Someone should check this out

It's got it all. It has a UHF bow tie, a reflector, VHF dipoles, an adjustable amp, and a rotor with a remote control -- $19.39 incl. S&H. Whew!
Rotating Indoor Digital TV Antenna UHF/VHF/FM High Gain NEW | eBay

If it doesn't fall apart the minute you pull it out of the box, it might be a good deal.

It actually looks better to me than this one for $69.95:
Antenna Pros AX-912 Amplified Indoor Digital HDTV Antenna

Or similar knock off:
<img src="http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/yhst-16656782286124/dealoftheday"><br> AX-912 <li>Plug and play

It's a parabolic "hybrid" with "new dish technology by Orca Antenna, this antenna grabs signals like a fish net and focuses all back to the receiver. The result = better signal strength." Remind you of anything?

Or this:
Amazon.com: TaoTronics TT-IA01 Indoor Digital TV Antenna - 20-23db / 25-28db VHF / UHF Silver US Version (with remote): Electronics

What I don't understand about the last three, is how can that plastic parabola reflect anything? and how can you look at the clock, and turn the rotor at the same time??

We get this question all the time: For a newbie looking to cut cable, who needs an indoor antenna, what's better -- one of the above, or a Mohu Leaf for around $35, or the following 2 bay bow tie with reflector, no amp, no rotor, no remote, no clock, for $11.59?
EAGLE ASPEN DTV2BUHF DIRECTVR-Approved 2-Bay UHF Outdoor Antenna - Modulators Selectors - Electronics - Great Products for less on GrabCart.com!

I think we should be ready with an answer, next time this comes around.

Rick

Originally Posted by Rickideemus

It's got it all. It has a UHF bow tie, a reflector, VHF dipoles, an adjustable amp, and a rotor with a remote control -- $19.39 incl. S&H. Whew!
Rotating Indoor Digital TV Antenna UHF/VHF/FM High Gain NEW | eBay

If it doesn't fall apart the minute you pull it out of the box, it might be a good deal.

Rick,

From the first link it claims:

•Frequency: 45-860MHz
•Gain: 22-35dB
•Channel: VHF 1-12 UHF 21-69
•Impedance: 75 ω

Woohoo! It has 75 "watts" impedence (nuts) but sadly, it doesn't cover channels 14-20. It is strange that they claim it covers other channels that no longer exist (52-69).

(PSSST... READERS ... antenna impedence is never ever referred to in watts) ... nor is the amount of gasoline you put in your car's tank ever reported to you as a count of "fumes" ... I can hear it now: "I topped of my tank today and put 60 fumes in my tank. Nonsense.

Unlike the "Green Dish" which does not disclose its' (alleged) abilities, at least this antenna is advertised with imaginary gain figures. The promise of 22-35 db gain which is like telling your wife the Wedding ring you gave her IS the same as the Hope Diamond. Absurd + and I wonder if its made by the same Company?

Did someone take a drywall spatter-gun and cover this "antenna" with green colored plaster to make the "Green Dish"?

I'd like to run an antenna shootout between the two and compare their results and then compare to already known functional antennas.

Jim

Originally Posted by Fringe Reception

From the first link it claims:

•Frequency: 45-860MHz
•Gain: 22-35dB
•Channel: VHF 1-12 UHF 21-69
•Impedance: 75 ω

Woohoo! It has 75 "watts" impedence (nuts) but sadly, it doesn't cover channels 14-20. It is strange that they claim it covers other channels that no longer exist (52-69).

Huh? I get channel 66, course it must be from Mexico, cause they speak Spanish. Oh WAIT! You're talking about the REAL channel numbers. Nobody looks at those.

The gubment made a huge mistake allowing all that real/virtual nonsense. Not only does it make tuning in channels much, MUCH more complicated than it needs to be (there are two channels I can't even TRY to get in my lineup), you can't even read a TV or antenna ad and know what the $^%! they're talking about. Lunacy.

As long as 45-860MHz is covered, I think it might work.

Originally Posted by Fringe Reception

Unlike the "Green Dish" which does not disclose its' (alleged) abilities, at least this antenna is advertised with imaginary gain figures. The promise of 22-35 db gain which is like telling your wife the Wedding ring you gave her IS the same as the Hope Diamond. Absurd + and I wonder if its made by the same Company?

Ever work for a big company? Marketing dept. to big boss: "WHATEVER YOU DO, don't let those engineering nerds near our ad copy!!" Big boss grew up in sales ... was a carnival barker as a boy.

Here's what the marketing boys do -- they take gain from the antenna itself, and gain from the amplifier, and add it all up. Only makes SENSE! Elsewise, what good is the word "gain"? They're really not bad kids. They're trying. But the head marketing guy won't allow his people to talk to engineering people -- who might not even be with the company anymore. After all, they're job is done.

Originally Posted by Fringe Reception

Did someone take a drywall spatter-gun and cover this "antenna" with green colored plaster to make the "Green Dish"?

I really doubt they're from the same company. Great marketing minds just think alike.

Originally Posted by Fringe Reception

I'd like to run an antenna shootout between the two and compare their results and then compare to already known functional antennas.

I'd love to see it! I still think that first one looks interesting. It LQQKs like it has everything and everything it has LQQKs functional, at least to my uneducated eyes. And that's all we have to go by. You can't tell anything about the actual engineering from the ad copy.

But for someone looking for a "first stab" at an indoor antenna, the EAGLE ASPEN DTV2BUHF for $11.59 incl. S&H is a pretty good shot, don't you think?
- It's basically the same as the DB2, according to an old EV post
- It's small enough to encourage people to move it around, trying different locations
- It has a reflector, which is important for testing
- It's easy to remove the reflector, unlike any of those "dishes" -- also important in some situations
- It has NO amplifier. That's a GOOD thing. The amps in most indoor antennas cause it to STOP WORKING when power is removed, yet performance often takes a hit, specifically because of the amplifier.
- It gets good reviews on Amazon. People were very happy with it, even when they paid $24+ S&H.
- If it doesn't work out, you've done some valuable testing to help figure out what WILL work, and you're only out 12 bucks.

Do I make a sound case, your honor?

R.

OK, on that first link -- the Masda MA89TG -- the 1-12, 21-69 channel lineup is the one used in China and several other countries. The actual frequencies are much the same as our OTA channels. Masda is a chinese company, and it looks like they've ripped off -- or are affiliated with -- another Chinese company, QuantumFX. The antenna looks nearly identical to the QuantumFX ANT-102, which EV called "A winner." and "Recommended."

Now, Masda makes a few Yagi outdoor antennas with rotors, and the main comment seems to be the rotors never work right. One guy said he tried it once, and now it "won't stop rotating!" Hehehehe. So that would be my main concern about the MA89TG. But at least it's indoors and less subject to the elements. And you can see which way the thing is pointed.

Also, on other ad copies the impedence is listed as 75 ohms, not watts. Suspect somebody had trouble copy/pasting the unusual symbols.

R.

ω is not a W. It is actually a lowercase Ω (omega) and some people interchange the two.

Omega = Ohms

Originally Posted by n2rj

ω is not a W. It is actually a lowercase Ω (omega) and some people interchange the two.

Omega = Ohms

Thanks for the clarification. I found this on Wikipedia:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

"When preparing electronic documents, some document editing software will attempt to use the Symbol typeface to render the Ω character. Where the font is not supported, a W is displayed instead ("10 W" instead of "10 Ω", for instance). As W represents the watt, the SI unit of power, not resistance, this can lead to confusion.

An "R" can be used instead of the Ω symbol if it is not supported, thus, a 10 Ω resistor can also be represented as 10R. This is the British standard BS 1852 code. It is used in many instances where the value has a decimal place i.e. 5.6 Ω would be listed as 5R6. One advantage of this method is that it is relatively easy to "rub off" a decimal point symbol ".", changing the apparent value, compared to the "R" symbol, which would require more effort.

Unicode encodes the symbol as U+2126 Ω ohm sign, distinct from Greek omega among letterlike symbols, but it is only included for backwards compatibility and the Greek uppercase omega character U+03A9 Ω greek capital letter omega (HTML: Ω &Omega; ) is preferred.[3] In DOS and Windows, the alt code ALT 234 may produce the Ω symbol."

R.