My exwife and children have recently moved back to my hometown in rural Oklahoma. The kids have told me that they don't get any TV reception at all and their mother won't pay for cable. I want to send them an indoor UHF/HDTV antenna. Is anyone using one of these? Are they any good?

My dad has one in case the cable goes out. It works pretty well. I'm not sure exactly how it works as far as broadcasting HD signals. If they don't get analog reception, would they necessarily get HD reception?

If they're in a rural area, doubtful.

Once the changeover happens in June, finally, and everything goes digital it's going to take a better antennae than before to produce a picture. Unlike the good old days where if you had poor reception you'd be able to see the picture, just with a lot of snow, digital doesn't work like that. There's no snow but the picture will pixelate so bad you won't be able to decipher it and most sets these days will bypass any digital signal that won't produce a fairly strong signal while they autoprogram.

You may need to put up and outside antennae.

Go to antennaweb.org and put in their zip code at least to check and see the distance from their house to the tv stations.  That way you can see if you need a long, mid or short range antenna.  

I live in one of those hillbilly houses without that thing y'all call cable. We only have digital TV. (The old analog.) We use the same huge antannae on top of our house. I think its supposed to be something like 35' high, but ours is about 20-25'. Sooo, I don't think the little bitty indoor one will do you that much good.

One thing about those old, huge outside antennaes.  Most of bigger elements on those antennaes that stuck out were for the reception of VHF stations.  UHF reception was handled by a very small bow tie antennae mounted towards the very front of that array of long rods sticking out.  Come June when VHF goes away, the vast majority of those metal elements will become useless.

My sister in law lives way out in the country and uses one. They have a digital ready TV and get crystal clear reception using just a rabbit eared UHF antenna. I believe that digital does better than analog in general but the drawback like Cart said is that digital is a go or no go nothing in between.

One question you might ask is if they have an old existing non digital ready TV & UHF antenna then maybe they have not bought the digital converter box? If not a digital ready TV and no digital converter box then they are not going to get anything once digital only comes into being. If the local stations have already converted to digital only ( as mine have ) then that could already be their problem.

Let us know how it comes out as we all could probably learn something from this.

One question you might ask is if they have an old existing non HD TV & antenna then maybe they have not bought the digital converter box? If not an HDTV and no digital converter box then they are not going to get anything once digital only comes into being. If the local stations have already converted to digital only ( as mine have ) then that could already be their problem.

They have an HDTV. No outdoor antenna, no rabbit ears, no anything. I remember getting reception with rabbit ears when I was a kid. That's why I was considering one of the indoor UHF/HDTV antennas.

I live in the suburbs of Maryland and have not had cable in 20 years. I use the indoor antenna. I did go out and buy one that actually plugs in. It is not perfect but, a lot better than the standard rabbit ears. My only issue now is finding a way to record on the vcr. It seems to be different with the DTV set up.

If you just want a small, indoor setup and since they have an HDTV (as long as it is one with an ATSC tuner) I would suggest the Terk HDTVi or a Channel Master 4030 more than likely.

Right. If you are comparing the antennae to a bird per say, the only part really needed now is the little tail section.

My sister in law lives way out in the country and uses one. They have a digital HDTV and get crystal clear reception. I believe that digital does better than analog in general but the drawback like Cart said is that digital is a go or no go nothing in between.

One question you might ask is if they have an old existing non HD TV & antenna then maybe they have not bought the digital converter box? If not an HDTV and no digital converter box then they are not going to get anything once digital only comes into being. If the local stations have already converted to digital only ( as mine have ) then that could already be their problem.

Let us know how it comes out as we all could probably learn somethingfrom this.

I don't think so. I thought the "transition" will only end the analog transmissions. There will still be HD transmissions that HD antennaes can receive as far as I know.

The changes involve both digital transmission AND the frequency which they will be broadcast at.  All VHF channels, 2-13, will cease to exist for television transmission and the US government will be selling those frequencies off to the highest bidder.  

so HD antennaes will not work?

I have this type antenna mounted to a 1" pvc pole attached to a joyce (sp?) inside my attic and pick up all the local HD channels on my HDTV (it has a tuner in it). I live near Peachtree City, Georgia (30 mins south of Atlanta) and just point it north towards Atlanta and pick them all up. Just ran new cable from it to the 'OTA' port (over the air) on my HDTV, hit program and that's it. These channels are already being broadcast in digital so their conversion from analog already occurred.

Best part of it was that I picked up that antenna in 1995 in a yard sale for $5.00.

Yes the antennas will still work. The whole key will be whether or not your TV has a built in ATSC tuner, or if not, and a persons TV doesnt have that type of tuner, you would need the digital to analog tuner box.

I'll try and clear this up.

Up till digital broadcasting, television broadcasting was analog What's the difference between digital and analog?

Let's use audio as a comparison. Previously, on a vinyl record for example, the audio as it was recorded was put onto the record and the music you heard was a direct result of how it was etched onto the record. If you hooked up an oscilloscope, you'd see a garbly sine wave that was a direct representation of how the music came right off the instruments or microphones.

Digital is different. They feed the analog signal coming from the instruments/microphones and convert it to digital. A bunch of 1's and 0's. MP3's, CD's etc are all digital medium. In your stereo receiver at home, the digital is reconverted back to analog just before it goes to your speakers for you to hear.

Now for television, they merely take the analog TV signal from the TV camera's and convert it into those same 1's and 0's. It's transmitted through the air, received by the antenna, deciphered by the digital tuner in your set or converter box, then sent into the rest of the TV for conversion to be shown on the screen.

None of this though has any relationship to the actual transmitting of the signal. It's done much the same way it's always been done. Currently TV transmission signals are approved by the FCC for VHF (very high frequency) channels 2-13 and UHF (ultra high frequency) channels 14-69.

Now, how does that work? The optimal length of an antenna is directly related to the frequency you're trying to receive. In the case of say a set of rabbit ears antenna that sit on top of a TV, the long rods that stick up are for VHF reception (since the transmission "waves" are longer) and the smaller loop is for UHF (the transmission "waves" are shorter). In the case of the antenna shown by Eddie Munster, the back half of that antenna with all the long poles sticking straight out is for VHF reception. The very front end is for UHF. Come June, he could saw that antennae off right at that V shaped appendage and still receive all the digital signals he wanted to.

In June, all transmissions on the VHF band will cease with those frequencies sold off to the highest bidder. That leaves the UHF band for TV transmitting. So why can't regular TV sets that already have a UHF tuner built into them work beyond June? Because the signal being sent will be digital instead of the 70 + year old NTSC analog that's been sent up to now. The old analog tuners in those sets won't be able to decipher what it's receiving. That's why you'll need a convertor box, merely a box that has a ATSC tuner (digital) and the circuitry needed to convert the signal into something the older TV set can process.

Finally. So if everything is being broadcast digitally, won't it all be High Def?

Nope.

After June everything going out onto the airwaves will be digital content but unless it was originally recorded with High def camera's or was produced with HD graphics engines it's not HD.

BTW, for a short while, some manufacturers were producing sets with both types of tuners, the old NTSC and new, digital ATSC. Although the sets are completely capable of receiving digital transmissions they ARE NOT HDTV. HDTV's have the ability of reproducing a picture in the 720 or 1080 mode which non-HDTV's don't have.

but that's for another thread.

So the UHF channels were previously used to carry analog signals? but after the transition they will switch to only carrying digital channels?

Only digital signals will be broadcast after June 20th if I am not mistaken on the date.

So the UHF channels were previously used to carry analog signals? but after the transition they will switch to only carrying digital channels?

TV stations previously on the UHF band will continue to be on the UHF band, as will all TV stations. The only difference is they will be transmitting a digital signal.

Here's the interesting part and I'll use the St Louis area as an example.

Digital Tuning Frequencies For St Louis Stations:

KMOV      CBS      56      UHF

KDNL-TV      ABC      31      UHF

KSDK      NBC      35      UHF

KETC      PBS      39      UHF

KPLR-TV      WB      26      UHF

WRBU      UPN      47      UHF

KTVI-TV      FOX      43      UHF

Currently, KMOV, the CBS affiliate is channel 4. Their digital channel is 56 on the UHF band. Will they suddenly change from Channel 4 news at 10pm or change to Channel 56 news at 10pm?  People in the St Louis area are so ingrained knowing which channels are affiliated with who it could cause some obvious confusion.

KDNL is currently one of a couple stations already on the UHF band, channel 30 to be exact. In June though, they will cease transmitting the analog signal on channel 30. They are currently transmitting their digital signal on channel 31. Will they drop channel 31 and switch exclusively to 30 or not? Interesting scenarios will come from this.  

ok, thanks. I think I understand now. So as long as someone has a newer tv set and a UHF antennae, they will be able to receive the new digital channels after the transition?

Yep. A TV set with a digital tuner and some sort of UHF antenna.

If you're on cable or satellite you don't have to worry at all.  

ok, thanks. I think I understand now. So as long as someone has a newer tv set and a UHF antennae, they will be able to receive the new digital channels after the transition?

Correct or an older TV, a UHF antenna and a digital converter box between them

Note: I was sloppy in my earlier post. Basically I was correct but as Cart7t clarified HDTV is just a higher level of DTV. ALL my HDTV references really should have been just digital TV which I believe is often referred to as SDTV (?). I've gone back and edited it.

ok, thanks fellas. It doesn't apply to me because I have digital cable, I just wanted to know how it all works.

Like others have said go to antennaweb.org and find out of they have to have a outside antenna. I'd say anything over 35 miles requires a outside antenna for solid reception. I'd recommend you check out Channel Master antennas. I have the larger Channel Master 4228 and I get solid reception of both VHF and UHF. I'd recommend you go to AVS forums to read up more. I also know some people buy a second dish for there sat system and install it at there "summer" home and simply add another receiver to there account. As long as the rec is never hooked up to the Internet or phone the Sat company would never know. WINK!WINK!