Get Better TV Reception?

Question

I live in a rural area with not-great reception, and no access to cable or satellite. My husband says that the television he had several years ago got much better reception than the one we have now. Did televisions change their internal antennas?
Also, we do have an antenna in the attic, and we tried adjusting it (didn't help). Is there a particular type of antenna that would work best?
Thank you!

We're in the woods and the satellite couldn't be aimed properly over the trees.. . anyway at this time, we don't want to pay monthly for TV.

Answer 1

>Is there a particular type of antenna that would work best?

That depends!
Use http://www.antennaweb.org or http://www.tvfool.com to find out the direction & distance to the channels you want to receive. In the US, analog channels 2-13 (VHF) are on frequencies that work better at long distances than the frequencies used on channels 14-69 (UHF).


>the television he had several years ago got much better reception than the one we have now. Did televisions change their internal antennas?

I've never seen a TV with an internal antenna. The quality of the tuners in new TV's will vary between various models, but in the long run the quality has gone up, not down.

What kind of antennas do your neigbors use?

>antenna in the attic,

Antennas in atics don't work as well as ones on the rooftop. That being said, if it worked OK before, there must be some reason for the decrease in performance.

Trouble shooting:

a. does your attic antenna have a preamp? Is it still getting power?

b. Has the cable running from the attic degraded. Small animals chewing on it, that sort of thing.

c. are there any new metal objects between the antenna and the transmitter antennas? Even foil backing on insulation and wire window screens will reflect TV signals.

d. Have you tried another TV tuner? For example, another TV or using the tuner on a VCR.

Answer 2

Explain exactly how you don't have access to satellite. Unless you live in the middle of the ocean, you should be able to bring in a pretty useable signal.