Old Channel Master Antenna for HDTV?

[jjaniec]

I have a old late 1970's Channel Master rotary antenna mounted on my roof, can I use it for receiving HDTV, or do I need to purchase a special HDTV antenna? I would be hooking it up to a 50" Panasonic 1080 Plasma. I now have cable service for HDTV, but would like to drop them and start getting HD for free!

[hdtvlabs]

There is no such thing as a special HDTV antenna. A regular TV antenna is fine for HDTV. If your old Channelmaster antenna and the coax are in good shape you are all set.

[jjaniec]

Thanks, for the clarification, but I will have to add a coax connection to the end of those old antenna wires, there must be some adapters for that, correct?

[tigerbangs]

We don't know if that antenna is UHF capable, or what shape it is in: if you can sent us a picture of the antenna, it will help. I should warn you that 30 year old antennas rarely work well, as corrosion has usually taken it's toll on them. If you are serious about getting OTA reception, we should probably talk about replacing that antenna and rotor. Worst case scenario, you should replace the old twin-lead cable with new RG-6u coaxial cable.