Digital Or Not

A

agreico

New Member
Jul 8, 2009
57
Hopewll Junction, New York
Boat Info
280 Sundancer
Engines
Twin 5.0 Bravo III Drives
I have an 06 280DA equipped with a Sharp flat screen and Glomax antenna. Is this equipment digital?? Also, anybody out there know where the antenna/cable switch might be? Cannot locate. Would appreciate any insight. TG
 
I never understood the term digital antenna. Is there a difference or is it marketing hype?

The circa 1999 Glomax on Saint Max, works fine through a ditital converter box. If there is a space behind the TV, the adjustable gain for the Glomax and the switch are more than likely there.
 
It is hype. An antenna is an antenna is an antenna. Your 40-year old rabbit ears will gett he same signal. It all has to do with your decoder in your TV. Is is digiatl or old school analog?
 
talked to guys at glomax last year
very nice people they replaced my antennae free of charge
after i tried to do a repair and mucked it up
they said no differences in attenae
digital just means being able to recieve UHF as that is the spectrum that the hd (digital signal is) vhf is analog
which is no more
 
Is there a way to extend the range of your Glomax antenna?? I only get a couple of stations with my converter box and know there are more. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks
 
Redhook98 said:
It is hype. An antenna is an antenna is an antenna. Your 40-year old rabbit ears will gett he same signal. It all has to do with your decoder in your TV. Is is digiatl or old school analog?
Click to expand...

Yes and no - some of the antennas are optimized for the UHF bands for DTV, yes some stations are VHF but not many of them. So yes rabbit ears will work - but an antenna optimized for DTV will work better. An antenna is an antenna - That being said - I doubt any R&D went into the marine antennas on the market. But for your home there are antennas that work significantly better than rabbit ears. Technically a coat hanger could be an antenna.
 
Its for the sake of the children. They don't understand UHF and VHF. All they know is "digital", so what used to be the old UHF antennas are now the new "digital" antennas.
 
Speaking purely in the sense of receiving radio signals off the air, yes an antenna is an antenna is an antenna.....

That said, there are tangible differences between an antenna optimized to receive FM (one meter whip is beast), or marine VHF (2.5 meter whip is best), old-school CB (16' whip or a shorter whip with a loading coil). TV signals, unlike voice-only radio (TV is radio, technically speaking -- even digital) are somewhat directional, meaning that for optimal performance, the antenna has to be somewhat "aimed" at the transmitter. Since unlike houses, boats move, marine analog TV antennas were omnidirectional in design, which caused them not to be as efficient as the one your parents used to have on top of their house even when receiving the signals they were designed for -- VHF. VHF TV signals and UHF TV signals operate under very different frequencies and have different antenna requirements.

Any "old school" TV antenna whether marine or not will be optimized for VHF which represented the vast majority of analog TV. "Back in the day" (on land) if you had UHF stations, you generally had to buy a separate antenna and mount it on the pole below the larger VHF unit. Higher-end TV antennas tried to combine both functions but were less than successful. I have fond memories of my dad on the roof pulling his hair out struggling with this before taking the new $300 (back then, even) "all in one" antenna back to Sears and making me put back up the separate VHF/UHF units. ROFL!!

So..... moving to the present... digital TV is transmitted on the UHF band and requires a different antenna to work optimally. Your Glomax is optimized for VHF which is why it doesn't work very well. All new (marine or not) "digital" antennas are really UHF antennas.... If you want optimal reception, you will need to replace it.
 
Last edited:
pKai said:
Speaking purely in the sense of receiving radio signals off the air, yes an antenna is an antenna is an antenna.....

That said, there are tangible differences between an antenna optimized to receive FM (one meter whip is beast), or marine VHF (2.5 meter whip is best), old-school CB (16' whip or a shorter whip with a loading coil). TV signals, unlike voice-only radio (TV is radio, technically speaking -- even digital) are somewhat directional, meaning that for optimal performance, the antenna has to be somewhat "aimed" at the transmitter. Since unlike houses, boats move, marine analog TV antennas were omnidirectional in design, which caused them not to be as efficient as the one your parents used to have on top of their house even when receiving the signals they were designed for -- VHF. VHF TV signals and UHF TV signals operate under very different frequencies and have different antenna requirements.

Any "old school" TV antenna whether marine or not will be optimized for VHF which represented the vast majority of analog TV. "Back in the day" (on land) if you had UHF stations, you generally had to buy a separate antenna and mount it on the pole below the larger VHF unit. Higher-end TV antennas tried to combine both functions but were less than successful. I have fond memories of my dad on the roof pulling his hair out struggling with this before taking the new $300 (back then, even) "all in one" antenna back to Sears and making me put back up the separate VHF/UHF units. ROFL!!

So..... moving to the present... digital TV is transmitted on the UHF band and requires a different antenna to work optimally. Your Glomax is optimized for VHF which is why it doesn't work very well. All new (marine or not) "digital" antennas are really UHF antennas.... If you want optimal reception, you will need to replace it.
Click to expand...

Well said.
 
Got a little digital converter box at Radio Shack- works way better than I ever expected. Hooked it up to the Glomax and works perfectly. Signal, picture, everything is perfect.
 
Talk about timely!! We still have the factory tv/vcr combo installed (never watched much tv on the boat) but have a trip planned. was wondering if it is feasible to get something new to replace the glomax.
Needles to say, we don’t need hidef.....just want to watch the news.
Ya, were kinda old school.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,248
Messages
1,429,275
Members
61,128
Latest member
greenworld
Back
Top