Senate passes bill to delay digital TV switch

[Bobby Henderson]

Originally Posted by caliblue15

There is your answer right there, you have an amplified outdoor antenna, I will say most of America uses an Indoor antenna, much harder to receive channels that way.

Incorrect.

The outdoor antenna I'm using is not amplified at all. Further, the mast on it is missing a bunch of spokes from a nearby tree's branches swatting the crud out of it from a past severe thunderstorm. Nonetheless, I'm getting great quality OTA DTV reception from an NBC affiliate broadcasting at 1000 kW from a distance of roughly 50 miles.

Regarding claims of what kind of antenna most of America uses -most of America is actually paying for cable/satellite TV. People who really need decent OTA broadcast reception are going to rely on an outdoor model of antenna.

I think a lot of people are jumping to conclusions about DTV reception quality based on what they're getting with low power DTV broadcasts. Our local ABC affiliate is running its DTV signal at low power and it can be difficult to get decent reception even living with a few miles of the tower. It's impossible to get reception more than 20-30 miles in the distance. The image gets blocky and scrambled at times. There's a big difference when the DTV signal is being broadcast at full power.