[Slyster]

I live 6 miles from the large towers (Mpls metro area) and my HR20 is in the basement... rabbit ears worked just fine for all local SD channels before I got satellite... will they work for HD? Perphaps just running them out the nearest window to the low/side of the house?

 

[Earl Bonovich]

Probably... So long as those "rabits" are able to pick up UHF signals (As that is where most of the stations are broadcasted in).

Check www.antennaweb.org for more details

 

[bonscott87]

Sure they can. Rabbit ears can usually be good for 10-20 miles out if there aren't a lot of hills or trees in the way. Back in college I lived on the 3rd floor of an apartment and picked up most of our stations with rabbit ears and the towers are about 40 miles away (analog of courese).

Try it, you've got nothing to lose. And only 6 miles away you should be fine with the digital signals.

 

[Slyster]

Kewl... Tx!

soo... when IS ota coming Earl? (kidding)

 

[ajwillys]

I used Rabbit ears for a little while until I got a new antenna. I'm about 20 miles away and it looked pretty good. The analog stations from the same distance away looked like crap. Now I have a much better antenna (DB4) and the HD channels are all in the 90% range and the analog channels still look pretty bad.

Long story short, if you have can decent analog channels with an antenna, the digital channels should be stellar. If you do decide to buy a new antenna, don't fall for the hype (read: Best Buy, Circuit City, etc..). Just get something relatively cheap that looks like something an uber geek would buy. In general, the uglier the better. I got the DB4 from AntennasDirect and it works amazing. It's small enough to hide in the attic or even in a closet and still powerful enough to get good reception through a wall or roof (mines in the attic)

 

[travelswiss]

I bought the little Zenith ZHDTV1 for $20 bucks from Amazon. It's an indoor antenna, but I use it outdoors- works great at pulling in all my HD channels.

 

[Dusty]

I live about 5 miles from the towers. I use rabbit ears for OTA and it works fine.

 

[wtrax]

I'm about 30 miles from the towers and was able to pick up some of the OTA's in my area with amplified rabbit ears when I had a receiver that was capable of OTA. I noticed that with a signal strength of around 50 I can get glitch free reception with my OTA but with the sat signals it has to be higher.

 

[Tom Robertson]

I'm about 30 miles from the towers and was able to pick up some of the OTA's in my area with amplified rabbit ears when I had a receiver that was capable of OTA. I noticed that with a signal strength of around 50 I can get glitch free reception with my OTA but with the sat signals it has to be higher.

Alas, you can't compare signals from one tuner type to another. Nor from one receiver model to another, for that matter.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[911medic]

I live 6 miles from the large towers (Mpls metro area) and my HR20 is in the basement... rabbit ears worked just fine for all local SD channels before I got satellite... will they work for HD? Perphaps just running them out the nearest window to the low/side of the house?

Slyster, I'm in the Mpls area as well... Here's a couple of sites you may find useful:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=446660&page=1&pp=30

http://www.hdtvtwincities.com/index.php

FWIW, I live about 25-26 miles from the towers, and while I was able to detect stations w/some rabbit ears, I couldn't pull them in on my HR10-250 (when I ran thru setup w/the antenna connected, it added a few of them to the guide, but all I got was a black screen when I tuned to them). I'd imagine at your location you should be able to pull them in fine (you may even need a signal attenuator).

 

[hdtvfan0001]

I live 6 miles from the large towers (Mpls metro area) and my HR20 is in the basement... rabbit ears worked just fine for all local SD channels before I got satellite...

I'm more of a coathanger person myself....

Can you stand a little bit to the right more.... :lol:

 

[hasan]

I live 6 miles from the large towers (Mpls metro area) and my HR20 is in the basement... rabbit ears worked just fine for all local SD channels before I got satellite... will they work for HD? Perphaps just running them out the nearest window to the low/side of the house?

Instead of using Rabbit Ears, which are VERY tempermental, even with the best of signals, why not get something like the Silver Sensor (a directional indoor antenna). It will be far less susceptible to you moving about the room and other reflections, because of its directionality. You can find one for 20 some bucks.

Another alternative:

Radio Shack makes a model U-71 UHF/Corner Reflector that is 40" long...a very good, yet small UHF antenna. You might find a place you can tuck it away and it will outperform rabbit hears by at least an order of magnitude (X 10). Of course, all of this assumes all your TV stations are coming from the same direction....if not, then you'll have to point either the Silver Sensor or the U-71 at your various sources.

We're lucky here...all the transmitters/antennas are at the same location.

 

[911medic]

Instead of using Rabbit Ears, which are VERY tempermental, even with the best of signals, why not get something like the Silver Sensor (a directional indoor antenna). It will be far less susceptible to you moving about the room and other reflections, because of its directionality. You can find one for 20 some bucks.

Another alternative:

Radio Shack makes a model U-71 UHF/Corner Reflector that is 40" long...a very good, yet small UHF antenna. You might find a place you can tuck it away and it will outperform rabbit hears by at least an order of magnitude (X 10). Of course, all of this assumes all your TV stations are coming from the same direction....if not, then you'll have to point either the Silver Sensor or the U-71 at your various sources.

We're lucky here...all the transmitters/antennas are at the same location.

You mean the U75-R (I have one)? It's a good/cheap UHF antenna (works great for me, at 26 miles). Might be a little overkill for his distance, though.

All our stations (save one: "PAX") come from 2 towers that are about a mile apart. So for most people, it's virtually the same direction.

 

[hasan]

Darn! yes...U-75 and it was only about 25 bucks...I got one for a friend and have had lots of reports (very favorable) on it.

It is a bit large for behind the TV....but where there's a will there's a way (at least that's what I tell my wife)