[Amps] OTA TV

[N1BUG]

On 08/03/2013 01:13 PM, donroden at hiwaay.net wrote:
> The FCC sold the public a bill of goods when they were promoting digital TV.
> They told TV stations that their coverage area would double in area.
> Over the air real world results were just the opposite... We lost all
> of our fringe viewers and half of our grade B viewers. People who were
> watching our analog signal with indoor rabbit ears lost coverage when
> we turned the analog transmitters off.

I used to watch OTA TV (all 4 stations available in my area) with a 
relatively small outdoor antenna on the roof, some 15 feet above 
ground. After digital transition I had to go to the largest VHF/UHF 
antenna available and put it 80 feet in the air to watch more than 
one of those stations.

> Elderly fixed income viewers couldn't afford the expense of getting an
> outside antenna or the monthly costs of cable or sat.

I gave up after three $150 antennas in two years. They are made too 
cheaply to survive the winters here at 80 feet AGL. Cable or 
satellite isn't going to happen unless I give up ham radio. Bye bye 
TV. I have wondered about one of the reasonably robust log periodic 
antennas by Tennadyne or Create. They might survive, but it isn't 
clear to me how the gain compares to the large TV antennas. I need 
every dB I had with those. I didn't have a tower mounted preamp but 
was using 3/4" CATV hardline to feed it.

> Other than a few digital geeks , no one wanted HDTV. It cost millions
> for TV stations to convert , and we lost half the audience. Some Deal
> !!!

Granted there are some problems as you went on to note, but when I 
could get it I loved HD OTA TV. I would hardly consider myself a 
digital geek, and I am usually very slow to adopt new technologies.

73,
Paul