OTA Antennas?

[Danno]

Searched and didn't find anything recent. At my old house, there were no OTA signals easily available, I bought a couple of different cheap antennas and they didn't work, and I wasn't willing to invest in some fancier rooftop OTA antenna. That was years ago. However, I recently moved and my googling suggests I can get OTA signals now.

So, anyone know what are the good cheap OTA antennas for inside (i.e., I am not going to mount it outside and run wires)? Or even a good place for reviews (will check the wirecutter, I guess)?

[whyturn]

Local tv is likely at c band. Try crutch field or maybe Newegg. In the house will have issues with interference. But may work. I am an RF engineer if you have more questions.


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[Danno]

Thanks. Googled and read some reviews, this one was on all the lists as a decent budget option: https://www.amazon.com/Upgraded-1byo...dp/B00IF70QCW/. I only care about getting ABC/CBS/NBC and Fox (for football and other sports). Since it can be returned easily I may just order and see whether it works. If it works ok but not great, then I will know I may need to get a better one; if it doesn't work at all I may give up.

[SumJongGuy]

Thanks. Googled and read some reviews, this one was on all the lists as a decent budget option: https://www.amazon.com/Upgraded-1byo...dp/B00IF70QCW/. I only care about getting ABC/CBS/NBC and Fox (for football and other sports). Since it can be returned easily I may just order and see whether it works. If it works ok but not great, then I will know I may need to get a better one; if it doesn't work at all I may give up.

I had good luck with that one on the window. Our house has old school aluminum siding so inside is a no go with antennas of various kinds..

We've got several TVs with Dish and streaming as the main entertainment options but like to have some OTA broadcast options for weather warnings and news when Dish is rained out. I actually found just tacking any old OTA antenna outside hung from the eve and a cable running in to the TV gets a lot of hannels.. But it depends on what side of the house.. East side TV antenna gets stuff the west side antenna TV doesn't get and vice versa.

[whyturn]

Seems fine. Any patch type or wall mount one foot square should work. It’s really placement on the wall and hopefully that area has good reception. Ones that have foldout (rollout) cables or antenna elements work well. Let us know how it goes.


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[Danno]

Thanks. Unfortunately, I think the south side of the house will have the best reception but without running a lot of wire, I can't put the antenna over there (and running a lot of wire is something I am trying to avoid). I can probably put it on a window but that's the north side and I think all the transmitters are south of me. But it's risk free to try this out, and like I said I really only need to get the 4 "football/sports" channels for this to be a success. So we shall see!

[m2711c]

Got a smaller or portable size TV? Take it outside, connect the antenna and move it around the house from spot to spot and you’ll be able to figure out what strength of signal you got on the various parts of yer property. That helps in determining where to start with antenna placement in the first place.


of course, Mr. Murphy’s Law will undoubtably intervene and wherever the best signal is will also be wherever it is the least convenient for you to use.



Because Mr. Murphy is a fucking asshole.

[nickwm21]

Any of those $30 indoor antennas will do you fine…


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[RShea]

Start with a Rabbitears or the FCC Offical Antenna and Free TV report for your address. It will give you the distance to the towers, which direction(s) they are in to you. And then some idea of if an indoor antenna will work. Also maybe if you will need a booster or not. Getting all the major channels you mention plus PBS and each of those have at least 3 or more sub channels. That is with a Mohu Leaf 60 mile indoor antenna downstairs, and did not use the booster because the towers are 2 and 3.5 or so miles away. Upstairs have a smaller Mohu Leaf (Metro??) that came with the bundle. But before that I had a foldable flat panel and 2 rabbit ears coming out of it- Phiilips brand if I remember. Make sure you get one that will handle VHF, UHF, and HighV (VHF) if you have all those on the report also. Directional or Omni-directional can be determined also by the direction of the towers.

[Danno]

The antenna I linked seems to have worked, am I ready for some football!

[Jong Lafitte]

Nice!! Yeah dude I’m a fan of OTA, a good signal looks better than Comcast on my old TV. I got an OK indoor one u can have if that one don’t work out PM me I’ll give it to u to try. I’ll buy ya a beer at the drop point too.




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[Danno]

Crystal clear foosball OTA, FKNA!

[Ver iz ze money LePowski?]

Sounds like you already have it figured out but if your house had been hooked up to satellite at some point I have had success with swapping out the satellite dish with an antenna. You then use the existing coax cable already in your walls.


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