My best reception is with the NYC official station. (25>4>5>9>2, no 7,13). I'm using a Supersonic portbale with an antenna tha came with a USB TV receiver. I can't even find a decent cheap antenna.
We used to have dozens of stations before HDTV. No way I'm getting cable. We are proud we are the only house without cable. My late dad refused to ever let me get a VCR.
---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]
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Dave Platt
Put up a decent antenna on the roof, and run decent 75-ohm coax to your TV. Antenna height helps a lot. So does aiming the antenna towards the transmitters (this may require a rotator, or an electrically-steerable antenna in some places, if the TV transmitters aren't all in roughly the same direction).
If you can't put an antenna on your roof, you might be able to put one in the attic.
What you need, in terms of an antenna, depends quite a lot on where you are.
In some areas, a UHF-only antenna is adequate. Take a look at
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- there are plans for a home-built Gray-Hoverman DB4 antenna design you can make yourself.
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has boatloads of additional information, including several design variations.
If your area still carries digital TV on some of the VHF frequencies, you may need more than this. The old-standard analog-TV roof antenna (which covers VHF low band, VHF high band, and UHF) will almost always work fine for HDTV.
If you've got a big roof with lots of room, want a "stealthy" antenna that the neighbors don't see or complain about, and the TV transmitters are mostly in one direction, consider putting up a "terminated rhombic"... it's just four pieces of wire in a diamond shape, with the feedline at the "away from the transmitters" end, and a resistor at the "towards the transmitters" end.
Remove the resistor and short the ends together, (or leave 'em open) and you end up with an unterminated rhombic, which will receive signals well from both directions (but not from off to the side).
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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stratus46
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jpan2
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You have 3 VHF-HI channels in NY. List here
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If you folks have a house, there is a good chance this antenna could work well for you.
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It's 5.5 ft long, 3 ft wide, quite small compared to older all channel antennas that went down to channel 2. This unit is VHF-HI and UHF which will cover all the spectrum in your area. The gain is good, and front-to-back ratio (ghost rejection) is good also. If you're hidden behind big buildings or hills you may have problems but if you have a clear shot at the towers, this will get you going well.
G=B2
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Robert Macy
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jpan2
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tuner makes a huge difference, too.
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Jeff Liebermann
Bigger, higher, better, antenna.
The USB dongle type of HDTV receivers are worse than awful. They usually don't have enough sensitivity to work in marginal situations, which includes your indoor arrangement. As others have suggested, an outdoor antenna and coax will work. Adding an antenna mounted pre-amplifier will do even better, but may not be necessary.
Antennas are not rated for decency.
You still have the stations. What seems to have changed is your use of an unspecified model USB HDTV dongle, which might be lacking in sensitivity. Find someone with a portable HDTV and try it at your location. If it works better than your USB HDTV dongle, there's the problem.
Not even coax cable such as RG-6/u? Fear of coax cable is a rare disease, but easily cured by using twin-lead instead.
Welcome to the wireless generation. No wires, no cables, no TV.
VCR's are so 20th century. The 21st century does DVR (digital video recorder) such as Tivo. The big advantage to me is that I can view shows when I fell like, not when it's broadcast. Also, I can fast forward over the commercials.
I lived without a TV for about 15 years. I was too busy getting into trouble and making money to waste time watching TV. However, as I got older, I also became lazy, and eventually bought a small junk TV. Like any addict, that led to a VCR, DVR, satellite dish, home theater, numerous boxes, antennas, Hulu, UCTV, and a tangle of cables.
On a cost per minute basis, TV is a rather expensive pastime. I watch TV about 2 hours per day, or about 730 hrs per year. I pay about $800/year for DirecTV. Ignoring the cost of hardware, that's about $1/hr. I could do better with Netflix.
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
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vjp2.at
*+-Put up a decent antenna on the roof, and run decent 75-ohm coax to
hm.. yeah, I might pull a wire from my uncle's attic antenna.. thanks.. but the idea is this is a portabel TV
---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]
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vjp2.at
*+-The USB dongle type of HDTV receivers are worse than awful. They
*+-usually don't have enough sensitivity to work in marginal situations,
I got the "mobile antena" from the USB dongle. The USB dongle never worked. The TV is a portable, about 7". (My previous TV was a 1982 2" BW LCD portable). The original antenna didn't seem to work as well. But you got different stations with each antenna.
THe antenna is F-type. I paid like $100 for the TV, so I'd be willing to pay $15 for an antenna that doesn't hog too much space.
I ended up getting an amplified F-type for radio which of course doesn't work on TV.
I find it curious the public (city owned) station (not NET) is the most reliable.