Can you use the HD-BLADE in a moving car? That may be a little too much to ask of this powerful little antenna. Why? Digital tuners have to “lock on” to a signal before they can display anything, and there is a lot of information in a digital television signal and it just wasn’t designed to work in a car. HD-Radio is digital and that works fine, but TV in a moving car has been a dicey proposition.
Of course, sooner or later, the Mobile DTV revolution will take off (there are already a few devices that work) but until then let’s see if a regular TV will work in a moving car, and we’ll take the HD-BLADE along for the ride.
First step was to connect the HD-BLADE to my portable TV and do a channel scan. I put the antenna on that “sweet spot” on my desk and sure enough I got 82 channels. Then, I put the TV and antenna in the car and did another channel scan. Interestingly enough I got the exact same result, 82 channels. Then we got going.
At this point I have to mention that I wasn’t driving the car. Don’t fiddle with mobile electronics while you’re driving. I was sitting in the back seat while someone else was driving.
Results:
Well, the results were… nothing. I never got any signal from any channel for more than a few seconds. The tower that was closest to me did best, but really it was no more than 7 seconds on that channel. As soon as I came to a stop, I’d get great reception. As soon as I started moving, no reception.
Surprisingly, I got slightly better results on the highway than I did in town but that might have been due to the open spaces on the road, where in town I was always surrounded by buildings.
So, bottom line, you can’t use any digital TV, no matter what antenna, in the car while it’s moving.