Get better TV reception on old TV before spending money
If this guy holds my TV antenna, I bet I’d get a better picture.
We took this photo in San Francisco a long time ago. Silver Man wore clothing flecked with aluminum. Now we wish he could come to world headquarters of Watchdog Nation and stand and hold the antenna on the one remaining analog TV in our office suite that doesn’t pick up good reception after the analog-to-digital debacle.
All the words we read and wrote ourselves in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the digital TV debacle never took into account one little cure for some of the upcoming TV problems.
Aluminum foil.
Why spend $50 for a more powerful digital TV antenna to add to the already stupid little black box that converts the signals when you can wrap some aluminum foil around the top of your old antenna, rescan the converter box and say a little prayer?
As we first reported in the Star-Telegram, we were so close to spending $50 at Radio Shack for a new antenna. But the Shack was out of product because everyone else was spending the $50.
Then we heard about the aluminum foil trick.
We grabbed a sheet, wrapped it around the antenna ears, and voila! The two remaining major network channels we weren’t receiving suddenly reappeared.
Remember: aluminum foil.
The government never told you about it because it is embarrassed.
As well it should be.
It’s the 1950s all over again.
Postscript: The aluminum foil still works, but the TV just broke.
Published in Government Tomfoolery, July 8th, 2009 by Dave Lieber
Tags: analog TV, antenna, digital TV, TV reception
July 18th, 2009 at 7:26 am
[slaps forehead!] Well darn, Dave, of course! And it worked! Too late to figure out if it was the milquetoast brother or the bimbo wife who killed the no-good stepson on today’s Perry Mason, but aluminum foil does the trick!
August 27th, 2009 at 10:17 am
UPDATE: This has gotten so out of hand with notes from people across America that this works, that we decided to create a Facebook Group to get the word out to more folks: “Karen Lieber’s Idea to Use Aluminum Foil on TV Antennas to Improve Signals.” Let’s give Mrs. Watchdog Nation a little credit here, huh?
And in another development, the Heloise Department of Watchdog Nation also has learned that by closing the telescoping antenna arms, rather than extending them, the signal is better. How’s that? Who cares? It works.
August 27th, 2009 at 10:31 am
While you’re on the subject of aluminum foil:
http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/
(And I wish I’d proofed that first post before I hit ’send’ — it’s "Perry" not Parry.)
August 27th, 2009 at 10:58 am
I corrected it for you. I can only imagine a librarian’s angst over a badly-spelled word.
August 27th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
I just came in the house after raking my grass…long story. The short story is-this does work! I’m a product of the 50’s, 60’s and you guessed it-the 70’s. My folks used this trick every day. Hey, with six kids-money was tight! And, the cheaper the "foil" -it didn’t matter-this trick still worked. My kids would definately say, "Oh Mom…you’ve got to be kidding us."