Sorry, but I have yet another request for help selecting a reasonable antenna so we can receive TV after June 12th. And if possible can you imagine you are trying to explain this to someone in kindergarten? I’m typically pretty bright, but when reading the posts on these forums just hear a dull buzzing sound in my head.
We do not have cable or satellite and price is currently an issue. 6+ months of unemployment so we are looking for a reasonably priced solution. Hope to spend $100 or less.
Our location is in zip code 30022 (NE of Atlanta). More specifically Lat 34 degrees, 0.1 minutes North and Long = 84 degrees, 16.5 minutes West.
We are in an interior unit townhouse (2 stories) and there is a line of tall trees less than 10 feet outside the back of our home.
According to antenna web, we are 17 – 18.4 miles from the stations we care about receiving and recommends a small Multi-directional antenna.
A few caveats /comments:
- Mounting this on the roof is not an option. I just don’t want to fool with it. I know this limits our reception but it is just more trouble than I want to deal with. No one here has a clue how to install one and I am not hiring anyone.
- I will consider mounting a small antenna outside but it would have to be at ground floor level. Attic is a maybe but I have absolutely no concept of how we would then connect this to the TV’s (from outside or the attic).
- We have three TV’s. All very basic, older tube TV’s. 2 on second floor, one on the first. Currently use rabbit ears for analog TV.
- We have tried hooking up the digital converter box with our existing rabbit ears (Terk Technology TV-1 Passive Indoor TV Antenna). With Analog TV the reception is flawless (or as flawless as it can get). With the converter box it was worse. We were able to get all the major digital channels, but they were frequently pixelated, popped/cracked (I don’t know how else to describe it) with occasional loss of sound.
What I need is:
1. Recommendation on the best antenna given my restrictions/wishes.
2. If we absolutely have to have an outside antenna, how in the world does that “reach” my TV’s (remember no cable or satellite)?
3. Since we had reasonable reception with our old rabbit ears, is there an “inside” antenna we could buy to hook to each TV that would be an improvement over our current rabbit ears?
Many thanks!
-Libby (probably the one person in the US who HATES this damn TV conversion!)