Here is what a homeowner installed in 1968. The antenna is a Blonder-Tongue Color Ranger 5 and it cost $22 back then.
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Television Reception in the 60's
- Thread starter davideduardo
- Start date
That would have worked well enough for a city or suburban area.
It wouldn't have worked on my folks' house in Bloomington IN in that era. We were 50 miles each from Indy and Terre Haute, with a lot of woody, hilly terrain in between, as well as being at the bottom of a hill. We had a large Channel Master VHF-only antenna about 15 feet above the roof line (our only UHF was WTIU/30, the local PBS outlet that came in well with an indoor loop) with a rotator and preamp. It still could only produce a snowy picture on our ABC affiliate, WLWI/13, although the other channels came in well.
It wouldn't have worked on my folks' house in Bloomington IN in that era. We were 50 miles each from Indy and Terre Haute, with a lot of woody, hilly terrain in between, as well as being at the bottom of a hill. We had a large Channel Master VHF-only antenna about 15 feet above the roof line (our only UHF was WTIU/30, the local PBS outlet that came in well with an indoor loop) with a rotator and preamp. It still could only produce a snowy picture on our ABC affiliate, WLWI/13, although the other channels came in well.
When I lived in far north Phoenix I had an old combo VHF/UHF/FM antenna. I just laid it in the attic on top of the insulation and it got every in the metro perfectly. We were about 30 miles north of South Mountain's antenna farm then. Those were the good old analog days though. Now I am 8 miles direct line of sight and have trouble getting some of the full signal stations and can't get most of the diginets at all with the same antenna.
A perfect example of government decisions that were not studied in great enough depth... and which disregarded lower income people who can't afford alternative delivery systems.
Of course, try using a hand-held portable TV during an emergency. None have replaceable batteries and they will discharge in just a couple of hours. So try using video on your cellular phone: if the system even works in the emergency, it will be overloaded and slow.
We used to have a portable 9" TV. It lasted nearly a day on a set of batteries, and they could be replaced for about $2. Of course, it was analog and does not compare with today's TVs. But in a remote location or in an emergency, this was a marvelous thing to have.
My diatribe:
I'm talking with some friends in Puerto Rico who do have connectivity. Over 80% of the Island still can't get cable TV or Internet. No emails, and over 60% of the Island... as much as 80% in some municipalities (equivalent of counties). Landlines are dead.
We have a modern system that is totally vulnerable to "Acts of God", storms, quakes, fires, floods and, most frighteningly, hacks by enemies or just plain evil people.
We now return to our regularly scheduled thread...
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