Digital TV antenna receiver (Alexandria, Springfield: low income, apartment, condo)

[leighland]

I installed the converter box with a top rated antenna on my TV last weekend. Guess what channels I got in?
Al Jazeera
24 France
a Skiing channel
A Spanish channel
NBC
NBC Plus (which is a radar weather map and thats it).

And thats it. No joke, we scanned the thing 4 times. No ABC/Fox/CBS/PBS. And I live under that huge public access TV antenna at Lee Hwy/Gallows.

MY MIL has in in Dallas and gets a bunch of stuff (stations like PBS have more than one channel the digitally broadcast).

So I'm sticking with my very basic cable (I have about 20 stations on that)

Has anyone else tried to go digital? What have been your experiences?

[athousandlogins]

I've had a similar lousy experience. I get all the major networks and PBS when the stars align and everything works. That happens about once a month. Far more often, I watch 10 minutes of some show, then the wind blows and everything freezes.

[VRE332]

In my area I get 22 channels over the air. You can check which stations you get by going to antennaweb.org . If you want to receive more stations, put your antenna in the window in facing DC.

[robbobobbo]

I have older TV sets and digital converter boxes. I have not tested with my rooftop antenna yet, but with my bedroom TV with regular old rabbit ears. I don't have cable and I don't watch a lot of TV. I'm in Alexandria city, and not on a hill.

Before the official switch-over date, I was able to receive most local digital channels. WETA stations were the most problematic, but I could get them, more or less. Other stations were fine.

After the switch-over, many stations recalibrated their frequencies, from what I heard. Afterwards, even after scanning and re-scanning, I am unable to get CBS most of the time, or ABC at all. I receive several additional channels like qubo. I miss PBS. So now I watch most of my programming on the computer.

I do dislike the fact that with analog, poor reception merely degraded the video signal, but at least you could still watch and listen. With digital, when the signal strays you get those hiccups, no sound, no motion in the video - and too often, the dreaded "no signal found".

[pcity]

No problems here (West End Alexandria) except for CBS and ABC occasionally.

[bornindc]

When I moved in to a house in Springfield last year, I also couldn't get many signals putting the antenna by the TV (which was not a problem at my previous location in Alexandria). I did the following and regularly get about 30 channels now including all the major networks and channels 20, 22, 26 & 32, although I lose some of these with heavy rain.

1) Used antennaweb and tvfool.com to make sure you are pointing your antenna in the right direction.
2) Moved the antenna up in to the attic and connected it to where the TV is (I didn't even need to wire it, I just hijacked the coax cable that was already in place from the previous owner using cable tv).
3) Used an antenna which is amplified to make sure you get the signal through the cable (I'm just using amplified bunny ears which cost $20 about 5 years ago. You'll need to have electric in the attic for this though).

If you can't use your attic using some other location higher than where you have it may help a lot (upstairs closet?).

You are probably getting interference from the tower there, most of the signals you want aren't from it, but from towers in NW DC. So making sure your antenna is pointed the right way will be crucial. You may even need to shield it somehow...

Good luck getting it set up. It sure beats paying for cable if you're not addicted to TV like a lot of people!

[car54]

I think the whole thing is disgraceful.

Can you imagine the millions of old and/or low income people that simply can't watch TV anymore?

[leighland]

Originally Posted by bornindc

When I moved in to a house in Springfield last year, I also couldn't get many signals putting the antenna by the TV (which was not a problem at my previous location in Alexandria). I did the following and regularly get about 30 channels now including all the major networks and channels 20, 22, 26 & 32, although I lose some of these with heavy rain.

1) Used antennaweb and tvfool.com to make sure you are pointing your antenna in the right direction.
2) Moved the antenna up in to the attic and connected it to where the TV is (I didn't even need to wire it, I just hijacked the coax cable that was already in place from the previous owner using cable tv).
3) Used an antenna which is amplified to make sure you get the signal through the cable (I'm just using amplified bunny ears which cost $20 about 5 years ago. You'll need to have electric in the attic for this though).

If you can't use your attic using some other location higher than where you have it may help a lot (upstairs closet?).

You are probably getting interference from the tower there, most of the signals you want aren't from it, but from towers in NW DC. So making sure your antenna is pointed the right way will be crucial. You may even need to shield it somehow...

Good luck getting it set up. It sure beats paying for cable if you're not addicted to TV like a lot of people!

You are assuming I have a house, or a 2nd floor or even a direct path to 'face DC' I don't-I rent.

Think of all the people like me who have only 1 or 2 no-share walls, are poor, can't afford the cable/direct tv/etc and basically had their TV taken away from them because of the switch to digital. At least I can afford the 20 bucks for basic cable.

From reading the comments below, most of us are lucky to have one functioning national USA channel from this system, and from what I am reading there are lots of freezes/no sound etc. Now think of 9-11.How many people who now rely on solely Digital would have received any information whatsoever? I doubt Al Jezeera would have broadcast where to go for help/what emergency systems were doing once the plane crashed into the Pentagon

How much money did the fed. gov't pay for this crappy system?

[bornindc]

Originally Posted by leighland

You are assuming I have a house, or a 2nd floor or even a direct path to 'face DC' I don't-I rent.

Think of all the people like me who have only 1 or 2 no-share walls, are poor, can't afford the cable/direct tv/etc and basically had their TV taken away from them because of the switch to digital. At least I can afford the 20 bucks for basic cable.

Mmm. Sorry about that. If you have a balcony or patio you may be able to rig an antenna on it, I know the FCC regs are superior to whatever the apartment rules are so you can legally put up an antenna outside. You may want to check if the building you're in has a TV mast on the roof, a condo I had in Alexandria had one and I could just plug in to that. Newer buildings probably don't, which is a bummer.

I agree that it is a bum deal for a lot of people, the digital signal is a lot iffier than the old analog one, so there are undoubtedly tons of people that just can't get good signals now. I don't know if the transmitting stations could be forced to raise power on the signals but this might be the only fix.

If you can't get a digital signal (and you could get an analog one) and don't have options that stinks for sure.