Digital antennas

[durphee]

Anyone have any experience with a digital antenna? I have tried some basic ones from Menards but I live a good 70 miles from Chicago, about 60 miles from Bloomington and Peoria. I didnt have much luck with those. I'm tired of paying for TV, I did use an "altered firestick" before and did like that. I have seen some that advertise a range of up to 150 miles. Anyone had luck using these?

 

[ezra]

I don't know how far they are good for but the big ones u put on roof or in attic work pretty well. we put 1 in a Minneapolis home last yr and he got St Cloud station and WCCO from up north the same ne I get at cabin so 3 hr drive ? not sure where that tower is but has to be 100mi at least .
that antenna was just the most expensive one on the shelf at menerds .
IMHO the pic n the TV is great with them also

 

[chords]

Plenty of experience. Since analog to digital change it doesn't matter what antenna or how far away. Even just a few miles. A 60' tower or little flimsy one taped on the window. Any strong winds or even just any wind at all and choices are limited to maybe a couple channels that will not flitter ditter in n out. On a good day its OK. They totally screwed up free TV reception.

 

[chords]

There are relay towers / antennas that broadcast CBS ABC PBS .... that are nearby, but still tough to pull a signal in

 

[onlypolar4me]

Yep, all my life, roof top antenna. The bigger the better with amp, make sure it's mounted correctly.
Channel Master has a pretty good website with a tower search map so you can see which antenna will be sufficient for you.
Brent

 

[lak7]

You can use any antenna - the bigger the better, the higher the better.
You can even connect 2 together - 2 of the same work the best, can be pointed in different directions, or the same.
A good booster can help - it can also over-boost it, but you should be far enough away for that not to happen.

I use this one at my lake house, it's just above ground level, with lots of trees around - not the best location, but reliably receives the South Bend channels which are 40 miles away.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HDTV-Outdoo...416923?hash=item2a339aea1b:g:ynwAAOSw-7RVG2VO
As Chord said, wind can be the enemy, bouncing the antenna around.

A person I work with lives 60+ miles due west of Chicago, and is using the existing 1980's era big antenna and booster on a 40'-50' tower with no problems.

 

[JimAndros]

I'm with chords on this one. Any weather & signals go bad. Can't see weather alerts cause TV goes blank. I figure if T-storm looks possible & TV goes out, then it's storming or will be soon.

 

[EXCESSIVE FORCE]

Here's what I use and it works great. I get about 30 channels...


https://www.walmart.com/ip/RCA-Flat-Digital-Antenna/44569236

 

[boyzni]

I make my own digital TV antennas. I used some good quality heavier speaker wire I had laying around. Anywhere from 2 feet to 10 feet. I pulled the two wires apart for a bit, forming a "T". On the bottom end of the T, I attached one of those old small two wire to coax adapters that were used to hook rabbit ears into the back of TV's. I use a short one to take a TV outside, or in the garage. My house is prewired for satellite, so I made a longer one, went up in the attic, found the satellite feed, connected into that, and stapled the speaker wire to the rafters in the attic. Now each TV simply hooks up to the satellite wall jack in each room and gets over the air signal. I did add a cheap signal booster to the longest run in the house. I live rather close to town, so I can't attest to how this may work in rural areas.

 

[hemi_newman]

I bought a "stacker" from Denny antenna.com I had it 6' off the ground and got all the Duluth channels. Worked great until a May snow storm took it out. I think I paid around $130 for it.

 

[maximumpsi]

The key is to mount an amplified antenna outside. You may need one per tv. Splitting the signal reduced the ability of my newer smart tvs to pull in some local channels. I have two from Menards. They are made by RCA and might be the same as the one Excessive Force recommended above.

 

[snobuilder]

40 ft tower with medium sized old style antenna, rotor and amp. 40 miles out and get all of Milw. channels.
Love the new digital signal . Best hi def comes through the air.
Only ever paid for TV upnorth where we are too far out.

 

[durphee]

I am going to purchase one that claims to get TV from 75 miles, Ill let everyone know well it works. All I really want it NBC, CBS, FOX, etc....

 

[toddspolaris]

go to amazon and type in 150 mile range tv antenna, I know they look cheap but I have a cabin in lower MI out in the sticks and I pick up all of Traverse city stations, even Alpena, Cadillac. All over the air digital. I have had this up and mounted about 20 ft off the ground for about 5yrs now. works great and when it breaks you throw it away and get a new one. My money very well spent

 

[sxrron]

Go to antennaweb.org and enter your address and it will tell you what type of antenna you need along with what direction to pull in the stations you want.