Man...if you only knew how much we engineers BEGGED "them" to let us educate the public about this stuff.
But, too many stations wanted to "Keep it simple", and "not confuse the public".
It was only after the analog shut-off, when the "nightlight" stations came back on with the Iowa Public TV (educational) video, that any real, useful technical information was given. Maybe stations didn't mind then, since it wasn't taking away from salable commercial time....I know one station manager who said, "nobody can get us (in analog) any more" (he wasn't thinking at the time).
The VHF reception problems are (generally) due to two things....
FM station overload of the tuners, and high levels of indoor RF interference.
The FM thing was often easily solved by placing an FM Trap ahead of the tuner, or before the first active stage of the system (like, a preamp). The FM Trap has to be made for the entire 88-108 MHz FM band...there are two types out there, one for 88-108, and one for about 93-108 MHz. The old idea was, that FM stations below about 93 MHz would be "educational" stations, running at lower power levels, and you could use the 93-108 traps without impinging on channel 6 (82-88 MHz) analog reception.
These FM Traps often cost as little as three or four dollars. Problem is...they seem to be almost unavailable any more. I don't know why they can't be made nowadays, or if somebody bought them all and flushed them down a toilet (sorta' kidding here).
The indoor interference problem is tougher. Nearly every digital device adds some sort of noise to the spectrum, unless it's built to some rigid standards. So, using a computer, a router, a CPU-controlled appliance, or even some of the new light bulbs inside your home adds RF noise. Switch-mode power supplies and chargers, like come with most every portable device now, are notorious spectrum polluters. Unless the desired signal is strong enough to penetrate the building's roof and wall, with enough left over to decode a TV signal, it won't work reliably. ATSC 8VSB signals need about 16 dB of signal above the ambient noise (that's enough to decode a digital TV signal, but would not be enough to get a watchable analog signal). You also need a few dB of "margin", to compensate for normal variations in signal level between the transmitter and you, or you'll get intermittent "hits' in the signal data.
The answer to the indoor noise problem is, you either lower the noise by proper filtering and grounding (the manufacturers should have done this in your computers and appliances), or you have to find a spot where the noise is lowest and the signal is highest. That's often a window, a spot near the ceiling or floor, or outdoors. The answer isn't always, "have the stations raise their power", since that would often cause them to interfere with other stations, in other nearby cities, on those channels.
You can help, by installing filters on some devices. You can help by unplugging things (like chargers) that are not being used at the moment, or by wrapping the cables through Ferrite Toroidal Filters (like a donut-shaped, tuned sponge, that absorbs certain frequency bands of noise). Or, you find a good spot for a directional antenna, that ignores the noise from the sides and behind it. Note that this "good spot" does not always mean "the attic", since there's a lot of wiring, air conditioning ductwork, and copper tubing up there.
Most people, unless they had a well-installed outdoor antenna, never had "great" analog TV reception. They had reception that was "acceptable" under the circumstances. And, it probably got worse as the years went on...and the interference levels increased. But, it was "watchable', until it was "gone". Digital is "perfect" until it hits that same point where the analog would drop out. Then, it disappears without additional warning. And, someplace right at that "cliff" point, audio aberrations and video pixelizations begin to show up...just before the signal is below the "cliff effect' dropout point.
(Two can play that game!)
