Installation of an HD antenna? (contractors, live in, price)

[SweepTheLeg]

I know there are contractors out there who install DirecTV, Dish, etc, but are there any contractors who install HD antennas? I'm looking for someone to mount a high-gain HD antenna on my roof and then feed down the line to supplement what I get on cable. I live in Central Jersey. Any ideas?

[captne76]

I think the FCC might have a list of contractors. Actually if you called them before July 31 (too late now) the gov't CTIA had contractors they paid for to do the work.
It just seems odd to me for so many people to be used to the idea of paying for TV, they should pay YOU to watch it.
I'll see if I can find a list later, but most any TV type shop install antennas. Also the people who install closed circuit TV, etc do this kind of work.

[JBrown]

First off I doubt the FCC...a Fedral Agency will have ANY knowledge of local contractors and would by law NOT recommend any specific installer. BUT

more to the point


there is NO such thing as an HD antenna...I repeat no such thing

A antenna is a passive component and responds only to certain radio wave frequencies...It knows NOTING about digital,analog, modulation encoding etc etc etc. The frequency band used by over the air HD TV is the same as older analog TV signals.

The only difference is the new marketing BS...don't be a sucker
Any decent antenna will work fine. Rabbit ears work as well !!

[captne76]

Well by law the FCC and NTIA, 2 federal agencies where in charge of and did have local contractors, working and getting paid by them to install HDTV equipment, until the program just ended July 31. I know this is kind of not what you expect, but they did have money to spend on this and they were required to set these programs up by Congress.

And yes I agree there's no such thing as an HDTV antenna. A better thing to keep in mind is if you need to receive VHF and UHF dpending on local channel assignments. Many TV stations that had a digital UHF channel temporarily and then went back to VHF after the transition have either petitioned the FCC to go to a UHF channel, if available, or had to greatly increase transmitter power using VHF. It became obvious that VHF was at a disadvantage in signal propagation.

Regarding rabbit ears, yes and sometimes no. They work fine IF you are close to the transmitter and get enough signal, however like 20 to 30 miles away, and depending on local blockage, location, height, etc., rabbit ears might not pick up a solid signal. In the old analog days people would put up with some noise, while in digital broadcasting this causes the picture to pixelate or totally drop off resulting in a negative viewing experience unless you have enough signal to overcome that.

Here we are using the same roof antenna we have always had which works extremely well on digital. On a neighbor's home, I had to replace the old flat lead antenna cable with round coaxial line because that old cable wouldn't pass UHF freq's through it very well.

[Trazzario]

Why not just do it yourself? You live in a house? Is it your own?

[captne76]

I see the most recent post on this thread was from 2009,,,but yes I agree do it yourself as much as possible, to those who are physically able. And I'm often surprised by various comments like "the TV stations still do that? (broadcast over the air)" and so on. Yes it is the PROPER way to receive a television signal and most often the clearest.

I'm surprised most TV set retailers did not show the masses the clear results. They could have cleaned up themselves.

Also even with cable or satellite or internet there are many channels and programs on the air you won't get at any price, and they are free. last time I checked about 55 channels in the North NJ area and you are not at the mercy of other providers,,, it's yours.

[ansky]

Originally Posted by captne76

Also even with cable or satellite or internet there are many channels and programs on the air you won't get at any price, and they are free. last time I checked about 55 channels in the North NJ area and you are not at the mercy of other providers,,, it's yours.

Yeah, maybe there are 55 channels, but at least half of those are foreign language, religious, or infomercial channels. When you break it all down it's really just the usual 5 or 6 networks and a couple decent subchannels like Antenna TV and Cozi.