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Digital TV Reception Question

V

vibe

My sister and brother in law live in western MA on a high south facing hill that allows them excellent analog reception of most of the CT television stations with a mimimal outdoor antenna set up. The UHF part is a 4 bay bow; All they are interested in after 2/2009 is UHF reception. But there is a huge hill between their home and the transmitters for sll of the Springfield stations which are only 5-15 mi away accd. to Antennaweb. Thie analog picture (on the main TV) of these stations is strong but simply not viewable, lots of ghosts/multipath, simply awful. (They actually get better reception with a second TV by disconnecting the indoor antenna.) I told them that digital is different , that if they get a strong signal they "should" be able to lock in a clear digital signal. I told them that digital is tricky and there are no sure things with digital. They are skeptical because they've lived within 15 mi of 3 TV stations that have been virtually unwatchable for 35 years and because they are taking the source of their information into consideration.
Then I thought about it later. Maybe I was giving them a bull story because all I was doing is surmising. I really am an amateur when it comes to this stuff. I'm soliciting some opinions from the better informed ones on the board.
Thankin y'all in advance... Vibe
 
If the multipath ("ghosting") is steady, not bouncing or rapidly changing, they are likely to get a good lock in DTV. One of the first things that happens in an ATSC receiver, is a multipath equalization process, that cleans up the signal, prior to decoding the data.
 
Do they have access to the top of that hill? If so - they could install passive reflectors up there. All you do is buy two antennas, point one towards the towers, point the other toward their house, and connect them together. The gain of both antennas does the work!

There are no digital antennas. The principles of antennas work the same for analog and digital reception.
 
Bruce-they don't have access to the top of the hill in question. Since they are able to get a clear picture ion the BR TV (not hooked to an antenna) it means there must be spots where reception is better. I have an HH TV and will search for "hot spots' on top of the roof sometime this spring provided I haven't imbided in too many Lone Stars.
I think they are going to get one of those converters, rewire the outside antenna (they still have twin lead) and see what happens. I'll keep folks informed of the results.
But thanks-I'm sure others will benefit by the responses to this post.
 
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