TERK 55 Question?

[audiopile]

Don't generally pay any attention to TV when I'm eating in a restauarant - but they had on today's tragedy in Brookfield and I happened to notice that for being less than 2 miles from WTMJ's transmitter - they had the worse CHN.4 image I have ever seen - multi path on it's multipath. Terk 55 antenna may be installed without it's power injector (one problem) but is also oriented vertically ( up and down) rather than horizontally . In other words  -instead of the long dimension of the stick being parrell to the ground - it's at 90deg. to the ground.
      This is not being used for HDTV right now - but may be in the future - does anybody know enough about these things to know if this has any chance of working at all?

[Tom Snyder]

The vertical mount sems odd, as I understand that analog TV signals are horizontally polarized.. so a horizontal mount will do a better job of picking up the signal (using conventional rabbit ears, you'll get your best signal with the the two antennae spread out parallel to the floor).

That said, though, being 2 miles from the antenna, that also means that you were within a short distance of all the other local TV stations, and had a lot of signal shooting out over you as well.  

Have also heard that the Terk 55 is a real piece o'crap...

[mhz40]

And why on earth does anyone need an amplified antenna in Milwaukee?

[audiopile]

Just wanted some confirmation that my reaction to the vertical orientation was corect.  I have always been puzzled by the question of why someone will buy a new TV (or FM tuner) and accept stunningly crappy performance from the product and NEVER CONSIDER THE ANTENNA!!!!

[mhz40]

I agree both Tom's confirmation and your original assessment.  Wrong polarization --- just for starters.  Then there is the powering issue you floated as well.  Sounds like you are going to go through the whole install on this.  Who knows... it may even be feeding the VHF input!

[picopir8]

Perhaps someone should take over at $20 Radio Shack Double Bowtie or a $50 Silver Sensor and see how fast they dump that overpriced stick.