Will UHF antenna pick up VHF?

Most UHF antennas will receive VHF signals, practically by accident . It just so happens that the size of the antenna will be a fairly close match to some VHF channels. Most UHF antennas don’t have filters to prevent them from sending VHF signals to your TV, either.

VHF signals cover 2 frequency bands. The Low-VHF band covers channels 2-6 and the High-VHF band covers channels 7-13 . Because these signal wavelengths are longer than UHF signals, they can more easily bend over and around certain obstructions in the terrain between the TV broadcast tower and the receiving TV antenna.

If you see both V-shaped elements and a smaller cluster of straight elements on the same antenna, it receives both signals . The simplest indoor antenna is the basic rabbit ears design, which receives VHF. A loop-shaped antenna, whether it’s arranged horizontally or vertically, is for UHF.

To receive DTV signals from all stations in the area, your antenna needs to be able to receive both VHF channels (channels 2-13) and UHF channels (channels 14-36) . Some antennas only provide good reception of VHF or UHF channels, but not both.

Only a small portion of the total VHF range from 30 to 300 MHz is still used for broadcasts , although the exact range varies by country. For example, 54 to 72 MHz and 76 to 88 MHz are used in the United States for VHF channels 2 through 6, which is known as Band I internationally.

While most local network affiliates broadcast their programming on the UHF frequency band, there are a number of TV stations which transmit using low-band VHF frequencies (channels 2-6) and high-band VHF frequencies (channels 7-13) .