Need Help with Antenna

[masattack]

Hi. I have a couple of questions. Zip Code where I live is 49689. I have two televisions that I need to hook to some kind of antenna (tired of paying each month to my phone company for TV). One is an older analog, the other is a new Vizio HDTV flatscreen. I also have a 4 year old Sanyo SDTV but the book says its a digital. I tried to connect an indoor rabbit ear with loop in the middle to the Sanyo, get absolutely no channels. So, my question is even though its a digital and the Vizio is a digital do I still need a converter box for these? I live in the middle of nowhere. Does this mean I need an outdoor antenna? Another question, at one time there was a cable company that leased a corner of my driveway for their equipment. When things went digital they didn't want to upgrade their equipment so they removed their dishes and stuff inside the little building. They left the over 30' antenna out there. Is it possible for me to connect my house to that antenna and use it for at least local channels? Any advice would be appreciated.

[gcd0865]

Hi masattack:

I'll take a stab at your tv and antenna questions. Your Vizio HDTV will have built-in digital and analog tuners, the old analog set will have only a built-in analog tuner (and would therefore require a converter box), and I'm not sure about the Sanyo SDTV (maybe if you provided the model number we could look it up online).

All U.S. tv stations now broadcast in digital form only, with the exception of certain low-powered stations and translators that have been allowed to remain in analog for some period of time. When you hooked up your Sanyo to the indoor rabbit ears with loop, we don't really know if the lack of reception was caused by having no digital tuner in your Sanyo, or simply because the antenna was not sufficient.

Upon checking your 49689 zip code on the TVFool database (at http://www.tvfool.com), the stations in your area are rather weak, and you must be in quite a hilly area. If you could enter your exact address instead of just your zip code into TVFool, you'd get a much better estimation of reception at your location. You can post your TVFool report link for us to check as well (your address will not appear when others review the report). Generally, you'll find that people report reliable reception with good outdoor rooftop antennas down to around 0.0 db NM (but sometimes down to around -5.0 or even -9.0 db NM) on their TVFool report (the "NM" column being probably the most important for generally evaluating reception possibilities). From what I see from the generic 49689 zip code (not optimized for your particular location), WWTV-9 (CBS), WCMW-21 (PBS) and WPBN-50 (NBC) might be receivable from your location with a good rooftop antenna. Since the db NM values for those stations are 4.9, 4.5 and -0.1 db NM, respectively, your rabbit ears will not be anywhere near sufficient to receive them.

Regarding the 30' antenna left at your location, it very well may be suitable for your use, but we'd have to see what it looks like. If you could post a photo of it, perhaps we could offer opinions about its usefulness.

[sglende1]

Great answer, Also replace the coax from the old antenna, Make sure you use WD40 before you try and replace the matching Transformer, they will snap off every easy... You also might need to play better worse to aline the Antenna and get the max number of stations... Great idea on reusing the old antenna!

Good luck with your project!

If this works you might want to concider a rotor for the antenna. Digital has a lot of problems if the antenna is not pointed at the tower... I get 34 stations here in FL and only 2 of them are in the same direction and those 2 are in spanish! :-{

[Melvin63]

I had a look at the TV fool plot for your ZIP and based on the output your options are few to maximize channel reception. The only ABC affiliated stations are both 2 edge diffraction in 2 different directions, potentially very weak and difficult to get. A high quality signal preamp(channel master or winegard) and a rotor or two directional (one deep fringe with the signal amp) VHF/UHF antennas to have a chance at reception. There are some factors I can't consider here. One is the height of your antenna mast, also your street level TV Fool plot and nearby obstructions. The transmitters are not especially distant however, and that could work in your favor. I setup a friends antenna / ampifier combination and feed 2 DTVs with signals from 90+ miles(UHF/VHF) so anything is possible. The Sanyo SDTV is a digital Standard Definition TV and does not need a Converter box. The large antenna is probably an old dish the cable company used for satellite reception of the networks they carried, it is probably not suitable for terrestrial broadcast reception. Please post a TVfool URL of your Street Level plot in reply to this thread, I may be able to refine my recommendation. (http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29) Good Luck.