About digital TV antennas...
 

I've cut the cord with ComCrap (ComCast), but I would still like to see some football games this Fall and Winter. Finding a game on the internet has proven to be a time-waster, though. So...do digital TV antennas work?

I've seen antennas advertised from $30-$150, and ranges of "who knows?" to 150 miles.

Questions: 1. Do they work? 2. If so, which ones work the best? 3. How tall do I need the antenna mast to be? 4. How many TVs can work off the same antenna?

And finally...any tips? Thanks.

Start here:

https://antennaweb.org/Address

Put in your address (or a nearby neighbor's address if you are paranoid,) and see what is available to pull in. The channels and directions are color coded, so you can see what kind of antenna you need for each station. I'm only maybe 25 miles or so from most of the Houston antenna farms, so I have a big antenna in the attic, and I have enough gain to run two TV's with no power booster.

Depending on your situation, you might put an antenna in the attic, or you may have to mount it outside, and if you have multiple cities you are trying to capture, you might do better with an omnidirectional antenna vs. the traditional kind. You might need a signal booster, also.

Another good source for locating broadcast sources and learning about the different types of antennas:

https://www.channelmaster.com/Antenn...tion-a/134.htm

Let us know how it works out for you!

I stuck an RCA antenna in my attic after I got my first >$200.00 cable bill and was able to receive about 25 channels. I put it outside mounted to the fascia and get about 40 channels. I am feeding 7 TV's from the antenna using my existing cable previously used by Spectrum.

We run a single tv in the kitchen (not practical to put a cable box there) off a flat panel antenna in the basement and we pull all the network channels with not problems, kind of surprising actually

Antennas don't care if they are receiving digital TV signals or analog TV signals. Taller is better to a point, feedline loss, ugly thing in yard, etc. Find out what part of town your broadcasters antennas are and point an old style TV antenna that way (Log Periodic antennas cover nearly all channels) . Broadcasters usually clump them near each other so if your aimed at one channel, you are usually good for several. A better antenna is better than a poor one with an amp. I could bore you all night with geeky stuff like this but this should get you started.

Don't get sucked in by so called "HD" antennas. The same one you may have used in 1965 will do what a new one will do.

Antennae are based mostly on the carrier signal as opposed to the content of th modulation. I agree with antennaweb being a good resource. There are some very good "window sticker" antennae out there now that work very well. I don't know how far out you are, but putting up a mast, or even needing the antenna on the roof is not required unless you're very far out from the transmitters.

I bought an odd antenna that looked like a figger 8, and just one cable into the living room TV, it worked fine, but FOX NEWS has no open air broadcast here in Jax....nothing I can get, anyway.....I live 1/2 way down the backside of a 60' hill, so that and the damn tall trees around here, makes me wonder, but I don't have a field strength meter to tell WTF is reality, much less note witch way to point the antenna.....since I live in the SW corner of Jax. I just aim it to the NE and hope for the best,......BUT

I have essentially given up on it, because for 10-15 bux/month, comcrap has a TV box for the LR set, it gets all the shows we never watch....it is amazing how much drivel is on the TV......if it's just ME home, the TV is off, turns on at 5 to catch the Gutfeld chat group on Fox news.....then at 6 we go local news, on NBC/ABC who ever does not have some stupid sports event coverage....so to catch their network coverage of the news, then at 7 it's back to FOX NEWS.....

in the back room I have recently subscribed to ROKU streaming, they carry some derivitive function of FOX, that I find has the news channel.....and recently before my forking over 6 bux/month they would say on the screen, 'provider issue' and stop the Fox News channel, they would let me watch a bunch of old movies and other ASSorted CRAP of no interest .....jerks.....

trick IS, everyone has to pay for internet access...a terrorbyte of data/month is allowed, essentially being one or two streaming devices left on all the time.....I found out a couple years ago that I was hitting the limits on that, so I did the box in L/R and kill the streaming with the TV in back bedroom...

:issues:

But Gene, can't you get MSNBC or CNN.

http://www.tim-yvonne.com/gif/bell1.gif

I have a big antenna up in the attic that I'm not currently using. Swing by and I'll give it to you.