|  When
I was growing up, everyone in my neighborhood had an old-fashioned antenna on
their roof. There were no exceptions. Then suddenly cable television took over
and the rooftop antennas slowly began to disappear. After all, who needs to receive
local channels over the air when you have local broadcasts on both cable and satellite?
Well today, if you want to watch local high-definition television in your area,
you'll need a good old-fashion antennas or an innovative high-tech design like
the one offered by Terk Technologies. The latest Terk TV55 is a compact VHF/UHF
antenna capable of receiving analog and the latest standard and high-definition
digital programming. Here in Los Angeles we have practically every major station
broadcasting digitally and many of those stations are in high-definition during
primetime. The TV55 has an operational bandwidth of 54MHz to 806MHz and covers
the full spectrum of the conventional antennas found on roofs decades ago. An
inline amplifier has a gain of 10dB for weak signals and a bypass mode for the
stronger signals.
The
TV55 has a durable silicone-sealed weatherproof housing suitable for either indoor
or outdoor installations. The design of this antenna is quite unique with an oval
cross section and round ends. The unit's length is almost 4 feet and comes with
a large assortment of accessories. Both wall and window ledge mounting hardware
is included as well as mast hardware (mast not included) for mounting on a 1-1/4
to 1-1/2 diameter mast. The helical coils used inside of the TV55 allow for a
more compact design by using wire winding to simulate a larger antenna. Performance
Our location has a good line-of-sight to Mount Wilson where most of the transmission
towers are located in the Los Angeles area. We just happen to be elevated above
the clutter of homes between us and the transmitting stations. We mounted the
TV55 horizontally, facing the location of the towers. We tried to set the height
to be similar to an attic installation just above the lower roof-line. The results
were interesting and surprisingly good for the Terk TV55.  The
comparison chart show the TV55 amplified and unamplified. We used a Sencore SL754D
Signal Level Meter to take readings of all of the usable channels here in Los
Angeles. Based on readings from our meter, hum increased significantly when using
the amplifier assembly in the video path. This may have been due to the power
adapter that plugs into the wall. We were still able to pull a strong signal from
the antenna without the amplifier installed and preferred this configuration for
our setup. We found that all digital channels worked perfectly with the TV55 and
we saw no dropouts from our location. Analog channels appeared to be strong, but
did require some fine tuning to get an optimal signal. Ideally, the TV55 would
benefit from a rotor to pinpoint the position of the unit.
Conclusion
Negotiating a large antenna can be cumbersome, especially
if you are mounting it in the attic. Terk offers an alternative to the conventional
large antenna design with their TV55. The performance we measured with this unit
was amazingly good given its size. The physical design is simple and easy to install
with a variety of mounting options. The weatherproof housing ensures long-term
reliability by preventing moisture build-up and premature corrosion. The retail
cost of the TV55 is just under $100 and provides comparable performance to the
much larger conventional antennas that are similar in price. If you've been considering
installing a new HDTV antenna and you have space limitations, the TV55 has the
potential to provide you with a great signal for your new standard or high-definition
receiver. The experience we had with this new antenna design far surpassed our
expectations. -
Kevin Nakano | 
