TV Antenna or New TV?

If she is not going with cable or satellite the story is that the dish type TV antenna is called for to properly receive the new digital signal.

The height above ground may help.

I do doubt that a new TV would of itself get any more channels.

She can't really afford Dish or Direct TV and she lives to far out for cable. Can any one reccomend some thing she could try? Thanks for your time.

I assume she has an old TV that needs a black box to get the digital signals. Changing to a new TV would eliminate the black box and allow her to see TV in high-definition, but I doubt it would add any stations.

As for an outdoor antenna, are all the stations in the same direction? If so, just get the biggest VHF/UHF directional antenna you can and mount it as high as possible and point it toward the stations. 100 miles is a long way, but doable. Radio Shack has a good selection; the biggest is the Antennacraft® HD1850, a real whopper at 15' long. It would need a sturdy mast. Start short and go higher if needed.

And go to antennaweb.org to help with more info.

My Wife said Her TV has SD TV.

Unless there are some new microwave channels I don't know about, it would take a very large dish! The channels I'm still receiving on my 30-year-old antenna are still VHF and UHF, not microwave. I did get a new HDTV, so no black box needed here, but I find the tuner is less sensitive than my old one was. With the old TV, weak signals would have lots of snow, but still be somewhat viewable. With the digital, its either a good signal or none whatsoever.

An antenna can be designed for a particular frequency (channel), and it will receive a stronger signal than a similar antenna designed to receive a range of channels. This would require a separate antenna for each channel, and a switch of some kind to select the correct antenna for the channel being viewed (I frequently forget to switch), but it is a big advantage if the stations are not all in the same direction. I presume such antennas can be purchased, but I'm not sure - I've always made my own.

Also, more highly directional antennas will receive a stronger signal, but only if they are aimed correctly. A dish is usually very directional, so if one can be used, it must be aimed very carefully for maximum signal.

I'll try not to be discouraging but seventy miles is about the limit for digital TV reception via antenna.

Locations may contribute to availing possibilities though; what is the geographical location?

Recommendation

Worth a GA!!!

If Mr Norris told us where his MIL lived and in what country, I might be moved to help him further.....

I am only 40 miles out (and in the middle of a forest) from the nearest, but get good results from a clearstream DB8 digital antenna and can sometimes get channels even further out that were never available to me before the government took care of us.

This site will guide you through a few steps to find the right antenna for your area. If you play around on the site for awhile you can even discover the best height for the antenna and what stations to expect.

AntennaWeb

A rotor would be a nice addition to keep from climbing up to change the direction when the leaves come back on the trees.

I have a 30 year old antenna mounted on the chimney above the roof. I live in a rural area and have many large trees on my property. The antenna has a rotor. I replaced the kitchen TV with a digital TV. My other TVs are still the old analog sets which now have the digital to analog converter box. I do not have cable as the only available service is an old analog system plagued with outages. A satellite TV service does not work for me due to the trees.

In my experience the converter box has a weak tuner. I get more channels and get a stronger signal on the digital TV. I find that the antenna direction is critical now with the digital signal. A difference of just a few degrees in the way the antenna points makes a big difference with the signal strength. The length of the cable from the antenna to the TV is also important, be sure you have a high quality coax cable that is as short as possible.

The web sites the others reference are good or just do a Google search to TV antenna to get a number of sites.

Why bother with all those fancy aerials, they only blow down or offline in a storm ?

You can buy a satellite system for £50.00 in UK and get all the alignment data from the net.

Gandma will then have about 200 channels to chose from - edit out the porn and the other rubbish and there should be about 90 watchable ones left.

What kind of Dish and will it work in Missouri, USA? Thanks Don

The only dish TV service (such as Dish or DirecTV) I know of in the US charges a monthly access fee. If someone knows of a free dish TV service I would also be interested.

I neglected to state in my other post that I also have an amplifier on my antenna system. A pre-amp mounts on the antenna mast. The antenna coax cable then runs into the house here it connects to the amplifier (requires 120v). The cable can then be run to the TV. Mine is a ChannelMaster unit but I am sure there are other brands.

Old coax should be replaced with new "standard" higher Bandwith cable.

Antenna electrical connections get corroded with time. Blow $50 to $100 and get new antenna, cable and connectors. Make sure the cable is grounded at entry point to house, for better signal and safety.

easyab

In rural areas of the US there are still commercial installers for residential TV components. I suspect that if you inquire of them what is needed to get broadcast TV at 100 miles, they'll tell you something similar to what I've found in the rural midwest.

If I were in your shoes, I'd contact the appliance/TV dealer local to your Mother's area and see what they recommend. If it's like around here, they probably sell the dish TV service/installation as well, and you can trade off costs of each. Be warned that you'll likely get a strong pitch for a new TV at the same time, but go ask . . .

I have 'worked at' getting broadcast TV at 70 -75 miles from the transmission source for some years, and have found that

1) Digital receivers actually need greater signal strength than the older analog receivers.

2) the curvature of the earth at 100 miles plays a role is getting line-of-sight TV signals. TV transmitting towers are tall to provide a signal at a long distance, but not typically 100 miles. A TV antenna needs some serious elevation above grade.

3) stuff wears out over time. Cables, even antennas.

I need:

1) a tower to get the antenna up high (a good ground on the tower more for lightning protection than for signal reception)

2) a mast mounted antenna amplifier (designed for digital frequencies)

3) a good quality directional (yagi) antenna

4) a rotor, to rotate the antenna because stations are at different azimuths

5) good coax cable, sealed with Scotch 2242 rubber tape (available in the electrical department at Home Depot) to make weather tight connections

I think all of those were mentioned above, but I needed all of them.