Updated TV Antenna Thoughts

[cqaigy2]

Actually, a high percentage of markets have at least one VHF-High channel (7-13). The move to more UHF stations had a lot to do with the economics of having to broadcast both analog and digital signals during the transition period.

Now we have a new fun and games period developing in the next couple of years. The FCC just completed the mandated spectrum auction this last March. The current UHF channel assignments go up to and including channel 51. The newly implemented channel allotment will only go up to channel 36. Therefore, 60+ percentage of the stations will be changing channels again. Some will be going off the air for good. Many more stations will be moving into the VHF-High channel allotments. This will take places in stages over the next couple of years. UHF only antennas will not cut the mustard in many areas by the year 2020.

I didn't know that, thanks for the information. I hope the channels i watch, don't go off the air.

 

[ultrarunner]

Never lived in a home with cable or sat...

What we do have is plain old rabbit ears on two sets... get about 50 stations and half of those are in English.

For the Hospital I have an old $20 Radio Shack Antenna and no one is the wiser. save about 30k in Comcast Fees based on the quote I got back in 1995

 

[cqaigy2]

Never lived in a home with cable or sat...

What we do have is plain old rabbit ears on two sets... get about 50 stations and half of those are in English.

For the Hospital I have an old $20 Radio Shack Antenna and no one is the wiser. save about 30k in Comcast Fees based on the quote I got back in 1995

:thumbsup:

 

[California]

What we do have is plain old rabbit ears on two sets... get about 50 stations and half of those are in English.

From 50 miles north of the Golden Gate I can see a few of those 50. But not even the second-tier ones. Few are in English. Spanish of course, Korean, and several more asian and eastern european languages I haven't bothered to identify.

Aside from the news from home on all the specialized ethnic channels it's all Jimmy Swaggart re-runs, home shopping in at least 4 different languages, telenovellas. Even the local state college-based PBS is endless cooking and occasionally outdated travel shows since they don't have the budget for contemporary PBS programming. The couple of locally owned channels recently went to all-Spanish format and not Univision quality with fun stuff like Sabado Gigante, just housewife drama, home shopping, old dubbed Westerns. A real 'vast wasteland'.

This is why I want to restore the reception I had before the digital changeover. I had a reasonable number of channels out of the bay area and also off the Walnut Grove tower (Stockton etc) if I rotated the antenna.

 

[ultrarunner]

With rabbit ears we get the 2's, 4's, 5's, 7's, 9's, 11's, 20's, and two other UHF... plus a ton more I never look at... not bad for the old Zenith CRT boxes

We did loose Monteray which was a great station because it avoided the local blackout from the Oakland Stadium for Raiders and A's...

The stars must have aligned perfectly for Monteray to come in crystal clear.

 

[ruffdog]

Do these new antennas work any better than the old ones like my 16' Winegard on a tower?

 

[California]

Advice for a deep fringe preamp?

 

[Oldpath05]

I have the Channel Master 7777 preamp for 3 years and when the temp gets down in the teens I loose channels, thinking of trying a different brand.

 

[Brad_Blazer]

I have been using a PCT MA2-4P amplifier for about 3 years with good results. $35 on Amazon.

 

[cqaigy2]

Don't skimp on the coax and connectors either, that can attenuate your signal and possibly add noise especially on the input of your signal amplifier.