dont bother with either. HD programming is avaialable through most cable and satellite providers, it just requires additional equipment.
The only way an antenna is useful is for your local channels (and attracting lightning). In the future you can get a new antenna if you want hd without the cable.
Right now get the thing off the roof before it damages the shingles.

I'd dump the antenna before it blows off the roof and whacks someone or something.

You get HD on cable. I don't understand why RadioShack would tell you something like that.

Some of the stations I watch most are not considered to be in the local area and are available only by antenna. I do need a new antenna. My last setup was Winegard with mast-mounted amplifier and was great until a small tornado got it. I could receive 17 stations. The antenna has no monthly fee!

I don't understand why RadioShack would tell you something like that.
because its a chance to make $150+ selling someone a product they don't need, not to mention these things take up space in their stores and don't move very fast.

bus: all my antenna did was attract lightning thus fubaring the picture tube in my tv, then the motor that rotated it finally seized so I eventually took it down

You folks are so great! Where else could you ask a question and get answers within minutes except GardenWeb!

Thanks so much.

If I dump it as recommended, is it a difficult task for a novice to take down? My electrician has a good right hand man that I could call. He likes to do side jobs.

Thanks again,
Ginny

as long as you are comfortable getting up on the roof and there is some clear space TV antennas are easy to remove.
the biggest issue is whether it is chimney mounted or a legged model bolted to the roof. The 3 legged ones are a tad harder (I try to use 2 people on those, so one can hold it while the other unbolts it), and you must be sure to seal the bolt holes using roofing tar (they sell it in caulk tubes).

Thanks for the information about how to properly remove it. The antenna is mounted on the roof, not the chimney.
Ginny

I've got an antenna guy coming out in two hours. Said he charges $75 to remove, patch holes, check TV that it works, and haul away. Quite a deal for California I'd say, especially coming out on a holiday.

Thanks again for all your ideas. I hope a good things come to all of you this week!!

Ginny

"The only way an antenna is useful is for your local channels (and attracting lightning)"

Not true. A properly grounded antenna does quite the opposite. By slowly bleeding off the excessive charge from the ionized cloud base to ground, the antenna reduces the cloud charge buildup and lessens the chance of a lightning strike. A vertical polarized antenna bleeds off charge better than a horizontally polarized antenna. Why do you think old farmhouses and barns had little lightning rods installed around the roof perimeter? To attract lighning?

good point bigbird, however I very rarely see installers properly ground things.
Ex: I had a directv tech "ground" my dish by hooking the ground wire to the ground block, but the ground block was not hooked to anything.

An ungrounded TV or radio antenna is indeed an invitation for lightning. I would hope that a Sat dish installer would be properly trained in safe and effective grounding procedure. The ground block should be attached to a 10' ground rod. Likewise a mast and antenna system should be directly connected to a ground rod. The mast sections which bolt together should also be bonded by jumpers.

The grounding for the electrical service should be "bonded" (securely connected ) to ANY other grounded equipment on the premises. This is important!

actually at the time directv was contracting alot of work out, two weeks of training, some help with the cost of the tools and you're a certified installer. Actually after complaining when another tech was out, he ran a wire into the basement and clamped to the water line. Someday I will run a new ground an connect it to the same ground rods the electrical is connected to. Oh and FYI the phone company (SBC/ATT) insists on clamping on to the hose bib, even though one of the ground rods is only another two feet away.

SO is connecting phone and satellite equipment to water line acceptable? In my case there is a copper wire from the ground block in the main panel to a nearby water line, besides the ground rods outside.

IMO no. They should not be grounded to water pipes. What if the piping system is not bonded, such as with many old houses? What if the house is new and almost all PEX?

These systems should be bonded to a new supplementary (NOT the same as supplemental) electrode which does NOT have to be bonded to the houses electrical system. In fact why would you want to dissipate a lightning strike through your water pipes and/or electrical ground systems????

See the web page below

Here is a link that might be useful: Supplementary Electrodes

I have a 50' radio tower with 15' mast and directional antenna on top. All sections of tower are jumpered and at the tower base I have driven three 10' ground rods around the concrete. The co-ax from the antenna is run through a separate grounding terminal connected with #12 copper to the ground rods. I've never had a lightning strike in 15 years.

For new construction, the local telephone company here insists on placing the demarc box within 6 feet of the electrical service so that the grounding conductor is short and easily connected to the electrical service ground. Most damage to electrical equipment is not from direct lightning strikes but from surges and voltage spikes. Absolutely, good engineering would have all grounded equipment on a premises connected to a common grounding point in as short and direct a path as possible. Using different supplementary driven electrodes for grounding various equipment and having no direct connection between those electrodes except the Earth can result in disaster due to the relatively high resistance (in ohms) of the Earth. For example of how it should be done, read Article 820.100. Table 250.3 is also important.

Forty or 50 years ago, most television antennas were installed by pros who actually knew what they were doing. When I was a kid, almost every home on my block had a rooftop or tower mounted antenna with 300 ohm twinlead that passed through a grounded lightning arrestor before entering the house. It and the mast were grounded through about a #6 or so solid wire, usually aluminum, which connected to a driven ground rod.

Regrettably, more recent installations are more likely to have been carried out by amateurs, and may not be properly grounded. If they are, though, there's no danger from lightning. A grounded mast doesn't attract lightning, and in fact will protect the house. If you decide to fix and keep the antenna, you should have it checked by a pro (if you can still find one) to make sure it's grounded.

As for the benefits and liabilities of cable vs. antenna, I guess that's a matter of choice. I'm not much of a television watcher, so I'm probably atypical, but I've never understood why anybody would pay a monthly fee for cable. A well-chosen and installed antenna is a modest one-time investment that provides entertainment for 20 or 30 years. It may not give you hundreds of channels, but who has time to watch all that stuff anyway? ;-)

Hi David,
Thanks for your information regarding the history of antennas. I'm old enough to know what you are talking about although I never knew much about them.

As for the need for cable, I agree with you to a point. I don't watch alot of TV but there are some things I really want to see - my college football and basketball teams, old movies, nice movies which are often only on cable stations, CNN occassionally, etc. Since I don't go out to movies I figure my entertainment can be cable TV and my computer.

I'm about to invest more in TV and look into TIVO. I am very tired of all the commercials and understand you can zip right through commercials with TIVO or similar. So once again my entertainment budget just grew.

Have a great first week of January and thanks again!!

Ginny in California

Can you still FF through commercials on Tivo? I thought I read that they knuckled under to the big ad agencies, who were upset that people weren't watching their stuff.

That's what pays for all that nonsense on the tube, ya know - the advertisers who are dead desperate to have your eyes. If they can't convince you that you absolutely need the latest useless $9.95 Made-in-China plastic gewgaw, and that you have to part with your money right now, the whole US economy house o'cards will come crashing down. ;-)

The very first cable originally was just big antennas for folks who lived in valleys and otherwise couldn't get decent reception of their more-or-less local stations. Then the cable operators added the cable-only stations so they could sell it to more people. One of the advantages cited for it was that the those "exclusive" channels didn't have commercials. That sure didn't last.

you can still fast forward through commercials.
There has been talk about no commercial skipping, but as far as I know they rarely disable commercial skipping.
Plus it would be bad business for DVR manufacturers, as I would assume the ability to fast forward through commercials is a nice selling point.

"Forty or 50 years ago, most television antennas were installed by pros who actually knew what they were doing. ..."

David, that's true. But part of the problem today is that
the electronics stores (and their help)aren't what they used to be.

I put up (and still use) my own antenna/rotator, using supplies that I bought at Lafayette Radio, on Long Island.
The folks that worked at this place are far more knowledgeable that the pimple faced kid one finds at most Radio Shacks. Also, the parts selection was much greater (I had my choice of Blonder-Tongue, JFD, Jerold, Finco, or Lafayette Lightning Arrestors!!)

All this talk of antennas reminds me of last night when the wife and I went out to get a pizza. The place has 2 Tv's on satellite.Neither set was on last night. When we went to pay the the bill I asked our waitress, a 17 or 18 yr old girl,why the sets were not on. She said the management must have forgotten to pay the bill as the sets come up with a message that they were not authorized. I said "looks like you need to hook up the rabbit ears" She gave me the dumbest blank stare! Me as a old geezer (almost 50),had forgot that these kids now don't have a clue what an antenna on a TV set is. All they know is the cable hooks to the cable box and the tv. I doubt that most of them in this area has ever seen an antenna tower on the side of the house or if they did, knew what is was.

..."Me as a old geezer (almost 50),had "

HEY! WATCH THAT! Some of us here ARE over 50!! :)

Someone who is 50 is a old geezer to a 17 yr old :)

Ginny - regarding how to have it removed, I'd see if any our your scrap metal guys are insured. Normally they'd LOVE to have something like this. I'm not sure if CA is the same as Chicago, but there is a huge group of people that make a living gathering scrap metal and selling it since the costs of metal have sky rocketed in recent years.

Obviously this is your roof, but you can likely get them to get it down and have a local handyman check out the shingles and make sure you don't have any concerns with the roofing.