How many airline miles will the antenna pick up a signal?
I bought the system listed above at Denny'sTv because I am, what you would call, in a "fringe" area for reception. With my antenna system and an inline amp, also from denny's, I am picking up signals consistently out to 70-80miles, and anything closer is no problem.
I have a rotor on mine, but I can leave it in a 300-degree heading and pick up about 80% on my broadcast stations without moving the heading.
The small antennas out there in the $20-$50 dollar range will work if you are really close to tramsmitters, or in a large city area that might have a few broadcast stations. By "close" to the transmitters for these antennas, I am talking 20miles or less....you might receive stations further out, but not likely unless their transmitter output is very high.
Without getting too deep into theory, when the FCC forced broadcasters to drop their analogue transmitters to go digital, the digital signal has to be received at the TV at a higher signal strength, or it wont "lock on" and display the picture. So, digital broadcasting is a bit more fickle to receive than the old analogue mode.
When analogue was the normal transmitting mode, you would receive a picture, even with it being weak, fuzzy picture, lines of interference on the screen, etc...
Digital looks much better, but if you cant receive a signal strong enough to satisfy the receiver, you get nothing... with digital it's all or nothing...
There are analogue-to-digital converters out there also for older "pre-digital" TV's that are still out there..
dave
