Posted on 08/03/2017 5:04:40 PM PDT by RightGeek
Cord-cutters accustomed to watching shows online are often shocked that $20 ‘rabbit ears’ pluck signals from the air; is this legal?
“I was just kind of surprised that this is technology that exists,” says Mr. Sisco, 28 years old. “It’s been awesome. It doesn’t log out and it doesn’t skip.”
Let’s hear a round of applause for TV antennas, often called “rabbit ears,” a technology invented roughly seven decades ago, long before there was even a cord to be cut, which had been consigned to the technology trash can along with cassette tapes and VCRs.
The antenna is mounting a quiet comeback, propelled by a generation that never knew life before cable television, and who primarily watch Netflix , Hulu and HBO via the internet. Antenna sales in the U.S. are projected to rise 7% in 2017 to nearly 8 million units, according to the Consumer Technology Association, a trade group.
Mr. Sisco, an M.B.A. student in Provo, Utah, made his discovery after inviting friends over to watch the Super Bowl in 2014. The online stream he found to watch the game didn’t have regular commercials—disappointing half of his guests who were only interested in the ads.
“An antenna was not even on my radar,” he says. He went online and discovered he could buy one for $20 and watch major networks like ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS free.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Old DVD players with tuners in them will work to bring in stations on a TV that has no tuner.
Sorry
Radio Shack went bust.
And before you ask:
No
You can’t go there and test your vacuum tubes.
I have a Terk antenna on top of my tv($40 at Walmart),
and I get the big four.... ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, plus about 7 other rinky dink channels. I’m happy with it.
I can watch most sports, local news and weather, Judge Judy, and one of the rinky dink channels gives me my Law&Oder Criminal Intent fix.
Me TV also gives me Columbo and Perry Mason. lol.
It helps that I have a big window in my TV room.
Former owners of our home had one like that, wish we had not moved it. We still have the tower. If only I could figure out how to get the antenna channels from the tower to current TV’s. We get awful reception.
We have a boat in Ventura Harbor with 2 tvs and 2 antennas. They get a heckuva lot of channels. Problem is most of them are Mexican, Indian, and Asian. Lol. We get a few of the network channels and some good ones with old shows on them. Our fave channel is ION.
We get digital channels with our antenna.
Probably illegal.
Free TV!?!
No...you pay for it in Brain Cells!
You serious? Or joking?
Lots of disposable income, excellent marketing let bottled water make inroads. It used to be an expensive status symbol and kept moving toward mass market.
I use a Terk set outside the companionway on the deck of our boat. We get quite a few channels on it. Subtract the foreign stations and religious channels and it’s probably about 10
I remember the one growing up in the 80s.
IIRC, it went away in 93 or 94 when they got a dish.
Don’t forget that flyback transformer.
Newer TVs are digital they have digital tuners channel scanners etc. Over the air TV is digital and of higher quality, definition then cable or satellite because they do not have to compress the signal.
I have a good antenna about 30 feet in the air. It pulls in over 20 channels - all the main stations plus.
When water fountains were segregated, everyone drank from the water fountains. When integration came, businesses tried those water fountains with the little pointed bottom cups. Then folks migrated to the bottles. Fluoridation may have been a minor factor.
Lunch counters/Soda Fountains used to have glasses. Integration started, and some of the storekeepers would throw away the glasses that certain of the customers used. That’s why fast food joint went to paper cups.
One of my kids once asked me if cars had fins when I was little. I said “Yep.”
And I remember a gen+exer saying “Paul McCartney was in a band before WINGS?”
There are still 70 Radio Shack stores open and you can also buy online:
Not saying it’s the best place to go.
My house being equidistant within Hartford, Providence, Worcester and New London, my extreme deep fringe system with rotor and preamp picks up +40 stations. All digital and high signal strength. Buried RG-216/U to get it from the shed roof out back into the house, about zero loss even with high UHF. Watching the Dallas v Arizona football game on it now while watching the Red Sox on Atlantic BroadBand.
[PDF] Yagi antenna design - NIST Page
DIY 4G LTE Yagi Antenna in 10 Steps for $10 http://www.k7mem.com/Electronic_Notebook/antennas/yagi_vhf.html
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