problem with battery powered TV for bad weather

[wilykat]

In the past I had a portable TV that could pick up local TV stations with the antenna but with the change from NTSC to ATSC I have a problem.

There is no cable service in my area, the nearest TV station is around 40 miles away and with ATSC I can't pick it up at all on my portable TV (yes it has ATSC tuner) I could pick it up if I hooked to roof mounted antenna but if I'm going to cower in basement during bad storm, I'd rather not take the chance of hooking my portable TV to a potential lightning rod.

As I am deaf and lip-reader, radio is out. Portable TV do have closed captioning but it's largely useless if I can't pick up local TV station. I loved how the government claimed the new digital broadcast were supposed to be cleaner and better but they left out the fact it also has much shorter range than old analog broadcast. :P

Any of you have any idea how I could safely pick up local TV station that doesn't involve outside roof mounted devices? It'd have to be able to run on batteries in case of power failure.

 

[Jane B.]

In the past I had a portable TV that could pick up local TV stations with the antenna but with the change from NTSC to ATSC I have a problem.

There is no cable service in my area, the nearest TV station is around 40 miles away and with ATSC I can't pick it up at all on my portable TV (yes it has ATSC tuner) I could pick it up if I hooked to roof mounted antenna but if I'm going to cower in basement during bad storm, I'd rather not take the chance of hooking my portable TV to a potential lightning rod.

As I am deaf and lip-reader, radio is out. Portable TV do have closed captioning but it's largely useless if I can't pick up local TV station. I loved how the government claimed the new digital broadcast were supposed to be cleaner and better but they left out the fact it also has much shorter range than old analog broadcast. :P

Any of you have any idea how I could safely pick up local TV station that doesn't involve outside roof mounted devices? It'd have to be able to run on batteries in case of power failure.

If the outside antenna is properly installed you don't really have that much to fear as they are grounded to prevent problems from lighting.

I am even further from most of the stations that can be picked up in my area and have had a 10' antenna on a 30' tower since 1989 with no problems from lightening.

After the switch to ATSC I did buy a battery operated 7" TV with captioning. The one time we had an extended electrical outage the storm included wind. My antenna was bent over to the point that I could only get one station once they came back on the air as they had damage themselves.

I too lament they lesser range since the switch to digital. Even with the high tower my number of stations receivable was really cut.