Ramblings on I want my portable digital TV!!!

Back on June 12, 2009 the FCC made many of our preps obsolete with the introduction of digital ONLY transmission of TV signals. Many of us had purchased and stashed away several B&W TV's. I remember picking up five for $25 several years ago at a sale.


Well when the FCC mandated the switch many of us were left without any means of watching news on EMERGENCY POWER... and lets face it moving pictures convey a bunch more information than words. There is nothing wrong with radios as they have their place too!

I was not aware of any small LCD TV's that would receive digital TV signals until I saw the weekly Big Lot sales paper. In it they had listed a Curtis 7" Portable LCD TV for $99. I was not quite sure if this would pick up the new digital TV signals, but if you look on the box you want it to have an ATSC/NTSC tuner which is the standard for digital signals (ATSC here).





The Curtis LCD has a very sharp picture and is very well made (for something from China). I like the fact that it has a 12V DC power cord (great for running it off of the solar power battery banks). I really like that it has a a CATV antenna input that allows you to tap into your cable or satellite signals, providing that you have the power to run them.



Also it has a built in rechargeable battery (unsure of the run time as of yet) and a remote (how lazy do you have to be to sit far enough away from a 7" TV to use the remote??? LOL)



The stock telescopic whip did not pick up any station in my area (would work well in a large metro area), but the RCA 'rabbit ear' antennas that I got for emergency use with the main digital TV worked really well in receiving stations 50-60 miles away. With some of the higher end yagi antennas I bet you could bring the signals in from longer distances.

I was pleasantly suprised that by using the rabbit ears that 2 stations had special WX (weather) only stations. I will be tuning in to them when we have severe weather in our area to see what info they convey. They look like a variation of the Weather Channel with mostly National coverage.

When you are on emergency power you don't wanna run a 25" or larger TV, so this 7" will draw minimum power and still give me the info that will paint my situational awareness picture.

Now you DO have an option to watch the breaking news on a small portable low power draw TV set... maybe one of these days, they will be $5 a piece again!

Thanks for reading!

later,
ZA