tv antennas - need help

I want to set up an antenna with new a tv. I am very confused. Has anyone here ever done this? I understand that the tv needs something called ASTM. Apparently this converts the digital signal somehow? I would appreciate it it someone could could tell me what kind of antenna I need, and if I am correct about the ASTM.

 

Ya, newer TVs already have the digital decoder built-in if that's what the OP meant and a separate box is not needed anymore, only for older TVs when the US went totally digital, actually PBS and the other major channels were running PSA ads for six months or more IIRC, were always talking about that before the change whenever it was. Damn good picture from Vermont/NY, way better than the analog quality. I'm like 150 miles away.

 

Thanks guys. That confirms what I thought. Getting a new tv anyway, so that takes care of the box situation. Now I am looking for an antenna powerful enoug to pull in stations from far away (rural location).

 

You need to plug in your location info at http://www.tvfool.com and it will tell you the best antenna. BTW, it is ATSC, not ASTM.

 

When looking at antennas there's a few key things to keep in mind.

-The longer range you get the more narrow the reception field be. A 10 mile range antenna will be pretty much 360 degrees. A 120 mile range antenna may only have a 5 or 10 degree width.
-If you're looking at a VHF/UHF antenna and it only states one mileage range that's for VHF, and the UHF part of it will be a little over half of the VHF range (general rule of thumb).
-If you're certain that you just need UHF then by all means, buy a UHF only antenna. If your VHF signal is pretty strong (very local) then a UHF only antenna may still work.
-Those indoor only powered antennas aren't worth buying. They can claim whatever they want, it's in a house that blocks signal with the walls and wiring. Unless you almost already have a signal they just won't show you that much improvement.
-If you're thinking about an amplifier keep in mind that an amp isn't intended to boost the signal for better reception (amplifying crap signal gives you amplified crap), but rather it's intended for boosting the signal to get from the antenna through your cable, splitters, splices, etc... If you have 25 feet of cable then split 3 or 4 times a decent amp will help. The best kind are the ones that sit just bellow your antenna (least amount of signal loss) like http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3364949 usually called a pre-amp, and as TimW eludes too a "Digital" antenna is just an analog antenna with a sticker on the box and likely a higher price tag.

Too much great info can be found at http://www.hdtvprimer.com/

 

Ya cabbiinc and unless all the stations are in generally the same area then a rotor is necessary if it's a rooftop installation.

 

If you're in the US, the following interactive map may help:

http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps/

This will help you locate the distance and direction of the stations you want to receive which - in turn - will make it easier to choose the right antenna.

I worked at Fry's when the analog to digital conversion thing was going on a few years ago. Based on training and customer feedback, here are a few things to consider:

* A directional antenna is only a good bet if you're trying to pick up rural reception from a single TV market (where all the transmitting towers are in the same direction from your home). If you are trying to get signals from more than one city (Example: you live halfway between Houston and San Antonio), get an omnidirectional antenna. Rotors are a pain in the a$$ to adjust and a small fortune to repair/replace every few years.

* With all due respect to cabbiinc, there are some cases where amplified indoor antennas are a good choice. If the indoor antenna is rated as powerful enough to receive the stations you want, mount it high up in the attic. This is usually easier than mounting an external antenna, plus:

• No ugly antenna on the outside.
• Less prone to damage from wind, snow or ice.

​

* Low power TV stations (such as many religious, foreign language and independent stations with higher channel numbers) require a more powerful antenna than full power network affiliates. If in doubt, buy the longest range antenna your budget can stand.

Hope these tips help.

 

Greetings Forum and...

Hi to "TM711" you must be very :confused

I just went through this same thing & all I have to say now, that I completed it all is :clap ,
It is way, way :cool
and we are just :dancer on cloud 9!

We were absolutely fed up with the local cable company, and we did not want to pay Big $$$ thru the nose for any of the satellite companies. So, I decided to put up an antenna!
Wow, what I did not know!!!
But once I went to the appropriate "Forum" help sites (like MG's) and the ones more intended for TV assistance (like what was mentioned earlier by cabbiinc) also check out http://www.hdtvmagazine.com,
man... did I start to learn things.

I live about 40 miles from Portland OR, and almost the same distance from Salem, the other major tv tower farm (I learned that is what they call the area where all of the tv stations have their towers from which they transmit), So I put up two individual antenna's and directionally pointed them towards Portland:

• One for the UHF Channels

• one for the VHF Channels.

There is a compass degree point for those towers, which is a "Numerical Factor/Value", provided by the TVFools free report. I then used a free app on my iPhone called, "Compass" which provided me the direction in which I needed to point my antennas from my location, my case was 312 degrees. For Optimum clarity and strongest reception.

What you need to do first is find out which channels are important to you or which ones do you really want to watch. You can attempt to get all of what is available to you, if you so desire, but then you may need to get "all of the goodies". To get the best reception/strength possible. Personally, I chose the latter. But if you only want just a few channels... then figure out if they are VHF or UHF! http://www.tvfools.com gives you this...and more!

Then get the appropriate antenna or antennas. I found out thru much info searching, that for my preference & application, two seperate antennas gave the best result.

I also went with a Channel Master Pre-Amp CM7777. ChannelMaster & Wineguard are the mfg'rs I went with for the antenna's. Look around, but Amazon.com provided me the best rates with free S&H. I naturally, like most people, have multiple tvs in multiple rooms, so ... splitters were required, longer cable runs, etc. The amplifiers do just what they are called, amplify. But they are most needed for recovering what you lose in signal strength. Each TV channel needs an x amount of frequency power to provide you a viewable picture. When you add increments of cable length (every 10' I think), you lose some of this power, a splitter loses more, connectors, couplers, more loss. Etc. etc. The amp will bring this back!

I agree with the earlier suggestion, get the biggest & longest range antenna your budget will allow. It still is relatively inexpensive to go this route. I used a 10' pole/mast with a Tri-pod to place over a gable of my roof & then stabilized/secured the mast with 3 "guy wires" easily attached with screw in Eye adaptors to my roof. It has now been a little over a year, and have now been thru heavy winds, snow & ice & lots of rain, and we only had to suffer very little/minor, bad reception for a very short time. But... we truly enjoy FREE HD on over 28 different channels.
mix it up with the free tv internet viewing from a laptop connected to to an "INPUT" on the tv, also our BlueRay player provides us with Netflix & Hulu, and we have all the tv viewing, with very minimal $$$ output.

My suggestion: do your due diligence

Learn all you can..., gather/glean the info you need from the appropriate forums, they are truly helpful. Write down what you want vs. what you need (per your family viewing habits), what is your budget, and finally - what can you live with to constantly visually see? Meaning, are you going to be fine with having an antenna or two, on your rooftop? Neighbors, visual aesthetics?

Good Luck, & happy viewing once you decide & complete

medic

 

many thanks to all you guys who repsonded. I used advise from every one of you. couldn't have done it without ya! So here's where we are, got a 32 new tv, and used the cable from the (now defunct) dish installation, and hooked up the tv to - get this _rabbit ears_ Now have rabbit ears on the car porch roof and get 8 station~! This was just to try out the tv..........will get a real antenna soon. my advice is study, study, study, and learn that most of the sites tell ya is hype to get you buy a mega-antenna/amp set up. thanks again !!!!!!!!!!!

 

I actually build many of my own antennas specific to my applications. I heartily recommend looking at the channels and bearings on www.tvfool.com. You may find 20 or 30 stations at better than -60dBµV can be picked up with a little creativity.

The strongest signals here are in the high-VHF band. I've found that they're so strong that I don't need an antenna that advertises high-VHF reception. A regular UHF only antenna still picks them up even if it's pointed at a 45° angle to them. Since a UHF only antenna will almost always outperform a UHF-VHF combination antenna for UHF reception, I can concentrate on picking up the UHF transmitters located 30 miles away at the south end of the valley.

With a little trickery to avoild multi-path issues, you can combine the signals of two directional antennas pointed in different directions (with an overall 3dB signal loss) or use multiple antennas in a broadside or colinear array to obtain additional gain in a particular direction by further narrowing the vertical or horizontal beamwidth.

My current project is a vertical broadside array of four, 5 element, Yagi-Uda antennas constructed specifically to cover 491MHz to 695MHz. With an estimated 16dB overall gain, it should get me those final two, not particularly strong channels broadcast at 569MHz and 581MHz that appear to lie in a reception gap of my current corner reflector Yagi and therefore tend to pixelate badly.

I also use two FM band folded dipoles with one mounted a half wavelength below the other in the living room for an additional 4dB gain. Although this requires a custom wound matching balun it gets me another half dozen radio stations from 80 miles away and over the top of a mountain range. One of these stations (NPR) that is of particular interest to me barely comes in on a single dipole, but comes in pretty clear with two.