In this area of flat land farming everyone had outdoor antennas. The
nearest station was over 30 miles with three others at roughly 50 to 60
miles. Eventually cable did come into the high density areas, but for
the most part it was still outdoor antennas. Then C-band turned up
which generally outdid OTA and there were a number of "wild feeds" with
no commercials, but those dishes ran 8 to 12 feet in diameter and a new
installation and receiver were not cheap. Most of the C-band has been
replaced with the little dishes. At least C-band didn'y fade with heavy
rain and snow. OTOH if it was a wet, heavy snow you had to keep
cleaning the dish.
So most of the rural area is still OTA or small dish.
I had Radio shack UHF antennas up at 90 feet for near a decade with nary
a problem. They did right well at picking up VHF well over 40 miles and
didn't care whether you were pointed at the station or not and were good
for near a 100 miles at +/- 30 degrees so I could point due South and
get Detroit and Jackson/Lansing. GR and Kazoo were a bit more fussy
about pointing.
Thing is, they may complain about outside antennas, but they've always
been common in this area.
Common enough that I made good money on the side installing as well as
replacing them for a couple of years.
"The country" has always been outside antennas, either the big VHF
antennas or a dish for satellite.
Area wise I'd guess about 75% need outside antennas, but viewer wise
it's probably about 10%.
I still keep a TV antenna on the tower (most of the time) because when
satellite and cable are out, OTA still works and with a better signal.
Now if they just had something, anything worth watching.
OTOH I haven't watched network TV in years except for the local news and
weather.
Most of the US is very low density population and they depend on OTA, or
satellite for their TV.
73,
Roger (K8RI)
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