Are the old rooftop antennas still good for anything? (1 Viewer)

[Scott Van Dyke]

Have never been tho this area of HTF, so I appologize if this has been discussed; A search came up empty.

I'm buying my first house this month, and upon the inspection, I've found one antenna on the roof. (Kind of an eyesore) And two more in the attic. I plan on running digital cable for a while, and really have no immediate use for any of the three. Should I just throw them out?

I do have plans for buying an HDTV in the future, but shouldn't I buy a small little inide antenna for it?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Chu Gai]

probably can use them to pull in radio stations, no?

 

[DougR]

It all depends on just how old those antenna's are?
I would leave them up and give them a try once you get a HDTV and you'll probably need (?) a Set-top Box for your HD.
If and when HD really starts to get in the mainstream, I think you'll find more Roof-top antenna's popping up around the neighborhoods( except for those "Cookie-cutter" communities that are popping up all over, with their HOA rules ),then, just like DBS dishes a few years back were considered a Eye-sore, will just be the "Norm" !

 

[Scott Van Dyke]

Chu,

How would I run a coax from the wall to my Sony reciever? The FM input in the rear? I just usually plop a tiny wire into it.

 

[Jeff O.]

Also,
I recently put up an antenna to pull in high-def. I am using Dish service and I found that the analog locals look better directly via the antenna than re-processed and sent out via Dish. Also, where I live (about 25 miles from towers), a small indoor antenna doesn't do it even for analog locals, let alone high-def, digital locals. So you may find that you need an outdoor antenna to pull in the signals depending on you distance to the transmission towers.

For FM, it depends on the antenna input on your receiver. There are small adapters that will convert coax (75 ohm) to twin leads (300 ohm?) and vice versa. Although I am sure Chu knows a lot more about it than I.

 

[Allan Jayne]

If the roof antenna is UHF rated, it may work OK for over the air HDTV. I would say leave it on the roof and, when you get an HDTV set top box, try out the antenna.
Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm