hdtv antenna help (1 Viewer)

[Sean Patrick]

just got an HDTV yesterday (F38310) and was anxious to get my OTA channels going. My tv has an internal receiver so all i needed was an antenna...i live 10 miles from downtown atlanta (on the west side of town) and was told the radio shack double-bow-tie would do me just fine. I got the 75 ohm adapter, plugged it in, and all i can get is NBC. it looks FANTASTIC. Trouble is, that's all i'm getting. It's picking up some very snowy analogs, but no other digitals. I would really prefer an indoor antenna, especially since i'm so close to town. Are there some powered indoor antennas someone can recommend that might help, or does it sound like outdoor is my only solution (since the antenna i have supposedly works as good if not better than outdoor antennas).

thanks!

 

[Kevin Coleman]

Hello Sean,
First you need to go Link Removed to find where your towers are located. Digital reception tends to be fairly direction sensitive. You need to point your antenna directly at the tower +or- 30 or so degrees either way.
Hopefully all of your towers are in the same general direction from your house.
I only have one digital station that went on Monday, it is about 15 to 20 miles from me, but I have done some experiments with antennas.
1st I tried an unamplified outdoor antenna on my roof and got 95% signal strength pretty easily. This was even through about 100' of RG6 unamplified. I could also turn the antenna about 30 degrees off axis either way and still get an acceptable signal, about 65%.
Then I tried a cheap 30 dollar indoor Radio Shack amplified antenna. It seems to be a little more sensitive as far as getting it setup but even with it I can get about 90% signal strength. When I unplug it I can still get 80-85% strength.
IMO the most critical part is getting it pointed in the right direction.
Kevin C.