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The benefit of UHF, though, is that you can get away with a smaller antenna. The way most stations are co-located now, you can get almost all of your programming with one directional antenna.

The shorter wavelengths of UHF means that you can get more gain or use a smaller antenna.

Whoever told you need a special shape like a bowtie was trying to sell you something. Those designs do work, but their improvement over a simple dipole, loop, or yagi are dubious. In fact, I've had great success with just a good set of rabbit ears (including subschannels, i've got about 3x the number of channels I had before, and the picture is perfect most of the time)

If you've already got an aerial, you ought to be fine. If you're trying to make due with an indoor antenna, I submit that this is probably overkill in most areas (don't bother with amplified unless you've got multiple tvs off the same feed) A VHF antenna with the same gain simply wouldn't fit indoors at all.

Also note that if you're having difficulty, you might be able to solve your problem without changing the antenna. For one thing, all tuners are not equal, though I've no idea how to pick one that is better. Something you can change though, is to make sure your antenna is properly grounded. The outer sheath on the coax, the one that's connected to the outer threads, should be connected to a proper earth ground. Copper plumbing works in a pinch, but you should really have a dedicated ground rod driven into the earth. You could probably use house ground (note: not neutral. You'll start a fire or something ) for this also.

No you wouldn't (granted, you'd need to daisy-chain a pair of these to get to 11 drops, but I'm sure they make 5x16 multiplexers for apartment buildings and the like).

I bought one of these some years ago. The Audiovox 9155 GPX. No fancy pictures, color screens or downloadable ringtones.

It's a tri-mode phone, the best I've ever had. I get reception EVERYWHERE, and I love it! Battery life is acceptable, a few days between charges, or 4-5 hours of talk time on a full charge. With a $40 cable, I can plug it into my laptop and get Internet access anywhere, though it burns up my minutes.

About a year ago, it was dropped into a puddle, and stopped working. I bought another phone, an Audiovox picture phone. I hated it. I kept getting voice mail messages. (missed calls) I tried another, and got the same thing.

But, the puddled phone dried up, and started working again! It remains on my hip to this day, and to this day, Verizon has $200 credit on account for another phone...

(i) You're going to have to have a WiFi signal everywhere you'd like to listen to radio. In the middle of long deserted highway. Satellite radio covers the entire US, AFAIK.

(ii) Lots of people, like myself, listen you satellite radio because they have no advertisements in the music channels. So We'd still have to pay for the premium channels; like Yahoo launch or something.

(iii) I use Sirius radio with Audiovox Portable Boombox at home. I can take this thing anyway. Also have a tuner docking kit for the car; and Sirius radio comes with a streaming account at no additional charge for streaming radio of their website so I use that at work/school. All with a single account.

Sorry, but I don't see this thing getting anywhere close to that level of availability.

(ii) I also got the portable boombox docking station. This can run off batteries and works just as an ordinary boombox. I use that at home, but it can be taken to the beach whatever.

(iii) Plus Sirius every subscriber a web streaming account so you can listen to the radio on your computer.

In the end I listen to sirius in my car, at home, and at work on my computer every single day and I have only a single account.

(ii) I also got the portable boombox docking station. This can run off batteries and works just as an ordinary boombox. I use that at home, but it can be taken to the beach whatever.

(iii) Plus Sirius every subscriber a web streaming account so you can listen to the radio on your computer.

In the end I listen to sirius in my car, at home, and at work on my computer every single day and I have only a single account.

With the right software, something like this could make a really nice alternative to other high-priced, 'ruggedized' hand-helds.

Instead of any of these USD1500+ devices, I'm using an Audiovox Maestro PDA with a ruggedized case. The PDA cost USD140 on eBay and the case cost ~USD100 with shipping. The biggest cost was the crappy software.

(tig)

Look for the Audiovox Maestro: it's the e570.

The Rhino is a very interesting new product, but it's certainly not unique. Check out this recently introduced product from Audiovox.

Another thing worth considering is that these radios are only available in the United States. They are GMRS radios (not FRS) and owners need to have a GMRS license from the FCC (cost $70).

/Don

Audiovox Communications Corporation Wednesday unveiled a GPS-enabled third-generation (3G) wireless handset that incorporates Bluetooth technology.It includes a Web browser and supports Short Message Service (SMS) messaging.
The company said it would release the device in conjunction with the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The handset will retail for $299.