RCA flat antenna

[pzaur]

Anyone had experience with these? My local Lowe's is selling them. I'd like to replace my antenna contraption that I have on the back of my entertainment center with a real antenna. This would hide real easily on the backside of it.

RCA Ant2000

-pat

 

[pzaur]

Apparently, it's probably a moot point for me. It requires some special connection to work properly. It's called CEA909. Never heard of it before.

I'm 99.9% sure my TV won't work with this.

-pat

 

[Adam]

Those caught my eye about a month ago, and I recall reading more bad reviews than good ones. I lost interest in them fairly quickly due to that.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

I'm 99.9% sure my TV won't work with this.

-pat

Looks to me like it includes everything that's needed to make it work. From the web page (emphasis mine):

Item Includes
RCA ANT2000 Smart Antenna - Smart Module - Antenna Control Cable - Coaxial Cable - RCA 1 Year Warranty

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[pzaur]

Looks to me like it includes everything that's needed to make it work. From the web page (emphasis mine):




Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

You need to read more in depth about the CEA909 connection that is required.

-pat

 

[highfigh]

Anyone had experience with these? My local Lowe's is selling them. I'd like to replace my antenna contraption that I have on the back of my entertainment center with a real antenna. This would hide real easily on the backside of it.

RCA Ant2000

-pat

What you need for an antenna depends on where you are in relation to the antenna farm. How close are you to the hill around Tempe? If you're in the middle of the mountains and antennas, you probably don't need too much gain. Winegard makes several that are in the same price range and don't need special connectors.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

From the mixed user reviews, it appears to be "iffy."

http://www.amazon.com/RCA-ANT2000-Adjusting-Indoor-Antenna/dp/B001G0UOF4

http://reviews.walmart.com/1336/10096792/reviews.htm

Lowes had a pretty generous return policy, so there's no good reason not to give it a shot.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[pzaur]

What you need for an antenna depends on where you are in relation to the antenna farm. How close are you to the hill around Tempe? If you're in the middle of the mountains and antennas, you probably don't need too much gain. Winegard makes several that are in the same price range and don't need special connectors.

I was doing great with reception until the digital transition occurred. The broadcast locations changed for most of the stations and I lost a bunch. I haven't been able to get them back, all at once. In theory, there shouldn't be any problem with reception since the East Valley is flat. I'm actually believing that the stucco on my house is the biggest culprit. The wire mesh supposedly rejects a lot of signal.

I have a rigged antenna of hangers and heavy gauge wire strung around the backside of my entertainment center. As I said earlier, it worked great until the transition to digital occurred. I figured that the locations changed based on antennaweb.org. The compass points changed after things rolled to digital.

-pat

 

[Adam]

Pat,

I only do over-the-air. There is some very useful info available regarding reception areas and tower directions. tvfool.com has some cool maps that show coverage zones of the towers, as well as directions to the towers from your house.

Most digital towers broadcast in the UHF range, so if you're antenna is a VHF design, then it wouldn't work as effectively for the digital signals. I don't believe that there's anything special about the digital broadcasts - it's simply that the frequencies being used might be different than those that you used to design your antenna.

 

[highfigh]

I was doing great with reception until the digital transition occurred. The broadcast locations changed for most of the stations and I lost a bunch. I haven't been able to get them back, all at once. In theory, there shouldn't be any problem with reception since the East Valley is flat. I'm actually believing that the stucco on my house is the biggest culprit. The wire mesh supposedly rejects a lot of signal.

I have a rigged antenna of hangers and heavy gauge wire strung around the backside of my entertainment center. As I said earlier, it worked great until the transition to digital occurred. I figured that the locations changed based on antennaweb.org. The compass points changed after things rolled to digital.

-pat

The fact that you say it's rigged makes me think it wouldn't have worked even if the digital antenna had been installed where the others are. Antennas are tuned to the frequency range the equipment needs. Hangers and wire are OK for analog- I use an old rabbit ear antenna for my FM tuner and when DirecTV had an off-air input for local channels but I'm also really close to the local towers.

Where are they now- Superstition?

 

[pzaur]

The fact that you say it's rigged makes me think it wouldn't have worked even if the digital antenna had been installed where the others are. Antennas are tuned to the frequency range the equipment needs. Hangers and wire are OK for analog- I use an old rabbit ear antenna for my FM tuner and when DirecTV had an off-air input for local channels but I'm also really close to the local towers.

Where are they now- Superstition?

I wouldn't doubt that the design is off for them. I haven't researched antenna design a whole lot. The only thing I can say for sure is that I used to get every digital channel without a problem until the official switch occurred. That's when the locations for broadcast also changed. Since then, if I alter the antenna I can tune in the channels I've lost, sometimes, with the loss of other channels I had before.

The broadcasts appear to all be on South Mountain which would make the signal fairly strong/direct. Nothing to obstruct the actual broadcast.

Adam, thanks for the tvfool.com suggestion. I'll check it out later today and compare it to antennaweb.org.

I think I'm just gonna pick up a cheap RCA antenna from Lowe's ($9.97). It has rabbit ears and loop.

-pat

 

[Adam]

Pat, did you rescan for channels after the switch? If not, do that. Some of the frequencies changed. I lost some channels, rescanned, and there they were. They had commercials on TV recommending it.

 

[pzaur]

Pat, did you rescan for channels after the switch? If not, do that. Some of the frequencies changed. I lost some channels, rescanned, and there they were. They had commercials on TV recommending it.

Rescan? What are you talking about? My TV should naturally know what to do! I've rescanned about 3 dozen times and each time I've picked up different sets of channels. Never everything at once. The TVfool.com site is much more helpful than antennaweb.org.

I have trouble with Fox, PBS, and NBC. All of which are part of the VHF frequency. Probably my antenna design and not really understanding how to build an antenna. Time to suck it up and buy a real antenna this week...

-pat

 

[Adam]

Don't be too convinced that a store-bought antenna is going to work any better. I hope that it does for you, but the home-built ones can work very well in comparison.

I'd suggest that you look for one that is designed for VHF and UHF, given those trouble stations. Most of the newer "digital" antennas are geared towards UHF because that's where most of the digital broadcasts are (or, at least, were) located. That doesn't mean that they won't work for VHF, but the smaller indoor antennas might not work well over the larger frequency range because of the trade offs in keeping them small while tuning them for a certain frequency band. My outdoor antenna was labelled as "UHF" but pulls in the upper end of VHF very well, but it's also pretty large.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

You guys crack me up. You are willing to buy $2000 subs, $1500 AVRs, $50,000 speakers, $3,000 displays, $2,000 amps but not willing to pay 35 bucks a month for sat or cable....

 

[Adam]

...$50,000 speakers...

Because it's you, I'll sell them to you for a mere $20k. I'll even send them UPS.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Ship them out, I am good for the cash.

Because it's you, I'll sell them to you for a mere $20k. I'll even send them UPS.

 

[Adam]

Ship them out, I am good for the cash.

Send the cash. I'm good for the speakers.

 

[pzaur]

You guys crack me up. You are willing to buy $2000 subs, $1500 AVRs, $50,000 speakers, $3,000 displays, $2,000 amps but not willing to pay 35 bucks a month for sat or cable....

Hey now, I have cable! I'm just trying to get the complete spread of OTA broadcasts available. I had it until the switch to all digital occurred. This included all the digital channels. Just trying to get back what I had with what I had. (Ain't workin' though...)

I'm gonna demand an intermediary fee since you guys are brokering this deal on my thread! 10% sounds right.

-pat

 

[Adam]

I'm gonna demand an intermediary fee since you guys are brokering this deal on my thread! 10% sounds right.

That's fair.

Greg, the price just went up 10%.