Are You Ready for the Switch to Digital?

It's almost here! The switch to digital television as opposed to analog. Now this doesn't really affect those who have cable or satellite. For those of you like me, who are cheap and use an antenna, however, this is huge. Where we live, there is no cable, and we can't afford the cost of satellite.

We knew we needed to do something, so we applied for the converter box coupon, and went out and bought a Zenith converter box. It was little more expensive, but after reading all the reviews, we decided to use our coupon and pay the $20 for it. I was super excited when my husband got home with it, because we don't get very good reception with our antenna, and I heard that the digital is so much better.

We get it all set up, and.....Nothing. It doesn't pick up any channels at all. So we called the toll free number on the box to find out why it wasn't working. They had us do a lot of stuff and nothing worked. So they said the problem was that we aren't picking up a signal where we live. They told us since we did get some analog, that the TV stations were most likely not broadcasting in digital. All of our local stations have been talking about this and advertising that they are broadcasting in digital since the beginning of last year, so I knew that that was not true. I emailed many of the stations to see what the problem was.

One station wrote back and said that there are just problems with where we live. They don't know why, but it doesn't pick up the signal very well. He had called the city and found out that some people have had luck with a rooftop antenna, but it had to be a small one because of all the HOA rules. He said our options were to try a rooftop antenna, or subscribe to satellite. Since we don't have the money to pay for that every month, and I can't go without television, we have been looking into rooftop antennas.

This Antennas Direct CLEARSTREAM4 Antenna seems to be the best one that I've found, and the one we're considering getting. The CLEARSTREAM2 Antenna seems to be a nice one too, only not as strong. We're torn over going with the smaller and less expensive one, or going with the stronger one that is more expensive. We are about 50 miles away from the main broadcasting towers. The small one reaches up to 50 mile, but the larger one is up to 65 miles. So do we chance it with the smaller one, or pay the extra money just to be safe?