If you have a good cheap easy digital over-the-air antenna please comment

[2017ish]

We live 20 miles or less from downtown nashville and bought a $15 "rabbit ears" cheapie on amazon a couple of years ago. (doesn't look like rabbit ears though, and is not longer available from original seller--see here: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B074W4BNX3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

Works fine for DW's TiVo. But, it all depends upon where you are located....

 

[oggelbe2015]

There are many plans for ota antennas on the internet. Several years ago I build one with scrap odds and ends from the garage and some heavy gauge copper wire from home depot. At 35 miles from Atlanta it works great. Cable is so 90s. ☺

 

[rk911]

I have a 150 mile range antenna from amazon and I get all the major local channels over the air so I do NOT have to pay a monthly fee for cable TV or satellite TV dish. I live about 30 miles from San Francisco and the HD reception is excellent.

I also recently purchased a 82 inch Samsung QN82Q80RAF for about $3200 which upgrade HD signals to 4K. I do recommend getting a new TV if your existing TV is 5 years old. This is because there are big improvements to the video processing of standard definition signals to HD quality and improving HD signals to near 4K quality.

Here is the link to my antenna which cost only about $32.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074CGF6ZN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

To supplement my free over the air channels, my Samsung QN82Q80RAF includes apps for Youtube and other content like Amazon Prime. I really like my Samsung because the "easy to navigate" menus to change input signals. I simply press the "home button" and there is a menu for over the air TV, Netflix, DVD player, Youtube, etc , etc. You then highlight to the program you want to watch and then press enter. I could not do this simple navigation using my older TV.

My only monthly fee is Netflix for my movies and my Amazon Prime. I had a monthly fee for sport channels but sports have been suspended due to the virus.

For now I mostly watch local news using my over the air antenna, Youtube videos and Amazon Prime via Internet and Netflix.

a good article on TV antenna range. the higher the better.

TV Antenna Range

 

[Time2]

Quite funny, actually. Antennas do not know what kind of signal they are receiving. FM, NBFM, AM, PSK, RTTY, HD Video, etc. all the same. Those "rods" are actually called antenna "elements" by antenna designers. Yes, the length of elements is related to frequency of the signals they are designed to receive and to their function in the antenna. If you look up "yagi" you will see some sample calculations for reflectors, directors, and driven elements. Bigger is definitely better. Antennas collect energy; properly designed large antennas will collect more energy than properly designed smaller antennas. This is why, for example, that the dishes used for radio astronomy are larger (like 100X or more) than the dishes used for consumer satellite television. It is also why my OCF HF wire antenna is 68 feet long instead of 6 feet long like some hams use for mobile radios. You can also look up "ham radio moonbounce" to see larger, more sensitive, VHF and UHF designs. https://www.google.com/search?q=ham...QGs0KHaW_DowQ_AUoAnoECBgQBA&biw=1600&bih=1030 Any questions?

Antennas deliver the most energy when they are resonant and their impedance matches the attached cable. To be resonant they need to be the proper length. Longer lengths is not an improvement in these areas. That said, any wire picks up Radio Frequency signal signals and may even display a picture.
It is true the antenna does not discern how the RF modulated, "FM, NBFM, AM, PSK, RTTY, HD Video" Ya, HD is antenna hype, sales gimmick.

When you say a bigger is better then refer to a dish, yes, a big dish reflects more energy than a small one, but the dish is not the antenna. The dish reflects the signal to an antenna that is at the focus point of the dish.

 

[papaof2]

First, determine where the transmitters are located for the stations of interest. It's likely that they are not all in the same direction from your house.

Start here: Channels - SiliconDust

They have links to AntennaWeb, the FCC and TVFool for the US and to sources for other countries. One of those three should have a map that can show your location and the relative locations + distances to the TV stations in the area.

All TV antennas are somewhat directional so the location of your antenna and the direction it faces will determine which transmitters it "sees".

One of the sites listed above can also recommend which antenna(s) would work for the channels of interest.

I had good reception from a Phillips (?) amplified outdoor antenna when my office was in the basement but that antenna was on the end of the house that faced the majority of our local HDTV transmitters. The maps are useful.

 

[Time2]

If you want to build a very simple cheap antenna here is one and the story behind it.
This is a simple broadband TV antenna that works.
A breakfast buddy kept telling us about his antenna and
we kept po poing it because it wasn't standard.
My daughter needed an antenna so I quickly built one using
aluminum foil spray glued to cardboard, I simply did a physical
contact connection for the coax connections.
My daughter is still using this antenna in the window, over 5 years later.
1-1/2 years ago after a hurricane knocked out cable,
my neighbor tried to buy a TV antenna and found there was a local
run on antennas and he couldn't get one.
I spent less than an hour building one with aluminum flashing
screwed to a piece of wood. I used screws to make the connections.
we put it on a 10 ft mast (chain link fence top rail) and it received all but the local PBS channel,
so I added another 10ft section of mast, it got that last station.
A few months later he bought an antenna and put the one I built up at his mothers house.
I suspect the wood was a little lossy and I could have did better, but it was
just a quick build and worked .

This link has a success story for someone that built it. Long wire antenna for DTV? - The RadioBoard Forums


Read the last 3 posts in the thread. Note: I think he made an error, because he talks about a transformer, there is no transformer, the two coax wires connect directly to the individual aluminum sheets. In the pictures of his build note the center support is fiberglas not metal, (which would be electrically conductive)
I haven't modeled this, but my breakfast buddy did, and I think he optimized the dimensions. He has his behind a picture in his living room, I'm sure it works better outdoors up in the air. But, my daughter has had her's propped up in a window two feet off the ground.

 

[Skitso999]

I use a Terk amplified antenna, model FDTV2A, and have been using it for years. Freestanding antenna with a base that looks very good next to the TV. Doesn't need to be placed on the wall or window since it has a base. It can also be laid-down on a surface for more omni-directional function.

It was highly rated at one time!

 

[OldShooter]

I have a 150 mile range antenna ...

I used to fly and manage aerial SAR; my reference tables say that to get line-of-sight communication with an antenna 1000' above the ground, the other end has to be 7000' above ground, with no ground obstructions high enough to block the view. Typically this means no obstructions near the area where the line of sight is tangent to the earth's surface.

There are some workarounds and luck plays a factor too but generally there is no magic.

 

[OldShooter]

... When you say a bigger is better then refer to a dish, yes, a big dish reflects more energy than a small one, but the dish is not the antenna. The dish reflects the signal to an antenna that is at the focus point of the dish.

Quite funny, actually. So then the director and reflector elements of a yagi are "not the antenna?" How about the corner reflector that is sometimes used on UHF antennas? Only the driven element is the antenna?

 

[2cheap2eat]

We are lucky when I bought the house it had the old roof antenna on it.

It works wonders for free Over The Air (OTA) tv, in HD !!

I had a similar one from radio shack. I mounted in the attic and worked great. Since then, I switched to streaming service.

 

[Time2]

Quite funny, actually. So then the director and reflector elements of a yagi are "not the antenna?" How about the corner reflector that is sometimes used on UHF antennas? Only the driven element is the antenna?

OK, if you want to get all precise with the verbage, maybe I should have said the dish is not part of the resonant structure.
I'd need to go back and look, (I'm not) to see how you worded your bigger comment. Making the resonant parts longer, makes them no longer resonant and they deliver less signal.

 

[wolf]

We are lucky when I bought the house it had the old roof antenna on it.

It works wonders for free Over The Air (OTA) tv, in HD !!

Looks like mine. Wineguard ?. Yep, it works great. But heavy and big.
Newer antennas are "square shaped", and much smaller.

OP. Like you, I'm looking for a 2nd OTA antenna. Just want a simple answer. Anyone, actually buy a OTA, outside, antenna, and have good reception. Brand/Price. Thanks.

 

[scottpush]

Consumer Reports just rated the Mohu ReLeaf tops out of a dozen or so indoor antennas they tested.

I have one of those and live in a 2nd floor condo with a condo above me. I have to put it in the sunroom to get reception at all. Overall my experience with it has been just ok. Always have to adjust it to get reception for different channels. Hopefully there's a better one out there.

 

[REWahoo]

I have one of those and live in a 2nd floor condo with a condo above me. I have to put it in the sunroom to get reception at all. Overall my experience with it has been just ok. Always have to adjust it to get reception for different channels. Hopefully there's a better one out there.

My guess is your location is the limiting factor and no indoor antenna is going to get good reception across multiple channels.

 

[REWahoo]

Looks like mine. Wineguard ?. Yep, it works great. But heavy and big.
Newer antennas are "square shaped", and much smaller.

OP. Like you, I'm looking for a 2nd OTA antenna. Just want a simple answer. Anyone, actually buy a OTA, outside, antenna, and have good reception. Brand/Price. Thanks.

I have this same antenna in my attic. It is probably 35 years old and gets great reception - 70+ channels with most transmitters 45 miles from me.

For something considerably smaller, check out the Antennas Direct Clearstream 4V. $110 at Amazon.

 

[OldShooter]

OK, if you want to get all precise with the verbage, maybe I should have said the dish is not part of the resonant structure.
I'd need to go back and look, (I'm not) to see how you worded your bigger comment. Making the resonant parts longer, makes them no longer resonant and they deliver less signal.

Not interested in continuing this far off-topic discussion. Have a nice day.

 

[jim584672]

I ordered the "Channel Master CM-94444 High Performance Balun Matching Transformer" for my DIY antennas and it definitely improved reception. Now plain rabbit ears can get in all my stations.

 

[statsman]

We're about 17-18 miles away from the main network stations we would want to receive, according to AntennaWeb (at least to the closest house in their system about 300 feet away from us - our neighborhood isn't in their system despite some 2016 house builds).

Are there other factors I need to concern ourselves with? For instance, if the main TV room is on the opposite part of the house from the direction to the towers, does that significantly decrease the effectiveness of the small multi-directional antennas?

 

[Sunset]

We're about 17-18 miles away from the main network stations we would want to receive, according to AntennaWeb (at least to the closest house in their system about 300 feet away from us - our neighborhood isn't in their system despite some 2016 house builds).

Are there other factors I need to concern ourselves with? For instance, if the main TV room is on the opposite part of the house from the direction to the towers, does that significantly decrease the effectiveness of the small multi-directional antennas?

We are around 30 miles from our stations that we point our roof antenna towards.
We run a cable from the antenna to the tv, so position of the tv has nothing to do with where we put our antenna.

I'm looking at: https://antennaweb.org/

So after looking at this site, I see there is a closer, station in a very different direction. So now I'm thinking I need to add another antenna, and join the two so I'll have more TV stations

 

[statsman]

Those small antennas will work for UHF, but you will need a long antenna, like rabbit ears, for VHF. In my area ABC, PBS and PIX are VHF.

Looks like the main local channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS) for us are UHF except for FOX, which is VHF. As luck would have it, Sling Blue (or Blue + Orange) provides this channel for those in the Austin DMA.

I am going to bite the bullet and get an inexpensive small antenna to test out our two TVs. One step closer to being able to detach from AT&T's TV services once our promo expires in November 2020.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

I purchased a Lava Electronics HD-2605 UHF/VHF HDTV Antenna with Remote Control in 2015 then another in 2016. I am on a mountaintop. One antenna points east towards a city about 100 miles away. The other towards another 88 miles away. I combine the signal from the 2 antennae and feed it to my Tablo DVR. Just now, I ran a scan on my Tablo DVR and it picked up 56 channels. Some are duplicates of PBS channels and others are not consistently good enough to watch. But I get maybe 20 that are not duplicates. Please note that some are sub-stations. For example, on channel 3 I get 3.1 CBS, 3.2 Bounce, 3.3 Circle and 3.4 Grit.

Overall, I get ABC, CBS, NBC, CW, PBS and the local Fox affiliate. I also pick up the following sub-stations: Bounce, Circle, Grit, Telemundo, Antenna, ME, Crime, Court, Quest, SonLife, Movies, Heroes, Ion, Buzzer and maybe a few others.

So I guess you could say that I am recommending the Lava Electronics HD-2605 UHF/VHF HDTV Antenna with Remote Control.

With Tablo, I can watch live using the Tablo app on my Roku. Or I could feed the antennae into my house wiring system and have each TV's tuner pickup the channels. Some times I switch to this, but really don't see much live stuff I want to watch.

 

[Time2]

Looks like the main local channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS) for us are UHF except for FOX, which is VHF. As luck would have it, Sling Blue (or Blue + Orange) provides this channel for those in the Austin DMA.

I am going to bite the bullet and get an inexpensive small antenna to test out our two TVs. One step closer to being able to detach from AT&T's TV services once our promo expires in November 2020.

Review post #56, you can built a simple antenna with aluminum foil glued to cardboard. As I posted, I built a temporary antenna with this method for my daughter, she's still using it 5 years later. Coax leads are separated and connect separately to one of the foil wings.

 

[statsman]

Review post #56, you can built a simple antenna with aluminum foil glued to cardboard. As I posted, I built a temporary antenna with this method for my daughter, she's still using it 5 years later. Coax leads are separated and connect separately to one of the foil wings.

From what I posted in the Cord Cutting thread, it would appear just about anything for an antenna would suffice to get all of our local channels. ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, CW, MyNet, Uni, plus the various subchannels. Most transmitters are 17-18 miles away.

The house is pre-wired for coax in the two rooms that have TVs downstairs. The game room and media room upstairs are also pre-wired for coax. I am considering placing an antenna in the upstairs media room, which is mainly used for storage. I would connect the antenna to the coax jack in the media room. In the downstairs utility cabinet, I would connect the media room coax feed to a splitter for the two downstairs rooms with the TVs. Each TV would then be connected to the coax jack nearby.

Can this work, and if so, would I need an amplified indoor antenna?

 

[REWahoo]

From what I posted in the Cord Cutting thread, it would appear just about anything for an antenna would suffice to get all of our local channels. ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, CW, MyNet, Uni, plus the various subchannels. Most transmitters are 17-18 miles away.

The house is pre-wired for coax in the two rooms that have TVs downstairs. The game room and media room upstairs are also pre-wired for coax. I am considering placing an antenna in the upstairs media room, which is mainly used for storage. I would connect the antenna to the coax jack in the media room. In the downstairs utility cabinet, I would connect the media room coax feed to a splitter for the two downstairs rooms with the TVs. Each TV would then be connected to the coax jack.

Can this work, and if so, would I need an amplified indoor antenna?

If pre-wired, where does the coax run - from the attic? If so, that would seem a prime location for a small antenna and should provide a strong signal to all the locations you mention.

If using an indoor antenna in the media room, it would probably provide a good signal to all locations but there is no way to know until you actually give it a try.

Whatever you end up doing, be sure to use quality splitters as they are always a source of diminished signal strength.

 

[camfused]

@statsman, I am not sure I would agree with that. I am also about 18-20 miles away from an antenna farm. I was having multi-path (signal cutting out) issues with a cheaper antenna. They went away when I switched to a Channel Master CM-4228HD antenna. At least for me, quality mattered.