TV Viewing in Fish house

[jfish21]

I am just looking to see if anyone has any advice for TV watching while ice fishing. I generally would be fishing the south and west sides of Mille Lacs. I have a 19" lcd TV I would use, so my question would be what would the best antenna or satellite solution be without being too expensive. I have looked at the winegard model ha-0130 hideaway antenna but I am not sure how many channels I would be able to receive. I do have Directv at home currently if that helps with any recommendations. Any advice would be great! Thanks!

[PierBridge]

Does your LCD TV have a built in Digital Tuner? You'll need a Digital Tuner to receive OTA "antenna signal" broadcast once they switch over to Digital early next year.

Personally I'd just pick up a cheap used Direct TV Satellite Dish and mount it on a Tripod or piece of wood. Then just bring one of your Direct TV receivers with you and you are set!

[LMITOUT]

With the new digital TV mandate coming next February you are limited to about 60-70 miles in distance from the broadcast antenna to your antenna. Not sure where you pick up your stations on ML, but you'll have to aim that antenna at the tower to get a good signal and it'll require a pretty clean line-of-sight with that TV tower or that distance will decrease a fair amount.

There will be no more watching a snowy picture if the antenna is a little off. With digital signal transmission it's either on or off, i.e. black screen or perfect picture.

If you enjoy your TV shows do as Pier said and look into rigging up a sat dish.

[timjones]

If you don't go with the Direct TV Satellite Dish your next step would be to check and see where your signal is coming from on ML. Not everything will switch to digital next February. Low power stations and relay(transponder) towers are not required to make the change right away. This will happen over time. Check with your local tv station to find out if they are switching in February. Check to see if your tv can receive both analog and digital signals. Most newer tv sets can receive both. If it can't, and they are not switching to digital right away in your area, then get the converter box with the "bypass" switch. This will allow you to receive the analog signal and then when they switch to digital you can just flip the switch on the box and your back in business.

[jfish21]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the information. I think the used Direct TV dish is the way to go.