Learningmypc - I think this is yet again an issue where you are presenting a problem and wanting a solution where the easiest solution is to avoid your 'problem' to begin with. If you were given an antenna that doesn't work, then ok, it doesn't work, move on. You can't change physics. Jobeard mentioned rabbit ears - you don't need a fancy antenna to pick up a signal, you need an antenna that CAN pick up a signal, some are better than others at picking up specific frequencies. That is what the "HD" ones do, they are optimized. THEN you need to be able to decode/display that signal. You can optimize the heck out of something and that does no good at all if you don't have anything that can decode or play back that signal.
I'm making a lot of assumptions here, because we are now 18 posts in and you haven't said you got it working, but you can't just connect an antenna to a computer and get TV. It has to be decoded, especially now in this 'digital' tv age. Something has to decode it. TVs for decades had 'modulators' in them to decode, but that has stopped in recent years. This stuff isn't magic man, there was lots of science/engineering/knowledge/skill/learning/building blocks behind it. If you don't build that into the wiring/chipsets of what you are connecting that coax cable into, there is no way for it to do anything meaningful for you.