, how well her antennea is aimed, and so on, to make what used to work work again with the new system. Did she even use the feature of her new TV/Box to scan for channels, you can't just type in the number, the computer in the box needs to go look for them....

There are maps, calculators, and lots of info on the web site mentioned by another. But like any govt thing, it isn't really explained very well, just bits & pieces without a good overview.

--->Paul

[GrannyG]

Our old analog TV antenna is giving us more channels than the new DVD antenna, so we are just using the old one....We wasted $100 on that stupid antenna !!!!!!

[Gary in ohio]

Your previous antenna will work fine on HD. The problem with most "OLD" TV antennas is they generally need replaced along with the coax cable leading into them. Dont worry about being HD or non HD antenna. put up a tv antenna and have fun. You do need to make sure the new HD tv has a digital tuner in it.

[Wis Bang]

tvfool.com lets you put in your address -or- GPS coordinates and see pre/post change what stations you can get and where they are.

VHF antennas can receive some UHF and vice versa, a few antenna sites recomend a UHF antenna if you have a mix of upper VHF [7-13] and UHF stations available.

I have a VHF at the cabin. I tried the homade coathanger UHF and get no signal w/ the converter box but it does get 10 from Phila over 70m miles away. Our VHF antenna gets 3 - 6 - 10 and the current reception is fuzzy, better and OK in the same order.

Swiching to a UHF antenna I can get 5 - 6 stations from Scranton - Wilkes Barre only around 35 miles away. I just need more gain than the coathanger version...