old outdoor antenna -- how do you tell its type?

[Eric Jordan]

Numbie Q -- there is an outdoor antenna on the roof . How can I tell its type (UHF/VHF or VHF only)? It picks up analogue channels in both VHF (< channel 13) and UHF (say, 27, 44) ranges, but the digital channel scan on Dish ViP 211 gets only one vhf channel (channel 12), which is ~50 miles away from the house. (AntennaWeb says I also have several uhf digital channels within 30 miles). Does this mean the antenna is vhf only?

the cable (~20 ft long) going from the antenna to the house is of the flat type (300 ohm?). does this matter?

[FTA Michael]

On the typical outdoor antenna, the long, pointy sticks pick up VHF, and a smaller loop antenna (could be the size of an old 45 record, could be a bowtie) picks up UHF.

Since the use of VHF predates UHF, there are some VHF-only outdoor antennae in use out there.

Another important factor is which way it's pointed. Use AntennaWeb to see the direction your antenna needs to face to get the closest digital transmitters.

[Eric Jordan]

shameless self-reply --

the antenna is a uhf/vhf. It is not an antenna problem, rather a receiver (211) problem. Have to set the "analog type" in "hdtv setup" to "off-air" (for some reason it was set to "cable"). Now all the digital ota channels come in...:)

[Nick]

The antenna is old and probably has corroded connections. My
suggestion: Get a new antenna based on www.antennaweb.org
recommendations and replace the 300Ω flat lead with 75Ω coax.

[kocuba]

I have an old outdoor roof UHF/VHF antenna that is sitting above the drop ceiling in my basement, right above my HR20. Seeing as I am only 2.1 miles away(at most) from any tower that I care about I was hoping that this would work. I get about half of the available OTA channels and not the others. Am I going to have to bite the bullet and send this up to the roof either outside or in the attic? Or I've also heard that a shorter antenna would give me better reception. Can I also try connecting antenna right to the TV to see if I get those missing channels before I do anything else. I seemed to have read that patch downloads fixed some OTA reception issues. I am on 10b. Any help on these would be greatly appreciated.

Dave

[Eric Jordan]

I Am I going to have to bite the bullet and send this up to the roof either outside or in the attic?

everything being equal I think getting the antenna higher helps. the uhf is more or less a line-of-sight thing. Also, orientation of the antenna is important. check antennaweb to see if all the channels you want are more or less in the same direction (if they are not you probably need to buy another antenna).

what Nick said (below) is also a good point.

The antenna is old and probably has corroded connections. My
suggestion: Get a new antenna based on antennaweb
recommendations and replace the 300Ω flat lead with 75Ω coax.

mine turns out to be not that old -- even though it hasn't been used in years -- it pulls in pretty much all the (yellow, red, blue) channels antennaweb says:D

[harsh]

Seeing as I am only 2.1 miles away(at most) from any tower that I care about I was hoping that this would work.At 2.1 miles away, you may already have too much antenna (regardless of where it is placed). I would suggest starting with just a length of cable and work your way up.

You might even try plugging your remote control antenna into the OTA antenna input and see what happens.

Then again, if your antenna is below ground level, maybe you just need to get a small one that is above grade.