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canidmajor's avatar

TV antenna recommendations? (please see details)

Asked by canidmajor (21627points) October 24th, 2017

I got cable 20 years ago because reception in my area was very poor. Now I have streaming (thanks for the advice on that BTW, I got a Roku stick) and I really like it, but I do miss the live news and offerings of my local affiliates. I keep seeing things about new antennae that really are outstanding; but I’m an old fart, new tech confuzzles me. Anybody have good recommendations for an antenna that will get me my local affiliates? (I have a favorite crew, I’d love to see their cheery faces in the morning!)
Remember, I live in a bit of a hole, but my info on that is 20 years old.

Thank you.

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13 Answers

canidmajor's avatar

Missed my editing window…
I am specifically asking about fairly low-cost, indoor devices.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

I have tried lots of different models in Jasper National park and got 5 channels from Edmonton. The expensive ones only look good and are not any better. I like my Wal-Mart $20 model. It gets me two and a half stations. The third channel I can not hear and barley see. I get two channels from the capital city of Edmonton in my little Red Deer local area.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

If you are in a hole @canidmajor like at the bottom of a valley you may be SOL. There needs to be line of sight between their antenna and your house (antenna).
Poles and towers help. I used a rotor and a super high gain antenna to get FM stereo stations from 85 miles away, I was on top of a hill and used a pole that placed the antenna 30 feet above the ground.

This is like the antenna I used on the rotor, which you need to Point your antenna at the TV station’s antenna.

canidmajor's avatar

Yikes. I’m not actually down in a valley, but something that tall may not be feasible. Ugh. I might be able to mount something in the attic, if there is a wireless way to connect it to a device on the set.
I really wish I wasn’t so tech impaired.

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

Antennas like this work well. I don’t have this specific one but I have several just like it. Beyond these I have some homebrew antennas that work well also. I can relay info on that upon request.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Wires need to connect the TV and antenna.
You do need to be able to see the place the TV channel has their antenna from your house, there cannot be any mountains, hills or big buildings in between you and the TV channel.

canidmajor's avatar

And I just read through your “line of sight” link (at which I had just glanced at) @Tropical_Willie, thanks again for this info.

canidmajor's avatar

In fact, as I read it more comprehensively, it may be answering my other Q.
Thanks again, @Tropical_Willie! :-)

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

Antennaweb.org gives recommendations based on your address. Note the color-coded options for Good, Great and Best.

johnpowell's avatar

I have a cheap antenna from amazon. This one to be exact.

It is not the best antenna. But it is very cheap. I would probably start with something like that to set sort of a baseline. It would give you an idea of channel strength and you could work up from there.

And if you wanted to get crazy you could roll like me.

I use a HDHomeRun Extend. This is basically a box that plugs into your router and then you plug a OTA antenna into it. With that it will allow you to stream live TV to your computer/Fire TV/Phone.

And if you want to get balls deep into it you can toss in Plex into the mix. This will act as a DVR and save shows to your computer. The DVR function in Plex is five bucks a month or a lifetime fee of 150. And plex does a hell of a lot more than just DVR.

But you can set up recordings like this. Then you can just watch your morning show whenever you want.

jonsblond's avatar

I bought a $10 indoor antenna from Dollar General and it gives us NBC, PBS, Fox, CW and ABC from a city that is 80 miles from our home. You could buy a cheap one and try it out. If it doesn’t work, just return it.

RocketGuy's avatar

You might get better results with an external antenna. That’s what works at my house – we have stucco (with chicken wire all around the house) and fancy foil-faced plywood on the roof. Those items block HDTV signals.

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