|
First off, have you tried your rabbit ears on the basement TV? Basements can get a lot of signal blockage from the building, so an indoor antenna may or may not work depending on your particular situation. If the rabbit ears that you already have are able to pull most of the stations in the basement, then you can try going for one of the better indoor antennas available. It would help if your antenna could face NYC (Empire State) since that's where all the signals are coming from.
If an indoor antenna seems like it's good enough, you can try the Philips PHDTV3 or the Terk HDTVi (do not bother with the HDTVa amplified version since you have signals that might be too strong for the amp to handle).
If an indoor antenna doesn't cut it in your basement, then you should install an antenna in the attic or on the roof and then run RG6 coax down to the TV. You can even split the signal so that you can feed both your kitchen TV and your basement TV with the cleaner rooftop signal.
There are some local stations on high-VHF (ch 7-13), like WABC (7), WNJB (8), WPIX (11), and WNET (13). The other major networks are on UHF channels (14-69). If you want a roof mounted antenna, be sure to get one that supports both high-VHF and UHF. Since your signals are strong, you should be fine with a compact antenna like the Winegard HD-1080 pointed at the Empire State building.
Avoid anything with a built-in amp. You don't need an amp, and if you had one, your signals might be strong enough to cause it to overload (nothing dangerous, but it can make the signals worse rather than better).
BTW, a note regarding your rabbit ears (I assume you mean a rabbit ears plus loop combo antenna?)... The loop portion of the antenna picks up UHF stations (14-69), and the rods pick up VHF stations (2-13). If you're having trouble picking up the VHF stations listed above, then you may need to extend the rods (~40 inches each side) and lay them out straight across (making the rabbit ears point away from each other horizontally). This will tune the rabbit ears to the proper wavelength for VHF stations.
|