Need Amplified Antenna recommendations for clear local channel reception!! (1 Viewer)

[Mike Kao]

Anyone have any suggestions for any ampflied TV antennas? I live in a town house, so bulky roof-top antennas are a no-no... can anyone recommend a good antenna?
- Mike

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Mike,
If you're talking about indoor "rabbit ears", you won't have much luck unless you are pretty close to the transmission towers of your local stations. Picture can jiggle, fade, and generally screw up whenever someone walks across the room.
The FM radio band is actually located between 2 VHF channels, as far as frequencys go, and I do get pretty decent FM reception from a cheap RCA VHF-UHF amplified rabbit ears+UHF loop antenna that I bought at WalMart for $30 or so. It's cheap enough to be worth a try.
If you have access to the attic of your unit, and don't have a tile or metal roof, try installing a good roof antenna in your attic. It won't be visible from outside, so should not upset the condo ass'n.
When I was a kid in the 50s, we lived 5o miles from the San Francisco stations.
All the neighbors had huge roof antennas on 20 foot poles. We had a good roof antenna in the attic and got better reception than they did.
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Steve S.
I prefer not to push the subwoofers until they're properly run in.
[Edited last by Steve Schaffer on August 09, 2001 at 09:00 PM]

 

[Mike Kao]

Well an outdoor antenna isn't completely out of the question as long as it's not highly visible. Unfortunately I don't have an attic, so that would not be possibility. I'm considering the Terk TV50 ( LINK ) indoor/outdoor antenna. I've heard mixed reviews on this one, but I don't know what else is available other than the generic rabbit ear antennas they sell at the stores... anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Mike,
You'll probably have the best luck with an unobtrusive outdoor antenna. The main factor with over-the-air tv reception is distance from the broadcast towers and obstructions between your home and the towers, as well as location of the broadcast towers.
If you are within 50 miles or so of the broadcast towers and all the channels you want to watch are broadcasting from the same general location, and you have few if any tall buildings or mountains between you and the broadcasters, the Terk should work quite well.
Here in Fresno we are in a large valley between the coast range and the Sierra Nevada mountains. Most of the local channels broadcast from the same general direction, and we have few obstructions. A simple uhf (all our channels are UHF) grid antenna on the roof gets excellent reception. But the Fox affilliate's tower is located elsewhere so it's difficult to get all the channels well without an antenna rotator. As a result, even though we're realy in a prime over-air reception area, most people have cable for local channels.
Over-air is really weird sometimes.
True story--in 58 we lived in Seminole Oklahoma, 80 miles from the Oklahoma City stations, but no mountains or obstructions.
My schoolmate's dad was in the oil business, had a huge antenna array on a 50 foot mast, got lousy reception.
We lived in a 2nd story apartment and got perfect reception using a pair of rabbit ears perched on the living room windowsill.
Good luck with your antenna search.
One thing I do know is that over-air reception, when it's good, is better than the best cable picture you've ever seen.
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Steve S.
I prefer not to push the subwoofers until they're properly run in.