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OT TV Antenna

J

John T

Well-known Member
I should know this but Im more into electricity then electronics and theres a bunch of good sparkies here who can answer this. RF and Antenna theory and Maxwells Equations (gee that dude was smart) n all that "stuff" was never my best subject, I think I was sick the day it was taught back in the late sixties at Purdue.........


Since they now transmit VHF TV in a Digital Format, will one of my old (the kind we had since I was a kid on rooftops all over the USA) analog outdoor TV antennas still receive a good VHF signal or do I need some sort of fancy schmancy "Digital" Antenna??? I have the digital to analog converter box and it works fine just wondered if the old style antennas still receive good VHF??

Ol John T and all
 
Your old antenna will work just fine, still using mine and pull in as many channels as the neighbor who bought the $100 electronic one that looks like a flying saucer.
 
Yes, an antenna works the same, analog or digital signal. But, it must have low-band VHF for VHF up to channels 6. Must have high-band VHF for channels 7 to 13. Must have UHF for channels 14 to 51.

The problem had been this. In many areas, channels that had been on VHF, changed over to UHF to go digital. Also, many local TV stations began to borrow transmitter towers further away.

So, in your case, you need to determine #1 if your antenna can receive UHF bands, and #2 what is now available in your area, and on what band.

Simple check is just go to TVFool.com and punch in your address or GPS coordinates. It will give you a free report of exactly what is in your area, and at what signal strength.

Anything with a positive noise-margin number will be good without much trouble. If you have a good antenna and preamp (LNA), you can get digital and analog from up to 140 miles away with a negative 30 noise-margin number.

I'm in a very rural area and only got one VHF channel for 30 years. Now I get over two dozen, many with HD TV.
 
If you have a good picture sit back and ejoy your show. You be the judge. If your happy with the picture no need to spend any money.
For the little I watch tv any picture is a good picture.
 
My mom is still using the same antenna I rebuilt years ago. At the time it was the biggest one you could buy then it broke right where it mounted to the pole so I took and added some real steel to it and she has been using it for 10 plus years and it works just fine with her converter box
 
John,

In our area all the digital stations are broadcasting at UHF frequencies. We put up a directional UHF antenna on the roof with an old fashion antenna rotator and we can easily pick up stations 80 - 100 miles away.

The quality is better than digital cable or satellite because the signal over the air is not compressed. Bad storms or the wind shaking the antenna will cause video/audio breakup however.

Kurt
digital TV antenna info
 
Ditto on all that's been said.
I will save you the trouble of an internet search if you decide you want a new antenna, amplifier or pre-amp. The best prices I found for top 3 brands, Weingard, Channel Master and DirectAntenna is at
solidsignal.com. Nice people to talk to and fast and reasonable shipping.
A local retailer did not believe me on the price of a preamp and he checked solidsignal and they were selling it retail for less than he could buy from his vender.
Dell
 
I have an antenna in my attic. Used it before the satelite provider had local stations and I still use it. I found that I picked up stations after the switch to digital that I could not get before. So your old antenna should be fine.
 
You have to check your area as lots of stations went UHF old antenneas usually ddidnt pic up UHF very well. All depends what programing you wish to get.
 
A broadband antenna, such as a typical TV antenna, doesn't care what the modulation on the signal is. A single channel VHF antenna may or may not have enough bandwidth for the wider digital signal. Just make sure whatever antenna you use has enough gain at either VHF or UHF (as applicable) to give you a good signal to noise ratio.

Some of the old bowtie antennas don't have much gain. A log periodic would be better.

Keith
 
That place is just about useless. Their reception estimates are way off. TVFool.com is much more accurate.
 
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