My wife uses a 5" TV/radio combo to watch the news (actually mostly listen to it) while she's getting ready for work during the school year. It has a single rabbit-ear antenna, which could pick up a recognizable but very "snowy" image on only one analog VHF station, about 50 miles away, and nothing usable on UHF.
A few months ago I briefly experimented with an external UHF loop antenna and a CECB, but couldn't get a stable signal on even the nearest UHF station, about 26 miles away. It doesn't help that the kitchen is on the side of the house that faces away from the transmitters.
Last week I tried again, and this time I found a "sweet spot" for the antenna that enabled consistent reception of that station. During the past week it's gotten flaky only once, when the whole area was covered with thunderstorms and reception on our main TV via the roof antenna varied wildly from one direction to another. Otherwise the Zenith DTT901's signal meter has been pretty steady at around the 70% mark, a bit inside the rightmost third of the indicator bar.
This will mean a slight change in her viewing habits, because the analog station was CBS ("The Early Show") but the digital one is ABC ("Good Morning America"). It's actually an SD subchannel of a MyNetworkTV affiliate, which simulcasts an ABC affiliate owned by the same company. I normally hate SD simulcast subchannels because they steal bandwidth from the HD subchannel, but now I'm making an exception for this one!
The antenna location even satisfies the WAF. The antenna looks like just another knicknack on the shelf.
(The second TV in the picture is actually used as a radio, tuned to NPR.)
A few months ago I briefly experimented with an external UHF loop antenna and a CECB, but couldn't get a stable signal on even the nearest UHF station, about 26 miles away. It doesn't help that the kitchen is on the side of the house that faces away from the transmitters.
Last week I tried again, and this time I found a "sweet spot" for the antenna that enabled consistent reception of that station. During the past week it's gotten flaky only once, when the whole area was covered with thunderstorms and reception on our main TV via the roof antenna varied wildly from one direction to another. Otherwise the Zenith DTT901's signal meter has been pretty steady at around the 70% mark, a bit inside the rightmost third of the indicator bar.
This will mean a slight change in her viewing habits, because the analog station was CBS ("The Early Show") but the digital one is ABC ("Good Morning America"). It's actually an SD subchannel of a MyNetworkTV affiliate, which simulcasts an ABC affiliate owned by the same company. I normally hate SD simulcast subchannels because they steal bandwidth from the HD subchannel, but now I'm making an exception for this one!
The antenna location even satisfies the WAF. The antenna looks like just another knicknack on the shelf.
(The second TV in the picture is actually used as a radio, tuned to NPR.)
