Antenna for HDTV

I need help in deciding what type of antenna to get for
over the air HDTV and DTV. The stations are broadcasting
these channels on the UHF band now but I think they will
go back to VHF in 2009. I'm about 30 miles from the towers
in the Philadelphia area. The dealer has antennas for analog
and HDTV. Do I need a HDTV antenna or would a analog work just
as well? Presently I can pick up most of the stations with
rabbit ears. Would a Long distance UHF antenna be OK?

Probably. Try the rabbit ears first. If you are getting a good picture
with the analog now, probably will be able to get the digitals too.
"mwebsurfer" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
I need help in deciding what type of antenna to get for
over the air HDTV and DTV. The stations are broadcasting
these channels on the UHF band now but I think they will
go back to VHF in 2009. I'm about 30 miles from the towers
in the Philadelphia area. The dealer has antennas for analog
and HDTV. Do I need a HDTV antenna or would a analog work just
as well? Presently I can pick up most of the stations with
rabbit ears. Would a Long distance UHF antenna be OK?

mwebsurfer wrote:

I need help in deciding what type of antenna to get for
over the air HDTV and DTV. The stations are broadcasting
these channels on the UHF band now but I think they will
go back to VHF in 2009. I'm about 30 miles from the towers
in the Philadelphia area. The dealer has antennas for analog
and HDTV. Do I need a HDTV antenna or would a analog work just
as well? Presently I can pick up most of the stations with
rabbit ears. Would a Long distance UHF antenna be OK?


As "most" of the Digital TV stations are on UHF (Chans 13 - 59) and

a few remain on High VHF (chans 7 - 12), a $25 flat UHF Channel
Master

3021 4 bay bow tie should be the best.... It's price is right,

it's compact (4" deep), and it works well up to 40+ miles.

There is no such thing as a HDTV antenna.... Just VHF, UHF, or
combos.

UHF antenna comes in flat Bow Tie styles (2, 4, or 8) and long Yagi
wedges.

Dennis Mayer wrote:
snip

As "most" of the Digital TV stations are on UHF (Chans 13 - 59) and
a few remain on High VHF (chans 7 - 12), a $25 flat UHF Channel
Master

3021 4 bay bow tie should be the best.... It's price is right,

it's compact (4" deep), and it works well up to 40+ miles.

There is no such thing as a HDTV antenna.... Just VHF, UHF, or
combos.

UHF antenna comes in flat Bow Tie styles (2, 4, or 8) and long
Yagi
wedges.

And if the wife doesn't like that antenna on the house, this little
Winegard works very well for me 35 miles out in LA. No preamp and it's
split to 3 receivers, all with plenty of signal

Merry Christmas

GG

"G-squared" wrote in message
ps.com...

And if the wife doesn't like that antenna on the house, this little
Winegard works very well for me 35 miles out in LA. No preamp and it's
split to 3 receivers, all with plenty of signal

Merry Christmas

GG


Which one?

mwebsurfer wrote in news:4USjh.4086$dw6.706
@trndny02:

I need help in deciding what type of antenna to get for
over the air HDTV and DTV. The stations are broadcasting
these channels on the UHF band now but I think they will
go back to VHF in 2009. I'm about 30 miles from the towers
in the Philadelphia area. The dealer has antennas for analog
and HDTV. Do I need a HDTV antenna or would a analog work just
as well? Presently I can pick up most of the stations with
rabbit ears. Would a Long distance UHF antenna be OK?

An antenna is an antenna. There is no such thing as an "HDTV" antenna
and any dealer that tells you otherwise is a scam artist. Antennas are
entirely analog devices that pick up radio signals (low energy photons)
from space and turn them into the electrical signals that your receiver
converts to a picture. The antenna doesn't care if the modulation on the
signals is digital or analog. It just scoops them up whatever they are
and passes them down the feedline to the receiver.

Any decent UHF antenna should do fine. Antennas with directivity gain
(as opposed to built-in preamplifiers) do have an advantage over antennas
with wider patterns. That is, they are less prone to multi-path signal
reception which can confound digital demodulators to no end (it puts
ghosts on an analog signal). By pointing a good gain antenna at the
signal source, you can eliminate these side-signals and that can make the
difference between good reception and no reception. In digital TV,
that's usually the choice. You either have good reception or you have
none at all.


--
Dave Oldridge+
ICQ 1800667

Gary C wrote:
"G-squared" wrote in message
ps.com...

And if the wife doesn't like that antenna on the house, this little
Winegard works very well for me 35 miles out in LA. No preamp and it's
split to 3 receivers, all with plenty of signal

Merry Christmas

GG


Which one?

Well dummy me. This one

http://www.winegard.com/offair/squareshooter.htm

Sorry about that.

GG

"Nominal" wrote:
You CANNOT use an analog antenna. you must spend more to get a real
DIGITAL antenna. In fact, you really need a HI-DEF DIGITAL ANTENNA.

this is a fact, everyone knows (or should know) that analog and digital
are differnet things. Sheesh!


I hope you all know that this is not true. Let's hope the poster is only
joking. If rabbit ears work for you, then go with them. An outside antenna
placed as high as possible will work the best. Many areas need only a UHF
type. If you have high VHF stations, then the Channel Master 4228 will
likely work just fine.

Chip

--
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Usenet Newsgroup Service $9.95/Month 30GB

You CANNOT use an analog antenna. you must spend more to get a real DIGITAL
antenna. In fact, you really need a HI-DEF DIGITAL ANTENNA.

this is a fact, everyone knows (or should know) that analog and digital are
differnet things. Sheesh!



"mwebsurfer" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
I need help in deciding what type of antenna to get for
over the air HDTV and DTV. The stations are broadcasting
these channels on the UHF band now but I think they will
go back to VHF in 2009. I'm about 30 miles from the towers
in the Philadelphia area. The dealer has antennas for analog
and HDTV. Do I need a HDTV antenna or would a analog work just
as well? Presently I can pick up most of the stations with
rabbit ears. Would a Long distance UHF antenna be OK?

"Nominal" wrote in
:

You CANNOT use an analog antenna. you must spend more to get a real
DIGITAL antenna. In fact, you really need a HI-DEF DIGITAL ANTENNA.

this is a fact, everyone knows (or should know) that analog and
digital are differnet things. Sheesh!

Why are you trying to confuse people? Deceiving the ignorant is just as
nasty (if not nastier) as deceiving smart people.




--
Dave Oldridge+
ICQ 1800667