Some countries have television mostly delivered through cable systems. Or satellites. Here in Australia we still make heavy use of free-to-air television received via antennas on our homes. Or, if you're in a strong signal area, an indoor antenna may also work.
The most common type are the rabbits ears that used to be supplied with many portable TVs. You can still buy them in the shops. Also common (in Australia) was a spiral type. This was basically a VHF dipole connected to 300 ohm ribbon. The spiral was springy metal that went around the dipole. I don't know if it did anything but it might have stopped children poking their eyes out with the ends of the dipole element.
We haven't seen those for about 20 years. But there have been other indoor antennas. The dearer ones sometimes had RF amplifiers to boost reception. Especially for non-radio types, how indoor antennas look is more important than how they perform. Something about fitting in with the household décor and not looking too out of place.
In that spirit, presented below are some weird and (not necessarily) wonderful indoor TV antennas to look at.
We haven't seen those for about 20 years. But there have been other indoor antennas. The dearer ones sometimes had RF amplifiers to boost reception. Especially for non-radio types, how indoor antennas look is more important than how they perform. Something about fitting in with the household décor and not looking too out of place.
In that spirit, presented below are some weird and (not necessarily) wonderful indoor TV antennas to look at.
Have you tried indoor TV antennas recently? What worked for you? And what didn't? Please leave any comments below.
PS: Want to get more from amateur radio? This book can help. Available in electronic and paperback form, exploring the facets suggested will keep you entertained for hours. Find out more at vk3ye . com or search the title on Amazon.
I remember I used a rabbit ears antenna on my portable b/w TV. And even did some TV DX with it. Receiving Swedish, Danish, German, Spanish and since it was in the early eigthies the DDR1/DDR2 east German TV stations. Those were great times, and somewhere I should have photograps from the screens somewhere. This article brought back some memories. These times all TV signals became digital here, I had TV with digitennesystem (DVB-T2) for a year or so. It didn't work in summer since there was too much atmosferic QRM. In the winter it didn't work since the signal was interfered bu static from snowstorms. When there was no static and other QRM my transmitter would lock it up... Well, in the end we have TV via our internet connection which is perfect quality and at least 10 times more channels to watch to. 73, Bas
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