| Author | Message | ||
     Woody1911a1 |
hey guys , we've got a family camp up in Maine where we have cable , but it gets shut off from nov - march , because of financial reasons . we're not that far (50 miles) from Portland and N.Conway in either direction . what do i need to know to buy ? yes i realize this will be on a pole on chimney or side of house and will cost several hundred dollars . just need to know what type to look for . thanx , Woody | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
If you have a modern flat TV, then all you need is an old fashioned TV antenna. IGNORE any antenna that says "HD" The signal is still the same. It is now interpreted as digital though. For the olympics last time around, my wife and I went to best buy and got a $11 rabbit ears set. Got the olympics in HD. Friggin' awesome. You may want to get the original yaggy-uda TV antenna(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yagi-Uda_antenna) as that is more directional and you can aim it at whatever city you want. Remember that height is your friend because VHF and UHF are line of sight. | ||
| Bandm |
http://www.antennaweb.org/Address.aspx | ||
| Woody1911a1 |
thanx , yea it's depressing . i mostly watch discovery and history Chanel . | ||
| Sifo |
We had a TV in the break room where I used to work with an antenna in the room. Initially they had just rabbit ears, and they do work, but reception was pretty bad. When they go an HD antenna (that also plugs into a power source) reception was fantastic. It's clear to me that the antenna does matter, but if simple rabbit ears, or an old standard antenna work well enough, then don't spend the cash. A digital signal is unwatchable without good reception BTW. It doesn't degrade the picture or sound, it just drops out and freezes the picture until it gets more usable data. | ||
| Hughlysses |
I'm sort of in the same situation with my parent's house which I inherited a few years ago. It's roughly 50 miles from a whole array of TV stations. I built my own; there are plans all over the internet. Mine is similar to this one, except it doesn't have the "reflector screens": http://www.tvantennaplans.com/ <$10 worth of materials and about an hour to build. Works great. One good thing about HDTV is at least where I am, the local TV stations now each have 2 or 3 "sub" stations. For example, besides 2, 4, and 5 there are 2.1, 2.2, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3. We used to get 4 or 5 stations; now there are something over 20. There are a lot of duplicate networks, but there is actually some entertaining programming. There are couple of networks that show nothing but old TV series from the 60's and 70's; it's interesting to see stuff I haven't watched since I was a kid. | ||
| Patches |
Winegard Roadstar 3000 Omnidirectional Antenna FREE local standard and HDTV programming from ABC, NBC, CBS plus many additional sub-channels with 24 hour news, weather, music, kids programming, movies and more newly redesigned RoadStar compact antenna delivers powerful performance and can receive all VHF/UHF/FM frequencies. Installation is a breeze with the new pedestal mount. Package includes on/off power supply, 30’ 75 ohm coaxial cable, mounting bracket and hardware. Power supply operates on +12 volt DC and includes +12 VDC receptacle, 2-way splitter for second TV and optional cable input. Optimal range 0 - 35 miles. Proudly Designed and Made in the U.S.A. http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/tv-antennas/win egard-roadstar-omni.htm | ||
| Xdigitalx |
try a paperclip.... it works depending on how close you are to broadcasts. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Somewhere online you should be able to find a map of your area with an overlay of tv transmitter footprints. The nearest may not be the best due to differing transmitter power & local topography. | ||
| S21125r |
The bow tie antenna that Hughlysses referred to works great. I built one without the reflector and propped it up on the curtain rod in my great room and could pick up channels in Detroit, Lansing and Saginaw without moving the antenna. Another interesting one to look up is the Gray-Hoverman antenna - it too is a vertical antenna that can be built with scrap wire and a 2 dollar ballast. A few years back I tinkered with an antenna design program called 4NEC I think - you would lay out the antenna graphically and then assign variable for wisker length, angles, spacing, etc. Plug in the frequency you want to tune for and it would optimize the variables to get you the best signal strength. | ||
| Hughlysses |
I'm pretty sure there's a website that'll tell you distance and direction to all viable TV stations in your area (it's been a while since I went through this). IIRC, you determine the latitude and longitude for your location (easy to figure through google maps or similar) and plug it in. |
