Wacky old antennas

[DavGoodlin]

Channel Master - much more to come but here is what I consider to be the ultimate and most beautiful sight on a rooftop circa 1970

The 4311G UHF adjustable yagi and 3611 crossfire VHF pictured below are on a 50-foot wood pole in a nearby neighborhood. No rotator, these beauties are aimed toward Philadelphia 60 miles away. Back in the days of analog, this returned at least 0 db crystal clear pictures on 4 VHF and 3 UHF (independents) channels, no doubt. Just a guess but the owner probably did not care if they watched the local affiliates, 1 NBC, 1 ABC, 1 PBS and 3(!) CBS stations.
A second guess, this pole with climbing arms, was also climbed more than once to replace a dead mast preamp!
IMG_3363.JPG

[Tripelo]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

Channel Master - much more to come but here is what I consider to be the ultimate and most beautiful sight on a rooftop circa 1970

Yes.

Thanks DavGoodlin, for the photos and comments. Hope you do have some more to post.

Fond memories of studying those TV antennas while riding in a school bus. Practically memorized shape and configuration of every antenna along a 8-10 mile rural route. Alas, they are gone. Never had any photos.

In searching for TV antenna info, realized that there was very little published in the 1960 thru mid-1970's (the peak of the large TV antenna days). Much TV antenna development was done in the 50's and there were a couple of books that recoded some of that development. Seems to be some history and technical details lost, or nearly lost.

was also climbed more than once to replace a dead mast preamp!

Oh yes, in those days (the 70s), preamps were more failure prone (static discharge nearby lightning etc.), preamps still are failure-prone of course but some of them they are a bit better.

Don't think there was much available in preamp lineup in the 60s. Vacuum tube type set-top tunable boosters were used before transistorized antenna mounted preamps became available. Guess those fared better with lightning, hey, they could probably make some sparks of their own.