Digital TV antenna for Long Island

[Joe from ny]

Can anyone recommend an antenna for my flat screen TV that I can mount on my radar arch? I will be using it in the Long Island area of New York.

Thanks

[sailvayu]

Living Aboard ZenTV on a boat

[svpattyd]

If u have a hd tv, you can use a harken halo as an antenna. We get great tv, when the signal is in range, with no extra power draw.

[ranger58sb]

See Glomex - The best in Marine Antennas - HOMEPAGE

-Chris

[donradcliffe]

It depends on whether you will be watching TV in a marina berth or swinging back and forth at anchor. For the first, you want a directional antenna, and for the second you don't.

[Joe from ny]

Originally Posted by svpattyd

If u have a hd tv, you can use a harken halo as an antenna. We get great tv, when the signal is in range, with no extra power draw.

What is a harken halo? i cant find mention of it anywhere.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

See Glomex - The best in Marine Antennas - HOMEPAGE

-Chris

I have one of these, inherited from the PO.

It is really good -- I get about 50 digital Freeview channels, many of them in HD, anywhere around the UK coast.

Sadly, I don't watch television, almost 0 hours a year, so it doesn't get any use other than occasionally for news during some newsworthy event.

[AnchorageGuy]

Joe, Your don't need any special antenna. Any omni-directional antenna that picks up UHF and VHF signals will pick up your digital HD TV stations. For fringe areas you will need an antenna that can adjust the gain. We have a Shakespeare 2025 for sale for $75.00 plus shipping if your interested. Chuck

[bill good]

Put a coax switch & use the mast top VHF antennea. Works good enough & no extra bits.

Regards Bill

[AnchorageGuy]

Originally Posted by bill good

Put a coax switch & use the mast top VHF antennea. Works good enough & no extra bits.

Regards Bill

This may or may not work and will be no different than connecting a long piece of wire as an antenna. The TV Coax is typically 75 ohms and the VHF coax is usually 52 ohms. VHF tv broadcasts are typically in the 50 to 200 mhz range and others are all over the place. Your VHF is 150+ mhz so the antennas is mismatched. Most Digital TV is on UHF with only a few stations on VHF. If you accidentally broadcast on the VHF with the TV connected you may damage the TV. Chuck

[bill good]

Hi Chuck,
Well it does work. Did not say it is matched but the height of the mast (on a sail boat) & the clearance makes up for a lot of the "short of technical correctness". The normal coaxial switch has a shorted port for the non selected & it is not going to allow you to dump RF into the TV. But you would not want to double select the selection before you try & transmit on the VHF. I have shown many of my sailing mates & some of them use the top mast ant. for TV when local sailing with their spare rail mounted VHF connected to radio. I do have the radio selected to the low power (1 Watt) pos.to allow for any failure to check. The field strength meter that is provided with the TV menu will show how good the signal is & all that is required is a PL259 joiner & a fly lead to the TV to test the setup before spending the $30 on a cheap ham type of coax switch good to 600 mhz. Use RG58 52 ohm all the way from the joiner & enjoy the mismatch!!


Regards Bill (retired tech)