Why is ATSC on VHF so damn finicky?

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by nasadowsk

As n aside, in the NTSC days, was UHF ever NOT finicky? I don't ever recall being able to get UHF decently..

I can answer this one as a DX'er, NO - As a supplement to fill in areas not able to have a VHF local channel, UHF was always meant for a 40 mile radius using a common roof antenna.

If you were clear up to 100 miles away or stuck in the woods 50 miles away, the Channel Master Parascope (4251) was the antenna you needed, to get any stable UHF and almost always with antenna-mounted preamplifiers.

At least analog was giving us clues if it was multipath OR weak signal screwing with finicky UHF