Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffhs
Why bother with an antenna? Get cable (if your rural area has it; it may not, if you're really out in the boondocks) and you won't have to worry about aiming your antenna or any of the other problems attendant to over-the-air DTV.
If you must use an outdoor antenna with a rotor to get any TV reception at all in your rural fringe area, and for any reason cable or satellite is not an option, I'd try to get one of the old CDE AR-22 (I think that's the brand and model) antenna rotors that can be programmed for up to five channels. The control box has five buttons mounted in the upper left corner, arranged like the pushbutton station selectors on old car radios, that can be programmed for individual stations; for example, suppose (for example) your area has channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9. You can program the buttons on the rotor control box to rotate the antenna to the correct direction for each station, so you won't have to fiddle with a control knob to point the antenna in exactly the right direction. Initial programming may take some time, but this is a one-time procedure so once the rotor control is set up for your local stations, you won't have to fiddle with precise aiming again.
I don't know if the CDE AR-22 is even available anywhere (even used) anymore, as people pretty much gave up on antennas (even in good local reception areas) years ago, going to cable or satellite. However, with DTV and its reception problems, even in what were good signal areas in the NTSC analog era, outdoor TV antennas and rotors, to say nothing of towers, are making a comeback since digital TV signals can be very difficult to receive in some areas.
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You're right indeed about difficulty in some areas; the multipath signals that result in "ghosting" in the analogue days are instant death to digital TV--even in minor amounts as I've found.
BTW I'm with you on old Zenith radios; I have a 7H820 that has both the FM 45 and 100 bands.
I've had similar models over the years--each with unique features such as AFC and phono input and such. The first one I found was at the town dump back in '76. All I had to do to it was plug it in and enjoy.