TV Antenna Station Scanning 101

[Electronic M]

If one side is better is something that depends on what is in the box. Some antennas are only good from one direction (ones with reflectors particularly) some are close to ideal omnidirectional. 'Black box' tells us nothing.

Dipoles are common antennas (think rabbit ears/UHF bowtie). Assuming it is a dipole neither broad flat side will be better but both will be equally optimal and 2 of the narrow sides will be terrible the rest will be the better side of in-between. Different stations from different directions will be best received with re-aimed antennas. Many indoor ants especially the cheap and or gimmicky ones categorically suck.

The signals will vary a LOT over the next few years. ATSC 3.0(incompatible with the ATSC we've had since '09) recently passed. Stations are trying to adopt 3.0 and lots of things are changing behind the scenes...When it is all over your current ATSC tuner(s) will probably be doorstops like analog tuners have become.

A professionally installed roof or attic antenna will outperform all indoor types. If you want to get fringe stations from opposite/perpendicular directions two or more antennas aimed at the TV sites then combined to a single ant lead for your TV may be optimum.

One thing that may help is to find a TV or tuner with a signal strength gauge in the menus. I Keep some Zenith DTT901 boxes around because the menu has manual tuning of the carrier channels with such a guage...I can see the effect of turning the ant and of different ants on reception. It speeds up experimentation exponentially.

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

....

One thing that may help is to find a TV or tuner with a signal strength gauge in the menus. I Keep some Zenith DTT901 boxes around because the menu has manual tuning of the carrier channels with such a guage...I can see the effect of turning the ant and of different ants on reception. It speeds up experimentation exponentially.

+1 Scanning is a terrible way to check or adjust an antenna. Scanning is useful only to find new channels (and erase inactive ones previously stored) if the antenna is already optimized. A manual input of the RF "air" channel and monitoring of signal quality, such as with the Zenith box, is the only way to dial in your antenna. I now have 13 years of experience using my Samsung STB and others, but very little has changed.

I will be very disgusted when ATSC 3.0 replaces what we now have. I'm sure OTA users of all modes will be steered toward a new TV. At least my antenna investment is safe

[mgross0]

Where I live, in central Phoenix, I have to move the antenna to get different channels. For example, most channels come in fine, but PBS and NBC only come in if the antenna is on the floor. I don't know why, and I have tried several different indoor antennas, some of which were rather expensive. The RCA/Alphaline/Winegard is as good as any of them.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by mgross0

Where I live, in central Phoenix, I have to move the antenna to get different channels. For example, most channels come in fine, but PBS and NBC only come in if the antenna is on the floor. I don't know why, and I have tried several different indoor antennas, some of which were rather expensive. The RCA/Alphaline/Winegard is as good as any of them.

Most of the Phoenix valley has line-of-sight to the transmitters and should get good results, but I recall from tests there, there are some areas with a strong ghost (can't recall from what) that makes a more directional antenna of some use.

I also note that Phoenix has 3 UHF and 3 high-VHF stations, so the compact flat-panel antennas are somewhat suspect.

I do NOT flatly recommend TERK antennas, as they made some poor performers early on, but this particular model, with log-periodic UHF, and VHF dipole wands seems to be one of the best indoor antennas for mixed U/V reception:
http://www.terk.com/indoor-antennas/?sku=HDTVI

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

+1 Scanning is a terrible way to check or adjust an antenna. Scanning is useful only to find new channels (and erase inactive ones previously stored) if the antenna is already optimized. A manual input of the RF "air" channel and monitoring of signal quality, such as with the Zenith box, is the only way to dial in your antenna. I now have 13 years of experience using my Samsung STB and others, but very little has changed.

I will be very disgusted when ATSC 3.0 replaces what we now have. I'm sure OTA users of all modes will be steered toward a new TV. At least my antenna investment is safe

That's the only good thing, my 1959 Rembrandt rabbit ears (hooked to the 1982 Zenith) made of brass do a wonderful job picking up TV signals.