Please help with digital t.v.

So, the wife is not happy with the tv situation.
We used to get "analog" via small rabbit ears mounted on the tv inside the house and everything was fine, then the signal began to suffer as all the conversions and digital "tests" were run. We bought some digital converters, and hooked them to rabbit ears, and now we only get a nice picture half the time. Other half is nothing. At least with the old way you might get a fuzzy picture but it was still there.

I told her I would put up an outside antenna. Whoops! So guys, what do I need to do. I have read on here that I need RG-8 cable. Is there an optimal height to antenna ratio? I live on flat, flat ground. I have read I need an amplifier and a rotor for the antenna. How far can the cable run be with the amplifier? Do they make a "bi-directional" antenna that does not require the rotor? The concern with the rotor is winds regularly top 50 mph and I am afraid the little units I have seen won"t live long in the gentle Kansas breezes. And finally, who is the reputable dealer in this stuff, or are you stuck with chinese made questionable quality? Thanks in advance!

The only one of those that I can answer is the bi directional one. We bought one of those round ones,looks like a big Frisbie. Got it from Radio Shack. Has a booster included. We have direct TV on one TV,but had a small one with rabbit ears. Like you said,they didn't work for digital. Got the new round antenna on a 2 inch pipe,just above the peak of a steel roof. Getting 61 channels right now. 35 of them digital.

I'm still holding out hope that when the switch over takes effect they will boost the output signal so I can get good signals again. My old style setup worked ok with a booster.

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While I was doing my changeover to digital I found out that there is a difference in the set top boxes depending on who made them. The one that I got from radio shack (digital stream brand) gets me the most stations. Another one from radio shack (Zenith brand) was 2nd best getting all but one of the channels that the digital stream received. The one that I got from Walmart only received 4 of the 6 stations that I got from the digital stream set top box.

Get satellite Tv $29.95 a month an perfect picture all the time plus about 100 channels. I wouldn't go back to rooftop antennas for all the money in China.
Walt

The actual channels have changed temporarily, mostly to high UHF channels where antennas tend to work to worst. Next month they will be mostly changing back to their old antennas and channels so you will have to rescan for channels. The temporary channels are often low power too. The digital signals on the old channels will be running lower power than the analog, but they claim will give equivalent coverage.

Gerald J.

I just got to thinking about this converter $50. antenna $75, Cable $30 Mast for antenna $30 Guys wires another $30, rotor $150 Plus installation. You just payed for your 2 years of Satellite Tv and only get 3 to 6 channels. Doesn't make sense and they will install the Satellite for free.
Walt

I have had DISH for years but do not get the local channels thru Dish. I checked and getting the local channels will add $5.00 per month, Call me cheap but I hate to pay for something I can get for free.

YEP! your cheap. think about how much it will cost for all the stuff to get the local channels then divide by $5 and see how many months of good clear TV you will have for the same cost.
Sometimes trying to be cheap will cost you more than what you are saving.

I agree with your point but after two $40 coupons, I have $20 tied up in two converters, using my same old antenna and getting more channels than before. Granted I do live on the edge of a metro area and always have been able to get a signal.

I was in the same boat and decided to bite the bullet and by a flat screen digital tv (under $500) and an amplified digital antena (around $40). It is a square disc that is on a shelf above the tv. It is unobtrusive and works well. It may be what you need on the front end of yor converter instead of the rabbit ears.

$359.40 a year I can spend on tractors !

in ala. tv signal is transmitted over the airways as a uhf signal. effective transmitted distances are usually determined by the recieving antenna. as in my stituation it is approx. 70 miles distance. digital signals have a shorter transmitted distance therefore a loss of signal and usually no tv. i believe it will require me to upgrade to a bigger and a digital antenna. i too have hopes of a stronger digital signal when the big switch is made but my expectations are not high. in defense of digital, when i do recieve it, it is usually more clear with several more channels available.

Yeah I refused to pay for the local stations as well. and not all of them were even offered on sat.
Especially now that I get 4 PBS channels, and multiple channels on the commercial over the air digital channels as well.

And they do not go away during a heavy rain either.

You have to be almost within "line of sight" for a set of rabbit ears to work.
It's more about signal to noise ratio rather than signal strength. Similar to clearly hearing a person talk from across a large still quiet room. V.s you can't hear the person beside you in a noisy bar.
Rabbit ears are close to the electronic noise in the house and too low to obtain clean strong signal.
A winegard http://www.winegard.com/offair/pdf/HD7694P.pdf HD7694P is a short and narrow antenna with high gain in a very narrow and short package which will reduce wind loading.
A 30ft tower with a set on hinges on the bottom will work fine and save tower climbing.
The rotor should sit inside the tower and the pipe extend through a "bushing" at the top of the tower. This eliminates side load on the rotor motor.
A low powered amp is required.Same goes for an FM trap in noisy areas. Certainly low loss rg-6 or rg-11 cable is required. rg-8 is cheap lossy garbage.
Silicone the cable ends water tight after connecting. Water inside a cable absorbs signal.

I have a maxed out antenna system here with currently only an analog tuner for the local Canadian stations for the next 4yrs..There is now more noise than signal due a lots of signal + noise gain and very few losses.
Due "noise" from digital TV and the new FM radio tower 3 blocks away. This system won't bring in more than 5 local analog stations now. It used to bring in over a dozen.
Next step is a HD HDMI equipped fta box with the terrestrial tuner for digital HD TV . Problem the nearest Canadian digital signal is 70 miles over land. The nearest US digital signals is 60 to 90miles over the lake plus 10 to 50 miles more land. It should still be better than the current garbled signals. Things should improve next month when the US analog channels go down. And when the local transmitter sites go digital.

Watch out for powerline primary and secondary cables.
Every once in a while Ham and TV antenna tinkers tip a tower or antenna into the 4800,7200,13800 or 27,000 primary of the power distribution system.
Makes 200lb people sizzle and smoke like a junebug stuck in a flyzapper.

Sometime you need to rescan the channels. My convert box has a signal strength option on it. Very handy with the rabbit ears in getting the best signal tuned in.

I belive that most station are going to boost there signal after the conversion.

The bad thing about digital is you either have it or don't.

When selecting the antenna know the miles from the transmitter. Use low loss coaxal. Good connectors on the coaxal. Dont make sharp bends in the coax it will reflect back causing noise. Even antenna pre-amplifiers to boost the signal and filter noise are a good idea. Don't wait to boost the signal at the tv do it as soon as it enters the house.

RG-8 is good coax. RG-58 and RG 59 are thin and lossy. RG-8X is not a lot better than RG-59.

RG 6 is better, RG-11 better yet. 1/2 or 3/4" cable tv distribution line is better than all the above, but its not flexible and connectors can be a pain.

Gerald J.

I like your idea of putting the rotator inside something, and having the antenna mast pass through a bushing, then connect to the rotator mechanism. However, all the ones I have seen for sale are in oblong box structures, with a stub sticking from the top of the box. How do I hide this box in a pipe? Or am I not looking at the right ones. Your antenna is not bad, $100. And to think, I just want to watch the weather. The better half is after all the channels.

You know, last fall I was at the county dump throwing off some trash when the cable tv guys were dumping huge rolls of that insulated cable off. I saw the thick copper strand inside, but figured it would be too much of a pain to get the heavy plastic and braided jacket stuff off to haul it back home and scrap it out (not enough time in the day). Oh well. :-(

"on the edge of a metro area and always have been able to get a signal."

What was the point of digital airwaves? Seems if you wanted or needed digital go through a provider.
Conspiracy theory #XX. Always lived semi to totally rural. Always heard city dwellers got cable/internet cheap to free. So if everybody goes to a converter box, what would stop them from changing the signal and charging for antenna TV?

If you would like to do more research, start with "antennaweb.org" will tell you distance and location of signals plus other info. You can also try "tvfool.com" which is similar to antennaweb with a few variations. Then on to "solidsignal.com" for a large selection of antennas and converter boxes and other nice things at very discounted mail order priceing. Solid signal will offer good advice too.

Watching TV now in digital - not working well. Probably 25% of the program is lost. Wife is about to skillet me. This is the strongest of stations in this area. We will loose several stations when they convert over. All of the CBS outlets gone on digital. We have good external antennas. But we"re in a fringe area. Ask if I"m happy with this situation.

In answer to your questions: Optimum height is as high as you can get, safely. Antennas could be stacked for different directions, and a typical TV antenna works almost as well off the back as it does in the forward direction. RG-59 is the standard coaxial line for TV. RG-6 is larger and lower loss, will work with TV, but connections are going to be difficult. RG-58 is somewhat less lossy, but is 50 ohm, and will be slightly mis-match to the TV which is designed at 75 ohms. Long ago, we installed our tv mast with the rotor a foot or so above the ground. That gave us the option of servicing from the ground. We mounted the mast on a pipe union which is loose, and serves as a bearing so rotor has no weight on it. The mast goes thru a sleeve at the top bracket, which has a zerk on it - shot of grease ocassionally keeps everything lubed.

Don't worry, external_link has promised to issue an executive order to delay the change over date at least several months. Seems lots of people cannot understand they need a converter box and the government needs more time and money. Would not surprise me if its postponed indefinitely and all the money spent by government and tv industry will be just a huge waste.

Kansas Cockshutt,

About a year ago we put up two sticks (20' each) of 1 1/2" pipe. Fabbed & welded an angle iron tripod with a plate welded at the top of the tripod with a pipe coupling welded also. Dug a hole in the ground and poured several bags of ready-mix to secure the foundation. Bought a big antenna from radio shack (or Walmart?) and installed the setup with four guy wires. We receive about 25 digital channels and 10 analog channels, down here in the FL panhandle. The best reception comes from stations less than 70 miles away, but we can receive stations further away. Only issue I notice is that the digital signal is highly directional and sometimes I have to adjust the direction of the antenna. My next plan is to install a [second] smaller antenna on the same mast and aim it for local channels and the larger one aimed toward more distant stations. Will tie both coaxes into a splitter.

We tried several signal amplifiers but they didn't do much and the higher gain models just distorted the signal (picture quality went down).

We used the standard coax size (I think its marked RG59?) for the leads inside and up the antenna mast. We only have one HDTV in the house so will need the converters for the others in the bedrooms until they break down or until we can afford additional HD TVs....