My parent's TV back at home gets terrible reception for about 75% of its channels. The signal just seems to be way to weak up where they live. They don't want to get cable because they don't watch that much tv, but my dad's getting frustrated 'cause he can't watch any of his sports on the weekends (golf, baseball, etc.) He wants to try one of those plug-in-use-the-house-as-an-antenna thingys but those seem like a scam. Any ideas? Oh, and the roof antenna is useless and replacing it is a pain. Help!

Why don't you use the TV antenna (not roof one)?

Man, ota reception depends on sooooo many factors. Are there trees nearby? Large bodies of water? Is your parents house in a valley? How far away do your parents live from the broadcasting stations? The list could go on and on.

I'd say that you would get the best reception from an open air antennae, not some gizmo that plugs into an outlet. Most indoor powered antennaes are suckekekekekek unless you happen to live within 20 miles of the broadcasting stations.

RS has some rather cheap open air antennae that could give your parents much better reception. If it's a good antennae it may be the cable itself that's degraded and causing poor reception.

My parents' house is in Mundelein, IL (about half an hour from the Wisconsin border). There are a few trees around, but they are all of the small house variety. There aren't any large bodies of water and they do not live in a valley. We are currently using a variety of indoor antennas for the various tv's that are around the house (the basement gets like 2 channels). If we decide to go the outdoor antenna route (which seems like the best bet right now), do you guys have any economical recommendations? Thanks.

I guess only way for better reception - replace the roof antenna. I know it's pain in ass, but worth it.

How do i go about doing that? do i have to hire someone? (the house is really, really big) is there an outdoor antennae that i could install that doesn't have to go on the roof?

Giant balls of aluminum foil on the end of the antenna always helps.

Seriously we have an outdoor antenna that we threw in the attic and it works great nothing on the outside of the house and no installation. we live about 20 miles outside of houston so you might have to install it outside if you are far from the station.

Dude! Tell your folks to get into the 80s (do they have a microwave )...

Basic cable is not that expensive, find them a price list, they may not be opposed to it... Good luck!

Cable is like $40 a month. That's pretty expensive in my book (although i can't imagine not having cable at this point in my life). Also my parents wont get the local Korean channel if they get cable. They just watch that, the news, and maybe some golf and stuff on the weekends. They aren't television oriented.

Oh and anyone know how to find out how far the broadcasting tower is from a house?

schizopak, are you home for break? are you gonna come back to u of i?

anyway, the antenna issue. two summers ago when i lived at a basement apartment in urbana, i tried going the whole year without cable, so i bought an indoor antenna. that didn't work so well, so i returned it and bought another one. and that didn't work so well. i ended up trying over a dozen antennas. finally i found one that worked perfectly (as in i got all 7 or 8 channels in the area).

it was the RCA ANT130 antenna. it really is the best indoor antenna around and it's only $20 and it doesn't require power.. my friend who lives at town & country apts here bought this antenna at my recommendation b/c his other indoor one (paid $40) didn't get that many channels, and this one worked so much better. you can pick it up at a wal-mart, k-mart, target, etc.

here's a link to one: http://www.valcoelectronics.com/tvantennas/ant130.htm

p.s. of course, an external antenna will give you a much better reception. but try the RCA one first.

Actually, I'm still here in Champaign taking a couple of classes. I still have finals to go (one in like 6 hours and the other one on friday). I completely agree that the RCA antenna is the best indoor one for its money, but the funny thing is that we are already using it at the home in Mundelein! We get the best reception out of the 3 or 4 tvs with that one even though others have much more expensive antennas on them. I guess I'll just have to tell my parents to either get an external antenna. Thanks for your help man.

Good luck with your finals. And also with the antenna.

Thanks a lot!

If you have what is called a log periodic or directional antenna, a storm may have turned it the wrong way. Make sure it is aligned properly so it points at the transmitting stations in the nearest big city. If not, the house antenna thing works as long as your house doesn't have shielding.

The newer houses electrical systems has shielding on all of the current carrying wires and prevents any RF from acting on it. Check with your house blueprints/electrical person first. IF not, I have heard that is works but aren't sure. Rabbit ears would suck compare to your roof antenna, but check to see that all your connections from TV/VCR to antenna are tight. Make sure there are no cuts and that the transmission line (coax cable) you use is the proper 75 Ohm lines. Also, you may want to think about getting a signal amp (pretty cheap at radioshack). This will improve the gain in the signal so when your VCR or TV runs the signal through some filters the noise or static picture is gotten rid of.

Just some thoughts from an EE person.