and my wallet feels much better.

I've gone to the FCC website to find where the local transmitters are relative to my location and it looks like I'm good.

Having grown up with only 4 channels in my local market all of which were VHF, it surprised me to see all the locals here in Ft Myers are UHF.

I'm thinking a Radio Shack UHF antenna on a mast on the roof. That ought to get the antenna about 25' off the ground.

Now the questions

Is Radio Shack a good source for an antenna? Is UHF only wise? I might like FM too. How do you split the signal between the old B&W analog sets and the flat screen that the wife likes? Is 75 & 300 ohm still the cable designation?

Help me get caught up, please.

Does your satellite box also have a terrestrial antenna input? I have an old RCA DirecTV box someone gave me after they cut the cord, and I'm using it to receive over the air HDTV. I have it driving an old CRT VGA monitor, looks great.

Anyway, a directional UHF antenna should give low ghosted reception (easier for the digital decoder to deal with, you won't see ghosts on the display, just no reception if ghosting is severe enough). Avoid amplifiers, they will get hammered by strong signals and intermod the rest of the band, blocking out weak signals.

I cut the cord mid contract. They got all their stuff back except the dish. I don't even have a digital to analog converter box for the old televisions.

Will I need a D to A box for each TV or can you split the analog output?

It looks as if you have at least one high band VHF channel to deal with (ch 9)... if you are close enough you might get enough signal from a UHF only antenna. In my case, I am about 12 miles from the local transmitters, and a small outdoor UHF antenna gets 3 high band VHF channels (as well as all the UHF channels) just fine!
I assume your flat panel set has a built in ASTC tuner for over-the-air digital reception... you might hook up a rabbit ears, or some other indoor antenna, and do a scan to see what you get and what you are missing. This might provide some indication of the difficulty of reception in your area.
Sure, you can split the output of the DTV converter box to several TVs, but of course the channel selected by the box will be seen on all of the sets at the same time.
It also appears that you have several low power analog channels left in your area that you should be able to receive without using a DTV box.
jr

Thanks, Jr

Where did you look to find VHF 9? I took this chart off of FCC engineering maps. Of course I'll be the first to admit I don't know squat about these things, but doesn't this chart say I get the big 3 and FOX on UHF?


Strong Signal WBBH NBC 20-1 UHF
Strong Signal WZVN ABC 26-1 UHF
Strong Signal WINK CBS 11-1 UHF
Strong Signal WRXY REL 49-1 UHF
Strong Signal WFTX FOX 36-1 UHF
Strong Signal WGCU PBS 30-1 UHF
Strong Signal WXCW CW 46-1 UHF

Thanks, Jr

Where did you look to find VHF 9? I took this chart off of FCC engineering maps. Of course I'll be the first to admit I don't know squat about these things, but doesn't this chart say I get the big 3 and FOX on UHF?


Strong Signal WBBH NBC 20-1 UHF
Strong Signal WZVN ABC 26-1 UHF
Strong Signal WINK CBS 11-1 UHF
Strong Signal WRXY REL 49-1 UHF
Strong Signal WFTX FOX 36-1 UHF
Strong Signal WGCU PBS 30-1 UHF
Strong Signal WXCW CW 46-1 UHF

DTV.gov is the site set up by the government to help people with the DTV transition that took place. When you go, there is a link for reception maps on the right side of the page. You just pop in your zip code and it lists available channels by signal strength. But, im my case at least, the map is just a basic google earth map with no signal patterns.

Yep, I ended up in the same place via another route. Still not sure about channel 9 though. Looks like all UHF to me.

I just did a search on the FCC site for Fort Myers:

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?state=FL&call=&arn=&city=fort+myers&chan=&cha2=69&serv=&type=0&facid=&list=1&dist=&dlat2=&mlat2=&slat2=&dlon2=&mlon2=&slon2=&size=9

Now this list includes construction permits and applications as well as active stations, so it may indicate transmitters that are not on the air yet. The list is full of active links, so you can get all kinds of info about any station, including coverage maps.
hope this helps,
jr

Update: the FCC sez that WINK transmits on ch 9 (11 might be the virtual channel that they use for identification purposes) no matter if it is ch 9 or 11, it is still high band VHF not UHF. They also seem to have a construction permit for channel 50, so possibly they are be using that UHF channel now. :scratch2:
If you can do a scan the TV should indicate both the real over-the-air channel, as well as the virtual channel.

Update 2: Well, wiki sez that WINK indeed broadcasts on ch 9, so that's gotta be correct :D :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WINK-TV

Have you tried the Antennaweb site? They'll give you a station list and a zoomable map showing the distance & orientation of the transmitters.

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

Here's an ugly indoor UHF antenna that I built with stuff from Home Depot.

http://antiqueradio.org/art/temp/UHFAntenna2.jpg

The local stations are pretty unwatchable, so it was promptly retired to the zone of Timewasting Junk I Will Never Use.

Phil Nelson

How bad did they stick it to you for cutting the cord while you were under contract?

A few years ago, after we got angry with the cable company, we went with direcTV. They told me on the front end that the bill would be $49.99/mo for 150 channels. What they neglected to mention was all the little fees and taxes that they add on. This brought the bill up to $70/mo. I kept the service for 8 months, at which time I called and told them to cut it off NOW. Because I still had 4 months to go under the contract, I had to pay them $48 to pull the plug. Still, that was cheaper than $70/mo. Then, it took them forever to send the boxes for the return of the receivers. And, they still didn't include enough packing material to safely ship them and I had to use my own packing material stash; which, didn't make me happy. About a month later, I got a call from them, claiming that I had not returned my equipment and that I owed them $300. I told them that I had the shipping receipt where the equipment was shipped and that they could shove their $300 charge up their butt. They threatened to turn me over to a collection agency if I did not pay. I told them to do whatever they wanted and to never call my house again.

After several months of using an antenna, we went back to cable (only because of the Internet). Personally, I'd be fine with OTA and what I have on DVD and VHS.

And, I still get something in the mail from direcTV, almost daily, wanting my business. It al goes straight to the shredder. I wouldn't use their service if I never watched TV again.

I got a letter in my mail today from Time Warner Cable which was trying to pitch me an offer for 100+ channels, two standard-definition converter boxes, and a monthly rate of $29.99 for 12 months. I read the thing and put it in the trash. What gets me, however, is the sentence at the beginning of the letter: "Since you left Time Warner Cable..." I did not leave them. I still have basic service (broadcast channels only), which, as I mentioned in another post, is the only way I can get the broadcast TV channels here, and I am still paying something on the order of $15 a month for the service, which includes all seven Cleveland stations -- as well as at least two out-of-town stations I do not watch. Why are they thinking I "left" their cable service, simply because I downgraded from expanded-basic to basic? If I had had my cable service completely disconnected, I could understand the question, but not when I still have the service at my apartment. Does the cable operator somehow, for some reason, think that just because I am now receiving only local channels I no longer have cable? This is not so. As I said above, if not for Time Warner's basic cable service, I would have little or nothing to watch here on an indoor antenna -- the only station that comes in well enough to watch around here is channel 19, and that was analog. I would probably get few if any DTV stations in this area (30+ miles from all Cleveland TV stations, according to DTV.gov) with rabbit ears and a converter box, so I never bothered with it. Basic cable suits me to a T, as I can watch most programs I used to get on x-basic cable on DVD or VHS; there isn't that much, IMO, worth watching on the networks nowadays anyhow. Further, it's a lot less of a strain on my wallet each month.

Cost me $70 to terminate intracontract. But I really don't miss it.

We bought a DVD player with wireless internet broadcasting of Netflix. For $8.99 a month we have something to watch whenever we want. And it pipes it directly to the flat screen.

But since it's been since the early '70 that I had an aerial on the roof, I'm wondering if Radio Shack is still a good source?

Based on that one VHF station it looks like I need a VHF/UHF I'll probably do FM too. Are these roof mount aerials decent?

I'm assuming you can come off the antenna with 75 ohm cable. Could I tie that into what's left over from the satellite installation to get into the house?

So much technology change. So little expertise.

But since it's been since the early '70 that I had an aerial on the roof, I'm wondering if Radio Shack is still a good source?

One nice thing about RS is that the people in the local store will possibly have some knowledge of reception conditions in your local area. worth talking to them, some clerks may try to sell you the most expensive antenna, some may be a genuine help... mixed bag. The antennas they sell are fine.

Based on that one VHF station it looks like I need a VHF/UHF I'll probably do FM too. Are these roof mount aerials decent?

Since WINK does have a valid Construction permit for ch 50 (at 1million watts), I suspect that it is their intent to build it out and move to that channel, You might want to try a UHF antenna, see if it works ok for ch 9... in the long run UHF only may be all that you need. I am receiving 3 high band VHF channels at a distance of 12 miles with "UHF only" antennas.

Some of the FM stations in your area are not in the same direction as the TV stations, so an FM antenna may not help much on some stations, check out the transmitter locations linked on this list:
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?state=FL&call=&city=fort+myers&arn=&serv=&vac=&freq=0.0&fre2=107.9&facid=&class=&dkt=&list=1&dist=&dlat2=&mlat2=&slat2=&NS=N&dlon2=&mlon2=&slon2=&EW=W&size=9

I'm assuming you can come off the antenna with 75 ohm cable. Could I tie that into what's left over from the satellite installation to get into the house?

Should work ok, I think they usually use good coax.

jr

I've never paid for TV in my life. I grew up with only 2 VHF channels, so the 50+ channels I receive right now as free over-the-air DTV (including plenty of HD) is 25X more than I need.

I have a Radio Shack UHF-VHF antenna (purchased 15 years ago long before DTV) feeding a modern digital TV (as well as lots of DTV converter boxes, modulators, etc. for vintage TVs).

Very happy with this, and certainly have saved many thousands of $ over the years.

Although I'm kidding (just a little), I think all of you who pay for TV are wasting lots of money, and wasting lots of time. The stuff on TV isn't really all that good to warrant spending so much time in front of the boob tube. :)

One thing we got recently is a Wi-Fi enabled Blu-Ray player, which receives content from NetFlix via the internet. That's where my wife and kids go to get all the content they want. Only costs $10 per month. This is brand new to us, so I guess I need to start saying that "I never paid more than $10/month for TV." You get all the content you want, and nothing else. For example, my kids are enjoying watching old "Pink Panther" cartoons. They're great! Anyone remember those from the 1970s?

Don't forget about Hulu, oneddl.com and all the others to see what you want on your own downloading schedule. I forgot to record the Grammys and a friend of mine got it for me on oneddl.com at 1.4gig on a stick and it looked better than my own dvd recorder would have done...and the commercials were gone.

These two websites are the most useful in getting info in local tv reception.

http://www.tvfool.com/modeling/

http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php

TV Fool for local signal strength, direction, etc.
Rabbit Ears for other info, coverage maps, transmitter info. and applications for future changes.