TV Antennas?

madmax12 · Aug 16, 2012

Zebrafive said:
We also had our antenna in the attic. When we had a steel roof installed it killed our TV reception.

That is a helpful post!

We've been considering a metal roof. Sounds like that would kill free tv, with an indoor antenna. So, if we want metal roof, we need outdoor antenna...

Thanks for posting.

bigdad · Aug 17, 2012

50 to 60 miles is really pushing that signal. Gonna take a very tall pole. Is your property on a high point? Line of sight is important.

PapaPerk said:
Hello, Planning to convert over from cable to free TV. Would like to pick up stations that are located 50 to 60 miles away.

Any advice on antennas and or amplifiers? Or general input on the subject?

Thanks guys! :thumbsup:

dex3361 · Aug 17, 2012

I am in WV and my house is down in a valley. The ridge is about 800 feet higher than the house. i am using a Winegaurd antennae and with a rotor and a booster. All the channels I receive are about 30 miles away. I rarely adjust the rotor as all of the transmission towers are in nearly the same direction. The rotor was used before the analog to digital changeover.

mjncad · Aug 18, 2012

How I would love to tell Comcrap to pound sand concerning their TV service; but I have yet to figure out a way to get cable channels over the internet reliably and most important...easily. I won't mess with satellite TV.

toy · Aug 18, 2012

madmax12 said:
That is a helpful post!

We've been considering a metal roof. Sounds like that would kill free tv, with an indoor antenna. So, if we want metal roof, we need outdoor antenna...

Thanks for posting.

When television was first being sold in our area [back in the 1950's] there was no cable service and some people bought antennas but some used other things as antennas but either way you couldn't get but one channel and by today's standards it was so snowy that you could barely watch it and the signal would fade in and out. One thing that we tried was a bicycle rim, and it worked just as good as the antenna that was bought at the stores. I mentioned the fact that we used other things as antennas to pose an idea do you think that maybe you could hook up your tv cable to the metal roof and be able to pick up anything. We used to use insulators on the wire to hang it up but I don't remember if that was absolutely necessary.

mvwicker · Aug 18, 2012

NormL said:
Maybe a bit off the thread topic, but what about us old-timers and our analog TV's. Is there an inexpensive (cheap) solution whereby an old but perfectly useable telly can be made useful again?

Here's my solution: a DTV converter with built-in recording to hard disk or writable DVD:

Magnavox 160GB HDD & DVD Recorder with Digital Tuner: TV & Video : Walmart.com

I think there's a newer model with a 500GB disk out by now. Both work like a manual version of TiVo, namely you can record, pause, and replay real-time TV, but you have to input recording times yourself as the device has no way of reading the channel listings.

madmax12 · Aug 18, 2012

toy said:
When television was first being sold in our area [back in the 1950's] there was no cable service and some people bought antennas but some used other things as antennas but either way you couldn't get but one channel and by today's standards it was so snowy that you could barely watch it and the signal would fade in and out. One thing that we tried was a bicycle rim, and it worked just as good as the antenna that was bought at the stores. I mentioned the fact that we used other things as antennas to pose an idea do you think that maybe you could hook up your tv cable to the metal roof and be able to pick up anything. We used to use insulators on the wire to hang it up but I don't remember if that was absolutely necessary.

Interesting idea. I do not have a metal roof as of now, but maybe the poster who mentioned that problem could try that idea... That would be cool to turn the whole roof into a giant antenna.

savageactor7 · Aug 18, 2012

but I have yet to figure out a way to get cable channels over the internet

With a Roku streaming player you can use the TV set to channel everything you get over your computer. Forget about antenna TV and check it out.

Roku Streaming Players | Roku 2 HD Player, Roku 2 XD Player and Roku 2 XS Player

Now you really do control the horizontal and vertical.

The kid · Aug 18, 2012

PapaPerk said:
Hello, Planning to convert over from cable to free TV. Would like to pick up stations that are located 50 to 60 miles away.

Any advice on antennas and or amplifiers? Or general input on the subject?

Thanks guys! :thumbsup:

You will need a high gain parabolic UHF antenna mounted above roof level on a motorized rotor to be effective. This will give maximum coverage and included channels your didn't know you could get. I live 35 miles from Nashville and had Directv till I canned them. I used just some rabbit ears to pickup local weather during stormy conditions when my dish was having rain fade and loosing signal. With rabbit ear I was only able to pickup the strongest station, not all. The antenna I'm speaking of is not that expensive but adding mast and rotor, cable it could add up. One time fee though stations transmitting in HD will actually look better than cable. Don't forget to ground the mast and cable. See subject installing outdoor TV antenna on google. digital TV transmits in the UHF band.

The kid · Aug 18, 2012

Soundguy said:
you could build a tuned dipole or yaggie ( ok.. folded dipole ... 1/4 or 1/2 wave..etc )

Same as rabbit ears.

I have made miniature quad beams in horizontal polarization for TV and it worked amazing.

TV Antennas?

madmax12

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bigdad

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dex3361

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mjncad

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toy

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The kid

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