I have a newer tv and an older set of rabbit ears... is there any way to make the rabbit ears work with the tv

Question

Hi, I got a newer tv, that has the s***w in connection, and one of the older sets of rabbit ears.. is there any way I can use them together??

Answer 1

No, and in less than a year, those rabbit ears won't work anymore.

Get HDTV rabbit ears.  They will work now and after 2/2009.  But if you don't live in a big city, they might not work well.

Get cable or directv.

Answer 2

If the wire coming from the rabbit ears has connectors for two s***w terminals, then you need a matching transformer.

These come in two forms. The kind you want has two s***w terminals. (The other kind has spade connectors to adapt new antennas to real old TVs.

An antenna that old may be VHF (analog/real channels 2-13) only. It was common back in those days for TVs to have separate antenna connections for UHF (analog/real 14-69) antennas.

The long ears typically are for VHF, newer rabbit ears have an additional loop/figure 8/rectangle that acts as a UHF antenna.

If your antenna is VHF only, there is a way to connect a separate UHF antenna but it's more practical to just buy a newer antenna.

In some areas all of the new digital broadcasts in in the UHF band. If that's the case a UHF only antenna makes more sense that rabbit ears. Unlike analog channels, digital channel numbers are like names and do no tell you what actual "real" frequncy they are broadcasts on.

The first answer you  received is incorrect. In North America analog and digital broadcasts use the same antenna.

The idea that there are special "digital" or "HD" antennas is just marketing hype. If you get good analog reception on the frequency bands your local broadcasters use, the antenna will probably be fine  for digital broadcasts.