http://cgi.ebay.com/DEC-1975-YELLOW-TELEVISION-RCA-NICE-RETRO-COLOR-/350408685722?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item5195fc389a#ht_569wt_1141

Very simple TV and receives reception off of one rabbit ear only. It can be shipped anywhere.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Zenith-14-Color-Television-Set-/250701996293?pt=Televisions&hash=item3a5f00e105#ht_870wt_1141

Here's a more contemporary cable-ready Zenith from around 1989 or 1990.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sears-Roebuck-Touch-Vintage-25-TV-1977-INSTRUCTIONS-/290495838993?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item43a2e6bb11#ht_820wt_1141

Comes with original instructions, extremely high-tech for its era.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Retro-Sears-Color-TV-Antenna-Rabbit-Ears-1970s-/170559899888?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27b62988f0#ht_500wt_1156

Just some old rabbit ears.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1976-vintage-SEARS-TELEVISION-TV-radio-/330486986034?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item4cf28f3532

TV and radio combined.

I seriously doubt that yellow RCA TV is going to pick up anything these days with just one rabbit ear (a monopole built-in antenna), unless there are translators or low-power stations within range of the area in which the set is being used. Even then, translators and LPTV stations will be required to transition to digital by 2012, so this set, in its unmodified state, may be usable for only another 18 months or so, unless it is connected to an ATSC->NTSC converter box. This will allow the set to be used for broadcast TV reception, but since DTV requires -- nay, demands -- very strong signals to produce usable pictures, an outdoor antenna with a mast-mounted preamplifier and perhaps a rotator will have to be used in many if not most reception areas. There goes the portability of this "portable" TV. :no:

Even then, translators and LPTV stations will be required to transition to digital by 2012, so this set, in its unmodified state, may be usable for only another 18 months or so:

Huh! I may have missed something, but I have not seen anything yet on the FCC site about a "sunset" time for analog translators. I believe that applications for new LPTV, translators and CATV must now be for digital, but that is about as far as it goes. Anybody have a reference that says otherwise?

jr

I seriously doubt that yellow RCA TV is going to pick up anything these days with just one rabbit ear (a monopole built-in antenna), unless there are translators or low-power stations within range of the area in which the set is being used. Even then, translators and LPTV stations will be required to transition to digital by 2012, so this set, in its unmodified state, may be usable for only another 18 months or so, unless it is connected to an ATSC->NTSC converter box. This will allow the set to be used for broadcast TV reception, but since DTV requires -- nay, demands -- very strong signals to produce usable pictures, an outdoor antenna with a mast-mounted preamplifier and perhaps a rotator will have to be used in many if not most reception areas. There goes the portability of this "portable" TV. :no:

For reasons like these, I cease to find any positive outcomes of the DTV Transition and the FCC in general.

However, I saw one of Zenithfan1's (Mark's) TV's that ran off of a monopole built-in rabbit ear antenna and it worked just fine picking up digital signals. It really all depends on the surrounding area of the set, the DTV converter box, and the condition of the set itself.

When my Zenith 19CC19 was working fairly well (now the picture is messed up), I picked up better reception on the digital channels with the DTV converter box than I did on the 3 low-power analog stations in the area. Did I mention that I was running it off of 38-year-old dipole built-in rabbit ear antennas in my garage?

As far as D-Day for LPTV and Class A Translator Stations, DTV.gov and the FCC website both claim that these stations have no deadline for broadcasting in digital. Wikipedia claims that in September 2010, the FCC declared that low-powered stations would go all-digital by 2012. Now I don't believe this because it's contradicted later in the article when it says that the deadline isn't for another 20 years or so.

Needless to say, the FCC has been known to pull tricks on us TV viewers. The only thing "set in stone" is that the FCC is requiring that all cable providers continue broadcasting local channels in analog until 2012. So for all of us that connected our old non-cable-ready TV's to analog cable, we may only have another year or so before the tuning knobs and remote controls are proven useless.

Still, I wouldn't worry too much about LPTV stations. Some people aren't even fortunate enough to have any (let alone in English). So let's savor what we have before the all-powerful FCC forces us to conform to the ever-changing world.

My biggest question is this: why is it that WCIU (a local LPTV channel in Chicago) can be broadcasted with low-power while stations like FOX and NBC can't? Couldn't they just simulcast in both high-power digital and low-power analog? I never understood why not.

My biggest question is this: why is it that WCIU (a local LPTV channel in Chicago) can be broadcasted with low-power while stations like FOX and NBC can't? Couldn't they just simulcast in both high-power digital and low-power analog? I never understood why not.

Why would a major network choose to be on a weak LPTV or CATV channel in an area when they can have the full power digital with high def and multicasting? In general, they can't easily have both.

In a very few unusual cases, stations have ended up with both a full power digital, and a low power analog station in the same city... in the case I know best, (before digital) the main transmitter was licensed to a smaller city 50 miles or so from a major metro area, and the transmitter was located about halfway between the two cities. This provided a fair "rimshot" into the major metro area, but there were enough reception problems that a low power station was acquired to better serve the larger city. When the digital build out was started, the station obtained a license to build its new digital transmitter in the larger city. When the dust settled, both the main digital station and the low power analog station were not only operating from the larger city, but the transmitters are now in the same room and the antennas are on the same tower! The two transmitters are licensed to two cities 50 miles apart, but are only a few feet from each other.

jr