TV Antenna Station Scanning 101

[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.