Unusual low tech Over the Air (OTA) antenna finding

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

Let it dangle!

As a few of you know, I have a Zenith DTV converter box (from the Government discount program) and have tried some indoor antennas.  I am less than 15 miles away from the main stations' transmitter sites but have had fits with some, especially the two high-VHF's.

This past Saturday, Goodwill had their now monthly 50% off sale.  I purchased an RCA ANT 585 Amplified VHF-UHF indoor antenna for $2.50.  This one actually had the wall wart unlike my Phillips amplified rabbit ears that I bought at Goodwill a few years back.  The "barefoot" Phillips normally scanned between 15-18 channels (including sub channels).  It would get either WISH-TV 8 (RF ch 9) or WTHR 13 (rf ch 13) but neither reliably and not both at the same time.  The RCA only scanned in 6 and did not land either hi-VHF station! Drats.

I do know that the main antenna farm is either SSW or NW of me and my connected TV is on the East side of the house but I expected at least the same as the Phillips, if not slightly better as the VHF dipole whips looked better. 

As I was preparing to reattach the Phillips antenna, I had the 6' coax dangling behind the TV and noticed that WRTV 6 (RF ch 25) was still coming in!  I did a re-scan and this dangling coax antenna scanned in as many as the Phillips and double plus what the RCA antenna got. Unreal!  I noticed about the same multipath interference, whehn someone was walking about.  I am simply floored for by this low-tech finding.  Now I wonder if I should shape this dangling coax into a loop configuration, like the loops on rabbit ears for UHF?

Long story short, I verified that indoor antennas do not work well, if you have high V's in your area and are not on direct, line of sight (no walls, attics and so on).

[flhthemi]

Mighty strange! I do really well with OTA using an RCA amplified antenna. Don't know the model number but it's white and about the size of a brick but not as thick. I think the amp has a gain of 10dB. It really was intended for use outside on a pole. I just toss it on top of the entertainment hutch the TV is in and it gets all the local stations and sub channels fine. I'm about 30 miles from Charlotte NC in Statesville. No close antenna farms here.

I just use it for a backup to Uverse but the service has been so rock solid here that I really don't need it.

[dhascall ACE - Professor · Accepted solution]

---

flhthemi wrote:

Mighty strange! I do really well with OTA using an RCA amplified antenna. Don't know the model number but it's white and about the size of a brick but not as thick. I think the amp has a gain of 10dB. It really was intended for use outside on a pole. I just toss it on top of the entertainment hutch the TV is in and it gets all the local stations and sub channels fine. I'm about 30 miles from Charlotte NC in Statesville. No close antenna farms here.

I just use it for a backup to Uverse but the service has been so rock solid here that I really don't need it.

---

Thanks flhthemi.  30 miles on an amplified antenna is awesome.

I think that I have found my issue with the RCA amplified antenna.  I have 4-5 FM radio transmitters in the area and one (93.1) puts a second harmonic close to RF channel 9, where WISH-TV 8 broadcasts and another (105.7) that has its second harmonic on 13's RF frequency.

A TV DX'er, and a TV station broadcast engineer, said that the amplifier was overloading.  He thought I would do better with plain (unamplified) set of VHF-UHF rabbit ears.  My Phillips amplified set does not have an on-off switch and that may weaken TV signals, if used without the built in pre-amp

Speaking of NC: I think that my dad has the same RCA antenna that you have.  He lives near Rockingham, NC and is 40-50 miles from most TV transmitters.  The OTA worked good in the winter but after the trees leafed out, not so good.