A Tall Straight Pine Tree ( the kind of Pine Tree that has a single trunk that goes straight up ) makes a good tower. Trim branches away. The branches like to whip around in the wind and destroy Tv antennas.
i agree if you got internet there are plenty of good things to stream on it with the ota i mostly use for football games and weather and they have alot of fetro stuff to i paid up for a decent rca outdoor amplified antenna sucks in wind and rain though
You did a very good job with this video! It is very difficult to cover ALL aspects of OTA's in a couple of minutes, you did that very well here. You have an awesome day! :)
Another information packed video Tyler. Great job. I mounted your recently reviewed Mediasonic Homeworx HW-27UV antenna on my roof a little over two years ago. I put it on a Channel Master Rotator System that I bought 15 years ago and never used. Found it in the garage and thought what the Hay might as well see if it still works. Anyway I live in Southern California on Coronado Island which is amenable to Tropospheric Ducting. Last summer I was able to receive (briefly) two LA stations broadcast from Mount Wilson, 117 miles away. Also I get nearly all the Mexican stations reliably from Tijuana. I had some very tall trees on my property trimmed and that improved signal strength from some channels in their direction.
DXing tv stations was a hobby of mine way back when we got all of 5 or 6 stations usually. Best pre-amp was an experimental tuner out of a broken VCR it sent down the single channel at IF frequency which allowed it to be mounted very high on a long cable.
I've always thought it would be great to have the local oscillator and mixer located right by the antenna, for long distance reception. It would be cumbersome for multiple sets and receivers, but would be do-able for two or three channels, all converted to something in the low-vhf band.
Antenna man always gives you the straight scoop. He does an excellent job of comparing antennas for their performance and his recommends are absolutely accurate. But if you live in a city, which may have tons of interferrence, or, especially if you live in a area with a lot of trees, if you just throw up an antenna on a mast and expect perfect results you may be disappointed. I lived in a small town, in a valley where the FM stations I wanted to listen to were on the other side of a mountain with a 500 ft elevation. I took down the high gain FM antenna that I had installed (with a rotor) from a 40 ft. hight (where it didnt work) and found the perfect reception location to be 3 ft off the ground, facing the mountain! In fact it was perfect, totally reliable reception, where there was no signal at 40ft. In the city where I live now, to pick up a station 70mi. away with NO dropouts, my 8 bay antenna is merely leaning against the house sitting on a 2nd story deck. I can't get this station reliably, or even at all from ANY other location OR height and I've even gone up to a height of 30 ft and nothing! I'm on the extreme fringe for this station. But in that location it's a 57% signal with 100% reliable reception. 2 ft over to the right and the signal drops to 1%. Trees and other objects can reflect signals from higher levels and aid you in getting that difficult channel, unless someone chops down the tree! Spend time with an old channel converter (they have signal meters), a small TV and 50ft of coax and walk your yard trying your antenna at various locations and heights. You'll most likely find that sweet spot, then use Antenna Man's recommended antennas and you'll have great results.
We have always used OTA (over the air). I appreciate your effort to educate folks about the pros and cons of OTA. We are 42 miles from the Boston stations in heavily wooded TV terrain challenged NH. Pretty much able to receive all the Boston stations. During this phase of the FCC repack many stations are operating from auxiliary locations at lower power while transmitters and antennas are modified. I realize this may be too much technobabble for folks just getting started with OTA but on our case most of the Boston stations of interest to us are on UHF and the two NH stations WMUR and WENH are on VHF-hi. For the NH stations we use a separate VHF-hi antenna pointing north east, whereas the UHF antenna points south east. Using separate antennas maximizes the number of stations we are able to receive without resorting to using an antenna rotor, the bane of multi-TV households.
Even if you have cable or satellite TV it's best if you have an OTA TV antenna (preferably outdoor) as a backup. You don't know when you might need it.
Yeah, we do that. We have an an old tower antenna, but the previous owners of the house cut the wires. We've tried to get it rewired, but the local tv antenna tower people want to tear the old one down and replace it with a new one. There's nothing wrong with the old one, and I'm too old to climb it. So, we stuck a pair of rabbit ears as backup. We get twenty channels with those rabbit ears. But I've always wondered....what if we get that tower antenna hooked back up? How many then?
@@daveowens9849 In my case the rabbit ears don't work at all, even the FM reception in my house sounds bad. I use 2 outdoor Yagi antennas, One for OTA TV and the other for FM and an active splitter, it's the only war to get a stable reception. It's great that you can receive 20 channels with the rabbit ears. I have cable but from time to time I experience problems so I switch to the antenna.
Just put the Clearstream 2Max up on the roof at 15 ft. vs in the house. Made a huge difference in reception being 7 or 8 feet higher. Excellent antenna for the price. Thanks for the recommendation. I cut off ATT Uverse about 2 years ago and have never looked back. Put the money aside from the savings for a year and now have enough beer and Crown Royal (and Advil) stashed for months to come!!
Consumers seem to forget about the quality of coax cable and how well the connectors are installed. From my experience, few electricians know how to install cable properly. They tend to staple it with romex staples, and use poor quality splitters. Many times I have changed the coax and splitters to good quality devices and the reception improves markedly
Yes that is true. And Yes is also true that other people for a long time before Tyler and also after Tyler , getting it out to us in an understandable and easily accessed format. I am now 70 years old , am recommending and installing antennas all my life. I am presenting and providing the information in every way possible from Simple to more involved , over , over , over , over , again , again , again , and so are others doing this. I am doing it here at Tyler's web site and other web sites. And so are others doing simple to more involved. The situation never stops and never ends. It's that most Humans Just Blow It Off. I just shake my head. However we keep at it.
Bingo! I am a not-so-proud owner of CrapAntenna #2 and I can say that yes, even with the built-in rotor (that you have no control over which way it goes) it's not worth the trouble. Excellent question....why do we cheap out on the antenna but throw thousands away on cable? I'm going to splurge and try one of your recommendations.
I used a first generation ATSC receiver back in 2001 soon after the first stations in my area began broadcasting digital television. I can't begin to tell you how *terrible* those early receivers were. A bus would pass by my house every fifteen minutes and that generated enough multipath to ruin the picture. It seemed like digital television was going to be a monumental disaster. A few years later I got a third generation receiver and it was much better. Antenna placement of my Yagi was still critical but the multipath rejection was much better. Years after that I got fourth and fifth generation receivers and I was amazed how much of an improvement they were. I could hook up a simple rabbit ears antenna and receive everything with hardly any antenna adjustment.
Streaming is the way to go. I live 30 miles from broadcast towers but I am blocked by a very high hill, so reception is nil. So, I resort to streaming over the internet. This works for me
I have a flat antenna , no it's not the best but it does work and I've tried others and not as good as the one I have now. I've even tried the ClearStream 2max antenna , when I tried this antenna I lost over half of my channels. Now I'm getting 47 channels. With the ClearStream I got very loosely about 21. Ànd yes I put all my antennas in the same location. The flat antenna that I have is a G.E. that I purchased at a discount store for $6. The ClearStream that I purchased at Walmart for$70 . I truly believe and do appreciate you Tyler. But this just seems to have an adverse effect for me, thanks
As always, great job Tyler; great overview of OTA reliability. We live in the east bay of San Francisco and pick up ota station in Sacramento, 62 miles away with a medium sized outside directional antenna; Denny's EZ HD antenna. We have a backup antenna in the attic; the Mediasonic Homeworx HW27UV and works almost as well as the outside Denny's EZ HD antenna. Bob
I'm about 75 miles from most towers and use an outdoor yagi antenna. Most times it's pretty good but weather does affect it. Most all my channels are UHF.
I have had that $25 antenna that you keep saying is junk for 4 years on the shore of Lake Michigan in Michigan and have had no major problems with it at all through snow, ice, wind storms and it works great, it is mounted just above the peak of my roof and aimed to the NE. The stations I pick up are about 30 miles away or more very well. The only problem I have with it is you can't tell which way it is aimed without looking at it. I receive between 20 and thirty channels . I have been very happy with this antenna.
I am in N.E. Ga. I really do not see much difference in OTA or trying to stream video. It is like this IF it rains or the wind blows or gets cold the internet goes out. However OTA will still work showing all the channels I really do not care to watch. The two channels I will watch if it rains or the wind blows or it get cold, on those two channels all I see is, Signal Not Found. I went as far as to buy one of those Channel Master boosters. It costed about $80 and it worked Great for all of 23 days. No rain No storms it just went out. I called Channel Master and told them. The rep. told me, Oh, it must have been hit by lighting and they would NOT honor the warranty. After talking to others I found this had happened to many others. Had I known this was the way it was going to work out I would not have went to the expense and trouble of setting up an antenna. But it is not all bad sometimes it does work. However I do Hate the TV ads. So I started buying DVDs and movies on line or pawn shops, Good Will. We tried Hulu, when it worked it was OK. But then someone broke into our account. And Hulu does not have customer service line. So you can not call and talk to them. I spent three days on line, on there site until I got one of those pop up help windows. I kept asking them to cancel my account until a real person wrote back. And they told me I was SOL. they told me to contact my bank. So I did and the bank stopped the payments. But all that money that Hulu took out of our account was lost.
I dumped FIOS TV a little over a year ago. Finally scrapping the flat antenna for a Clearstream 2 Max and having it mounted outside. It didn’t work well inside, and I’m fairly close to the towers. I’ve also increased my use of streaming services, some paid, and I don’t miss cable. I use a TIVO Bolt OTA and a Fire Stick (that I won here!). The cable services are simply overpriced. Even if you pay for multiple streaming services, you’re still saving a ton of money. Thanks for the useful info Tyler.
I live near the MA/RI border just east of Providence and get 76 channels pretty reliably over the air with my attic mounted in the attic. The stations are from the Providence/Worcester/Boston metro areas and most of the transmitters are located to the northeast, and the coverage areas of the Boston and Providence stations coonsiderably overlap. The hills of western RI and eastern CT tend to block out stations in CT, and Cape Cod does not have any remaining TV stations. And some stations are duplicate subchannels; due to the fact that Boston and Providence are seperate TV markets I get 2 ME TV's, 2 Cozi TV's, and duplicate PBS, CBS, NBC, FOX, and ABC stations. But great reception overall.
Getting Ch6 clearly now just by try different spots in my attic, GE Pro yagi, will be trying a Winegard HD7000R that I just recieved last night. probably tomorrow. Trying now for MeTV Ch2. Might have to mount outside for that one. getting 58 channels in Oxford, Pa. and it did not happen overnight. Big learning curve, Tyler makes it easier listen to his shortcuts.
I'm the "heavily wooded" person mentioned at 7:18 in the video. I'm 33 miles from the primary tower. On "good" days my TiVo reports an 80 for signal strength. If it drops below 55, it starts to pixelate. My two VHF Hi channels are pretty immune to this (almost no pixelating, ever). Channel 2 (actually UHF 29) is the one that is really bad. It drops as low as 16 for signal on bad days. I apparently have this: Short delay multi-path - This is always caused by something directly in front of the antenna. One common cause is a tree in front of the antenna. There will be chaotically overlapped signals behind a tree. This will mainly affect UHF reception. The solution is to relocate the antenna (or cut down the tree). ++++++++ I can't cut down the trees (or won't, I guess). If you ever find some alternative advice or fix, please post a video for those of us in heavily wooded areas. Tuners that can deal with this, whatever. Thanks for your channel and what you do! Cedar Rapids, Iowa
I work in a small-town pharmacy that has its own electronics department (a legacy remnant from when we used to be a RadioShack franchise dealer). Where I live, we have one specific channel (VHF 7) that is notorious for being the most difficult to receive, despite the tower being only about 20 miles away with generally flat terrain (mostly farmland) between town and tower. Rather than people coming in and randomly buying different antennas (let alone the right antenna) to try, one thing I've noticed is that they're more likely to come in and buy an in-line amplifier to slap on to the coax coming from their existing antenna. We sell a lot of them...and a lot of them get returned, because they ended up making overall reception worse. The problem is that even though the amplifiers may help with channel 7, they also amplify the signals coming from the closer & much stronger channels. It is possible to amplify a signal too much, and when that happens the TV can't properly decode it. It's like if I were to shout into your ear using a megaphone at full volume...yes, my voice would be loud, but it would be very hard or even impossible to understand what I was saying. So, the end result is that a lot of people who buy those in-line amplifiers may get channel 7 back, but then they'll end up losing several other channels in the process. I honestly wish we didn't even have those in-line amplifiers for sale, they're more trouble than they're worth. And then there's the customers who either cannot (because they live in an apartment or nursing home) or vehemently refuse to install an antenna in their attic or on their roof, despite my strong recommendations that they do so. They'll often throw excuses at me like "I can't climb ladders" or "I don't want to drill holes in my house" or "They attract lightning"...you get the idea. This is especially frustrating in the cases where someone lives in a house that has a metal roof and/or metal siding, which effectively makes it damn near impossible to receive anything with any indoor antenna, even a good one, and yet they still refuse to get an outdoor antenna. As for my own personal case...I do live in an apartment, and putting an antenna on the roof is not feasible, as much as I really wish I could. Luckily, I'm still able to pick up all except for the most fringe of local stations with the antenna I'm using (an older non-amplified Silver Sensor style antenna with VHF dipoles), although as mentioned before channel 7 does give me trouble at times...mostly when I have the kitchen light on, definitely an RF interference issue going on with that light I'll have to look into.
Here in this Part of Australia quite reliable ; Melbourne at 100 miles on VHF hi only plays up when troppo is running and that is rare on digital Bendigo at 70 miles on UHF solid and local Ballarat at 40 miles no problems
Even in sunny Arizona I had big problems with Direct TV. I would lose reception with any kind of mild storm. Sling and antenna is the way to go and it's fun experimenting! I do use the cheaper antenna that Antenna man doesn't recommend but I live close to broadcast towers and don't have issues but like he says when it does get crazy windy I get a few blips but I can live with it.
I used one of those flat antennas and it sucked.. then i tried another brand and it works decent, receives everything my rooftop antenna does!!! paid 25$ on amazon for it and took the time to place it in the right spot and works decent
Glad to hear my channel helped. If you'd like to pass along the savings I do accept contributions via PayPal and Patreon. The link to one is below: www.paypal.com/pools/c/8cwRt7M0g4
One advantage of satellite is that you don't always have to mount the dish on your roof. It's all about having a clear line-of-sight to the satellite. So many can mount it to the side of the house or even on the ground. You can even have it indoors pointing through a window, but it's really meant to be put outdoors. That makes a big difference where snow can build up since it can be cleared.
We are the city of trees (officially) and OTA sucks here due to multi pathing. Now if you can put up an outdoor antenna to say 125-150 feet you no longer have that issue but you will need a rotor and if you can do all of that, safely and to code specs, you probably have cable without even thinking about OTA.
You'll often lose digital cable in a regional power failure. But if you can power your TV and antenna amplifier, you will usually still have local TV. Most larger stations have auxiliary power they can use during emergencies.
My issue is not distance. It is dual -- there are woody hills of varying height all around and the tv towers are in two clusters on almost opposite directions plus two single towers on yet two separate directions.. I have an old Radio Shack VHF/UHF yagi antenna aimed to my most watched station and even though my second favorite is almost 90 degrees off the first one, I get both in fair weather. Also a factor is the amount of leaves in the trees. In storm, pretty much forget any TV. Oh, all the stations have been on UHF already for several years. I also had to build an outdoor antenna and an amplifier for receiving my cellular phone signals, while the cell towers are just one or two miles away.
During Hurricane Florence, we lost our power which isn't unusual. So when we lost our power as everyone on the NC coast did, we also lost our home phone and internet that we have thru Charter Spectrum. Meaning we would have lost our TV signal if we still had Charter Cable. You also lose Wifi sticks like Roku when you lose your service. Once I hooked up the Generator My TV's worked and I got a signal to get local updates from the local tv network. Now to be honest, My out side antenna was down. But I have a few indoor antenna that I had bought just to see what my options were when I got cut the cable cord. I was able to give a couple of my neighbors an antenna because their cable was out. So the moral of the story is, when the cable company loses power, you lose signal. Now another thing also happened. We lost cell service for about 12 hours. I have a Walmart Phone and my wife has a different service. I've sat thru every hurricane to hit NC since Hurricane Diane 1984. As we all go further and further into the computer age, Mother Nature still rules and you better have a "Back Up App" for that!!!
In future outdoor antenna reviews, would love to hear your thoughts on durability and expected lifespan. I'm considering having a mast professionally installed for amature radio use, figured one more antenna (for TV) would a good idea while I'm at it, but to me it doesn't appear that TV antennas are very robust compared to units designed for 2-way communications of course this could be due to the fact that you won't be pumping a KW of power through a TV antenna. LOL.
Thnx for the info, I just check my area and we only get 13 channels, and out ofor those only PBS is good. No CBS, NBC, CW,ABC, FOX, not even Univision.
Shoot me an e-mail as it's possible that you may just be reading the report wrong. My e-mail is listed in the description of this video and on my website at antennamanpa.com
I've had my OTA for about 2 months. So far, very pleased with the results. Stations are located 45 to 65 miles away. For the most part reliable. However, I do have a strange issue with one channel, UHF 12, the CBS affiliate for my market. Signal strength hovers around 40 to 50 percent. Occasionally the sound will stop for a second or 2, but the picture remains and does not pix-elate. Any idea what this could be ?
If anyone reading this and thinking of cutting the cord CUT THE CORD !! We did that a year ago and have not missed cable one bit. We use a combination of our antenna and the internet for things like Netflix, RUclips and several music and other channels. I'll say our TV viewing quality has increased in that we watch what we want to watch and not just because we're paying for cable and figure we might as well watch something instead of just burning money.
I live in Rhode Island I get it 44 stations with a Channel Master directional antenna. I get Boston most of the time unless we have a bad storm coming through I only lose 3 channels. Unless it's a severe storm I don't usually lose those stations
In terms of signal strength as measured at input, output. whatever, what exactly does your percentages mean? I mean in terms of dB, typically referenced to 1 microvolt? This should not be confused with field strength typically referenced to microvolts/meter?
City reception can be problematic if you live on the wrong side of an apartment or condo building or have other buildings between your location and the towers. This is my situation. I also get interference from planes taking off from Reagan Airport, wind affecting the trees in an adjacent park, and helicopters. An RF filter helps with interference from a nearby fire station. The Clearstream V2 does a good job most of the time, but sometimes I need a live tv streaming service despite being 8 miles from the towers. The issues are worse on my balcony because I get a better angle setting the antenna up inside.
Three very important factors in mounting antennæ are height, height, and height, and did I remember to mention height? Broadcasters generally go by a square - square route ratio system, and it works the same way for receiving systems. Doubling your height is like quadrupling your antenna gain, quadrupling it is like adding twelve dB of antenna gain, and a unity gain dipole at one hundred feet will perform identically to a fourteen dB gain directional antenna at twenty feet.
Good Advice & Video ! Every Time I Have Tried To Use Antenna Web Or TvFool It Says i cant get 1-2 Channels Even With a OutDoor Antenna But I Have a Small Yagi Beam & I Get 38-40 Channels & 38 Out Of 40 Are At 100% Signal ! With a Small onn Brand PreAmmp From wall-mart Into A HdHomeRun Prime Into My Plex Server & It Works When My Cable /Satellite Goes Out ! Love My OTA & DVR For Free..lol.
@@user-lj5ri3gp5o Yeah it's spot on and gives you the direction you would need to point your antenna. Just picked up the Recast for $129 and it rocks, (if you are already in the Amazon eco system).
I have a question does clouds can increase reception or serves as reflection to increase signal for weak signal station? My weak station just before the front came I have super and clear reception and after the front passed I start getting pixels and all the sudden I lost signal.
22,000 miles? They are above the Equator. That would be about 25,000 miles from New England. The signal first has to travel up to the satellite. Basically, Satellite TV signals are about 50,000 miles away. I used to install both.
I have a question I have a local CBS station here in Palm Springs California in the morning time I don’t get it but around 5 o’clock or earlier my ClearSream Max 2 picks it up no problem you have any advice to give me I’m about 20 or less miles away from the Broadcast towers. Yes I have it outside the house.
You gave no specifics, but putting your antenna in a window or on an outside wall facing the broadcast towers is optimal. The Clearstream 2Max would probably be an antenna upgrade for you.
@@ericball6652 I get about 22 channels. Mostly around the Indiana area. I have a 50 foot cable attached to it. Since they changed their freqency it easier to pick up. I live about 50 miles from Evansville, Ind.
For others: a "log periodic" has a good number of elements that step slowly in size from shorter to longer as you go front to back. All of the elements connect to the signal output. The yagi is the sort you think of when an outdoor antenna is mentioned. There is a lot bigger step in the lengths of the elements and the middle one is the only one connected to the signal.
@@kensmith5694 and its a bit more compact so the pole needs less support..mine has at least 10 elements or 20 depending on how you count them but its less than 2ft long.
If your a ham/cb operator like myself,you can design and build your own antenna,which is stronger then anything Channel Master or Wineguard currently offers and it's alot of fun. (Just don't make one of those flat plate ones,those are garbage)
What percentage of firstly the USA population, and secondly the USA land mass are able to, using just the correct over the air aerials (antennas), receive clear reliable reception at all times of all the tv stations they are supposed to be able to receive where they live.
I would say at least 75% but the number is hard to say. This percentage is based on the number of people that reach out to me and I check on antennaweb.org for their reception
@@AntennaManI believe that in the UK 98.5% of the population can receive terrestrial digital tv broadcasts free over the air using an aerial (antenna). That is because although there is a mix of public broadcasting and comercial broadcasting the transmission system is very much rooted in a public service ethos. There are of course many massive tv masts or towers serving many millions of viewers, but there are also a vast network of relay transmitters filling the gaps where the signal is poor or non existent. Some of these transmitters are very low powered and small in size and serve as few people as 50 or even less. These type of transmitters give people in very remote, or difficult to reach areas due to local topography a decent television service which in similar circumstances in many countries they would be without. I realise that the UK is alot smaller than the USA, but even allowing for that I think a better service to distant far flung areas is provided here compared to the USA.
Can you please tell me if you could try to make a fractal antenna ??? The gray-hoverman antenna with special ends. Suppose to be the best available and an 180 degrees reception. Would you please tell us if this antenna stacked double slightly move from facial parallelism, just slightly asque make the antenna that one does not need to use a rotor ??? Thanks a bunch for your help.
I miss ota tv, because it was free. I wish I could put up an antenna, but I live in an apartment and we are not allowed. 50 mile antenna needed from here.
Hi Tyler, Maybe you can help me out here. I live in a small city in OK. Only PBS is in my town. I have a Channel Master 3020 mounted outside about 30 ft up. The transmitters are located 82 - 87 miles from the house. (According to the FCC website). I receive around 26 channels when the Sun sets in the evening. Come morning and the Sun rises, I lose all of them except the local PBS channels. It happens everyday like clockwork. I run 50FT of RG6 cable into a fairly modern, 2016, Samsung TV. I have tried a pre-amp but it didn't help. Anything else I can try before I through in the towel and subscribe to cable TV?
Really the only reason why Ku band satellite service fails when it rains is because of the frequency it uses. Ku frequencies are highly prone to atmospheric absorption, and more so to water like humidity and rain. For the vast majority of the 22.300 miles there's no water and no atmosphere to absorb the signal, it's just the last 10 miles that's the problem. C band and L band signals form the same distance _don't_ fade when it rains. High band 5G service is close to Ku, and will fade from a hundred feet. OTA broadcasts are more reliable because they use wavelengths that aren't prone to rain fade, and because they transmit using a *lot* more power and concentrate it in a much smaller area. The best thing you can do to enhance OTA reliability is to get one of those big rooftop antennas. You need size to be resonant at longer wavelengths. What you don't need is a high gain "deep fringe" antenna when close to the transmitter site, because "gain" is really directionality. If your antenna has so much gain that it loses signal when the wind blows, you may be able to use a less directive antenna, and if you need it, use a preamp for actual gain. Just know that you can't amplify a bad antenna into a good one.
Satellite reliability isn't worse, per se. It is just entirely different. In some areas that are highly subject to multipath interference but rarely get clouds, I imagine that satellite is much more reliable. Suburban Seattle is a pefect example of the opposite, where OTA will certainly be better.
I only seem to get channels when I don’t want to watch them. The second the show that we want to watch comes on, the signal is gone until the commercial break. Idk why
Generally you have to go outdoors. Some houses have a tall enough space inside the roof to be high enough. It is a reasonable experiment for others to try. A good rule is "If I had X-ray vision could I see the tower in question" If too much stuff or a hill is in the way, you won't get the signal. A wall of a house an one tree is no problem.
Regarding 6:20, I noticed they also do the same with streaming boxes. They save lots of cash using OTT but resort to using cheap-o Chinese Kodi android boxes with limited Netflix 480p, Amazon and other streaming services compatibility instead of getting a decent streamer from Amazon, Roku, and Nvidia that would give them fully 4K UHD. They bitch about paying an extra $30 dollars for an Nvidia when OTT is saving them hundreds from traditional cable. I am glad I went with the Antop AT-400BV big boy antenna since it serves my needs. If I needed a bigger one, I would have done that instead of wasting money on vinyl window antennas.
I have 2 antennas in my attic with a combiner to a channel master cm7777, RG6 cable wire to the basement to a Channel Master CM3418 8-Port Distribution Amplifier to 3 tvs. What else can I do to get more channels. I live in Milton Ontario Canada and currently receiving approx. 30 channels.
In Canada bought an trnna get nothing used to be able to get about 9 channels before they went digital. Now get none. Bought a new antenna too and not hing
Hi Antenna Man , do you have any knowledge about Canada OTA ? i live in Downtown Montreal Quebec and i can't manage to get Fox44 ( football fan ) . i got a outdoor antenna 2 bay that is hook up to my balcony on the last floor ( 25 feet up from ground ) . since 3 week i lost reception to CBS and NBC and have hard time to get PBS Vermont . Is there anything you can think of that would have made me lost all the CBS and NBC channel ? i did try to realign the antenna but didn't change anything with my reception . also tried to add an amplifier but i seem to close to the broadcast tower so i'm losing strength with it plug in. If you have any ideal what i can do please let me know . Thank Bob from Montréal
I want to ditch my rotator (unreliable and breaks frequently) but I need to build a 3 antenna array to cover my main channels because they're at 120, 210, and 280 degrees. is there a switch or combiner that would allow me to input all 3 antennas w/o huge ghosting or back feed issues, so I can just channel surf through all 49 channels w/o constantly changing antenna inputs? I'm using a channel master CM3020 and all channels come in rock solid regardless of weather as long as it's aimed properly.
Antenna consulting can be ordered at the link below. I go through your very specific reception scenario to make a recommendation. This can save you hundreds of dollars and time wasted on purchasing and setting up the wrong equipment antennamanpa.com/antenna-recommendations.html
Ok so i need a 1 mile high tower and a directional antenna pointed at each tv tower in my area within the 80 mile limit. Also i would need an signal amplifier for each antenna
Actually the FCC site list even fewer channels than Antennaweb.org for me. I can pick up 173 channels (43 OTA stations with their sub channels). Antennaweb lists about 148 channels (34 OTA stations with their sub channels), while the FCC list only 24 OTA stations (a little over 100 channels.) So the FCC site is even less accurate.
We’ve used an antenna for 8 years... we use a “junk”’flat antenna that we put outside on the west side of our house that we put up temporarily when our roof top antenna went out several years ago... we get just under 40 channels with very minimal interruption.
I live in Barberton, 44203. Wooster road west 21st street. I used the FCC tool, it is reporting that channel 3 WKYC RF 19 is in the green. I barely get it. I get WFMJ better from Youngstown reporting in Brown at 51 dB uv/m. We have a local repeater that is not reported on RF 18, for channel 19 WOIO RF 10. I was wondering if it being so close to 19 is my issue and why is it not on the list?
📡 Is your reception unreliable? Consider an antenna recommendation from me below:
www.antennamanpa.com/antenna-recommendations.html
I haven't had cable for thirty years. Don't miss it. OTA is fine by me.
One time I spent 200 a month, after 6 months I had enough of this
I would be fine with it too but no antenna work in my small town. 4000 feet elevation with a lot of trees
Free is the best price :). Especially if I have to watch commercials.
A Tall Straight Pine Tree ( the kind of Pine Tree that has a single trunk that goes straight up ) makes a good tower.
Trim branches away. The branches like to whip around in the wind and destroy Tv antennas.
i agree if you got internet there are plenty of good things to stream on it with the ota i mostly use for football games and weather and they have alot of fetro stuff to i paid up for a decent rca outdoor amplified antenna sucks in wind and rain though
You did a very good job with this video! It is very difficult to cover ALL aspects of OTA's in a couple of minutes, you did that very well here. You have an awesome day! :)
I never used cable for TV, but I do use it for online connectivity. I use an antenna to pick up my local TV stations.
Another information packed video Tyler. Great job. I mounted your recently reviewed Mediasonic Homeworx HW-27UV antenna on my roof a little over two years ago. I put it on a Channel Master Rotator System that I bought 15 years ago and never used. Found it in the garage and thought what the Hay might as well see if it still works. Anyway I live in Southern California on Coronado Island which is amenable to Tropospheric Ducting. Last summer I was able to receive (briefly) two LA stations broadcast from Mount Wilson, 117 miles away. Also I get nearly all the Mexican stations reliably from Tijuana. I had some very tall trees on my property trimmed and that improved signal strength from some channels in their direction.
DXing tv stations was a hobby of mine way back when we got all of 5 or 6 stations usually. Best pre-amp was an experimental tuner out of a broken VCR it sent down the single channel at IF frequency which allowed it to be mounted very high on a long cable.
I've always thought it would be great to have the local oscillator and mixer located right by the antenna, for long distance reception. It would be cumbersome for multiple sets and receivers, but would be do-able for two or three channels, all converted to something in the low-vhf band.
Antenna man always gives you the straight scoop. He does an excellent job of comparing antennas for their performance and his recommends are absolutely accurate. But if you live in a city, which may have tons of interferrence, or, especially if you live in a area with a lot of trees, if you just throw up an antenna on a mast and expect perfect results you may be disappointed. I lived in a small town, in a valley where the FM stations I wanted to listen to were on the other side of a mountain with a 500 ft elevation. I took down the high gain FM antenna that I had installed (with a rotor) from a 40 ft. hight (where it didnt work) and found the perfect reception location to be 3 ft off the ground, facing the mountain! In fact it was perfect, totally reliable reception, where there was no signal at 40ft.
In the city where I live now, to pick up a station 70mi. away with NO dropouts, my 8 bay antenna is merely leaning against the house sitting on a 2nd story deck. I can't get this station reliably, or even at all from ANY other location OR height and I've even gone up to a height of 30 ft and nothing! I'm on the extreme fringe for this station. But in that location it's a 57% signal with 100% reliable reception. 2 ft over to the right and the signal drops to 1%.
Trees and other objects can reflect signals from higher levels and aid you in getting that difficult channel, unless someone chops down the tree! Spend time with an old channel converter (they have signal meters), a small TV and 50ft of coax and walk your yard trying your antenna at various locations and heights. You'll most likely find that sweet spot, then use Antenna Man's recommended antennas and you'll have great results.
We have always used OTA (over the air). I appreciate your effort to educate folks about the pros and cons of OTA. We are 42 miles from the Boston stations in heavily wooded TV terrain challenged NH. Pretty much able to receive all the Boston stations. During this phase of the FCC repack many stations are operating from auxiliary locations at lower power while transmitters and antennas are modified.
I realize this may be too much technobabble for folks just getting started with OTA but on our case most of the Boston stations of interest to us are on UHF and the two NH stations WMUR and WENH are on VHF-hi. For the NH stations we use a separate VHF-hi antenna pointing north east, whereas the UHF antenna points south east. Using separate antennas maximizes the number of stations we are able to receive without resorting to using an antenna rotor, the bane of multi-TV households.
Even if you have cable or satellite TV it's best if you have an OTA TV antenna (preferably outdoor) as a backup. You don't know when you might need it.
Yeah, we do that. We have an an old tower antenna, but the previous owners of the house cut the wires. We've tried to get it rewired, but the local tv antenna tower people want to tear the old one down and replace it with a new one. There's nothing wrong with the old one, and I'm too old to climb it. So, we stuck a pair of rabbit ears as backup. We get twenty channels with those rabbit ears. But I've always wondered....what if we get that tower antenna hooked back up? How many then?
@@daveowens9849 In my case the rabbit ears don't work at all, even the FM reception in my house sounds bad. I use 2 outdoor Yagi antennas, One for OTA TV and the other for FM and an active splitter, it's the only war to get a stable reception. It's great that you can receive 20 channels with the rabbit ears. I have cable but from time to time I experience problems so I switch to the antenna.
Just put the Clearstream 2Max up on the roof at 15 ft. vs in the house. Made a huge difference in reception being 7 or 8 feet higher. Excellent antenna for the price. Thanks for the recommendation. I cut off ATT Uverse about 2 years ago and have never looked back. Put the money aside from the savings for a year and now have enough beer and Crown Royal (and Advil) stashed for months to come!!
Consumers seem to forget about the quality of coax cable and how well the connectors are installed.
From my experience, few electricians know how to install cable properly. They tend to staple it with romex staples, and use poor quality splitters. Many times I have changed the coax and splitters to good quality devices and the reception improves markedly
Great information that’s not available anywhere else. Thank You!
....and you just explained why people buy those junk antennas
The information Tyler provides is available many places on the internet , he is repeating what many other sites have. And many of us know.
@@genesky61 But Tyler is getting it out to us in an understandable and easily accessed format and for that he is AWESOME
Yes that is true.
And Yes is also true that other people for a long time before Tyler and also after Tyler , getting it out to us in an understandable and easily accessed format.
I am now 70 years old , am recommending and installing antennas all my life.
I am presenting and providing the information in every way possible from Simple to more involved , over , over , over , over , again , again , again , and so are others doing this.
I am doing it here at Tyler's web site and other web sites.
And so are others doing simple to more involved.
The situation never stops and never ends.
It's that most Humans Just Blow It Off.
I just shake my head.
However we keep at it.
Same here, use indoor and got rid of direct tv. Stream everything and saving money
Bingo! I am a not-so-proud owner of CrapAntenna #2 and I can say that yes, even with the built-in rotor (that you have no control over which way it goes) it's not worth the trouble. Excellent question....why do we cheap out on the antenna but throw thousands away on cable? I'm going to splurge and try one of your recommendations.
I used a first generation ATSC receiver back in 2001 soon after the first stations in my area began broadcasting digital television. I can't begin to tell you how *terrible* those early receivers were. A bus would pass by my house every fifteen minutes and that generated enough multipath to ruin the picture. It seemed like digital television was going to be a monumental disaster.
A few years later I got a third generation receiver and it was much better. Antenna placement of my Yagi was still critical but the multipath rejection was much better. Years after that I got fourth and fifth generation receivers and I was amazed how much of an improvement they were. I could hook up a simple rabbit ears antenna and receive everything with hardly any antenna adjustment.
That's true. I have a video on this topic if you check out my other videos.
Streaming is the way to go. I live 30 miles from broadcast towers but I am blocked by a very high hill, so reception is nil. So, I resort to streaming over the internet. This works for me
i had an antenna tv on my roof for my entire life 43 years, my entire life and it was perfect reception 25 miles away.
I have a flat antenna , no it's not the best but it does work and I've tried others and not as good as the one I have now. I've even tried the ClearStream 2max antenna , when I tried this antenna I lost over half of my channels. Now I'm getting 47 channels. With the ClearStream I got very loosely about 21. Ànd yes I put all my antennas in the same location. The flat antenna that I have is a G.E. that I purchased at a discount store for $6. The ClearStream that I purchased at Walmart for$70 . I truly believe and do appreciate you Tyler. But this just seems to have an adverse effect for me, thanks
Different antennas work for different people.
As always, great job Tyler; great overview of OTA reliability. We live in the east bay of San Francisco and pick up ota station in Sacramento, 62 miles away with a medium sized outside directional antenna; Denny's EZ HD antenna. We have a backup antenna in the attic; the Mediasonic Homeworx HW27UV and works almost as well as the outside Denny's EZ HD antenna. Bob
I'm about 75 miles from most towers and use an outdoor yagi antenna. Most times it's pretty good but weather does affect it. Most all my channels are UHF.
I have had that $25 antenna that you keep saying is junk for 4 years on the shore of Lake Michigan in Michigan and have had no major problems with it at all through snow, ice, wind storms and it works great, it is mounted just above the peak of my roof and aimed to the NE. The stations I pick up are about 30 miles away or more very well. The only problem I have with it is you can't tell which way it is aimed without looking at it. I receive between 20 and thirty channels . I have been very happy with this antenna.
Not all of them fail but many do. It is junk. Sometimes junk lasts longer than expected.
I am in N.E. Ga. I really do not see much difference in OTA or trying to stream video. It is like this IF it rains or the wind blows or gets cold the internet goes out. However OTA will still work showing all the channels I really do not care to watch. The two channels I will watch if it rains or the wind blows or it get cold, on those two channels all I see is, Signal Not Found. I went as far as to buy one of those Channel Master boosters. It costed about $80 and it worked Great for all of 23 days. No rain No storms it just went out. I called Channel Master and told them. The rep. told me, Oh, it must have been hit by lighting and they would NOT honor the warranty. After talking to others I found this had happened to many others. Had I known this was the way it was going to work out I would not have went to the expense and trouble of setting up an antenna. But it is not all bad sometimes it does work. However I do Hate the TV ads. So I started buying DVDs and movies on line or pawn shops, Good Will. We tried Hulu, when it worked it was OK. But then someone broke into our account. And Hulu does not have customer service line. So you can not call and talk to them. I spent three days on line, on there site until I got one of those pop up help windows. I kept asking them to cancel my account until a real person wrote back.
And they told me I was SOL. they told me to contact my bank. So I did and the bank stopped the payments. But all that money that Hulu took out of our account was lost.
I dumped FIOS TV a little over a year ago. Finally scrapping the flat antenna for a Clearstream 2 Max and having it mounted outside. It didn’t work well inside, and I’m fairly close to the towers. I’ve also increased my use of streaming services, some paid, and I don’t miss cable. I use a TIVO Bolt OTA and a Fire Stick (that I won here!). The cable services are simply overpriced. Even if you pay for multiple streaming services, you’re still saving a ton of money. Thanks for the useful info Tyler.
OTA all the way! It's great to watch football in HD uncompressed.
I use an OTA antenna it works fine until any plane or chopper flies by. The signal drops for as long as i can hear the plane.
I live near the MA/RI border just east of Providence and get 76 channels pretty reliably over the air with my attic mounted in the attic. The stations are from the Providence/Worcester/Boston metro areas and most of the transmitters are located to the northeast, and the coverage areas of the Boston and Providence stations coonsiderably overlap. The hills of western RI and eastern CT tend to block out stations in CT, and Cape Cod does not have any remaining TV stations. And some stations are duplicate subchannels; due to the fact that Boston and Providence are seperate TV markets I get 2 ME TV's, 2 Cozi TV's, and duplicate PBS, CBS, NBC, FOX, and ABC stations. But great reception overall.
Antenna man i learn lot from you about tv sets and antenna for tv sets my friend
I’m following all your recommendations👍
Getting Ch6 clearly now just by try different spots in my attic, GE Pro yagi, will be trying a Winegard HD7000R that I just recieved last night. probably tomorrow. Trying now for MeTV Ch2. Might have to mount outside for that one. getting 58 channels in Oxford, Pa. and it did not happen overnight. Big learning curve, Tyler makes it easier listen to his shortcuts.
Great vlog. Great info for first time OTA consumer. See his other vlogs for the right antenna for you. 🇺🇸
Great video. Very informative and with a down to earth explanation of OTA receptions.
Clear, concise information. Another excellent video!
I'm the "heavily wooded" person mentioned at 7:18 in the video. I'm 33 miles from the primary tower. On "good" days my TiVo reports an 80 for signal strength. If it drops below 55, it starts to pixelate.
My two VHF Hi channels are pretty immune to this (almost no pixelating, ever). Channel 2 (actually UHF 29) is the one that is really bad. It drops as low as 16 for signal on bad days.
I apparently have this:
Short delay multi-path - This is always caused by something directly in front of the antenna. One common cause is a tree in front of the antenna. There will be chaotically overlapped signals behind a tree. This will mainly affect UHF reception. The solution is to relocate the antenna (or cut down the tree).
++++++++
I can't cut down the trees (or won't, I guess). If you ever find some alternative advice or fix, please post a video for those of us in heavily wooded areas.
Tuners that can deal with this, whatever.
Thanks for your channel and what you do!
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
I work in a small-town pharmacy that has its own electronics department (a legacy remnant from when we used to be a RadioShack franchise dealer). Where I live, we have one specific channel (VHF 7) that is notorious for being the most difficult to receive, despite the tower being only about 20 miles away with generally flat terrain (mostly farmland) between town and tower. Rather than people coming in and randomly buying different antennas (let alone the right antenna) to try, one thing I've noticed is that they're more likely to come in and buy an in-line amplifier to slap on to the coax coming from their existing antenna. We sell a lot of them...and a lot of them get returned, because they ended up making overall reception worse. The problem is that even though the amplifiers may help with channel 7, they also amplify the signals coming from the closer & much stronger channels. It is possible to amplify a signal too much, and when that happens the TV can't properly decode it. It's like if I were to shout into your ear using a megaphone at full volume...yes, my voice would be loud, but it would be very hard or even impossible to understand what I was saying. So, the end result is that a lot of people who buy those in-line amplifiers may get channel 7 back, but then they'll end up losing several other channels in the process. I honestly wish we didn't even have those in-line amplifiers for sale, they're more trouble than they're worth.
And then there's the customers who either cannot (because they live in an apartment or nursing home) or vehemently refuse to install an antenna in their attic or on their roof, despite my strong recommendations that they do so. They'll often throw excuses at me like "I can't climb ladders" or "I don't want to drill holes in my house" or "They attract lightning"...you get the idea. This is especially frustrating in the cases where someone lives in a house that has a metal roof and/or metal siding, which effectively makes it damn near impossible to receive anything with any indoor antenna, even a good one, and yet they still refuse to get an outdoor antenna.
As for my own personal case...I do live in an apartment, and putting an antenna on the roof is not feasible, as much as I really wish I could. Luckily, I'm still able to pick up all except for the most fringe of local stations with the antenna I'm using (an older non-amplified Silver Sensor style antenna with VHF dipoles), although as mentioned before channel 7 does give me trouble at times...mostly when I have the kitchen light on, definitely an RF interference issue going on with that light I'll have to look into.
Antenna man your utube videos are awesome my friend
Here in this Part of Australia quite reliable ; Melbourne at 100 miles on VHF hi only plays up when troppo is running and that is rare on digital Bendigo at 70 miles on UHF solid and local Ballarat at 40 miles no problems
I heard they were picking off tv stations reflected off the Moon. home.iprimus.com.au/toddemslie/moonbounce_DXTV.html
Even in sunny Arizona I had big problems with Direct TV. I would lose reception with any kind of mild storm. Sling and antenna is the way to go and it's fun experimenting! I do use the cheaper antenna that Antenna man doesn't recommend but I live close to broadcast towers and don't have issues but like he says when it does get crazy windy I get a few blips but I can live with it.
very relevant topic, Tyler. Thanks for doing a video about it.
I used one of those flat antennas and it sucked.. then i tried another brand and it works decent, receives everything my rooftop antenna does!!! paid 25$ on amazon for it and took the time to place it in the right spot and works decent
I haven't had cable since 1990. The only reason we had it was because the realtor told me it was required in that area!
Well that was a lie, unless WAS true. Check with your local regulations, or of where you want to live.
We cut the cord thanks to you!! You are the best!!
Glad to hear my channel helped. If you'd like to pass along the savings I do accept contributions via PayPal and Patreon. The link to one is below: www.paypal.com/pools/c/8cwRt7M0g4
I call thee, "Edward Antenna Hands". You brandish antennas out of no where.
fabulous information Tyler. Thanks.
I'm loving you AntennaMan
Very true none windy days i have no trouble. Windy days it affects uhf channels more break up for few seconds then back to normal.
For people who live in the border regions near Mexico or Canada, you can pick up a mix of both foreign and domestic channels with your antennas.
Now I'm getting 64 stations from both KC metro area and Topeka. getTV, Heroes & Icons, and CIRCLE are new to me.
One advantage of satellite is that you don't always have to mount the dish on your roof. It's all about having a clear line-of-sight to the satellite. So many can mount it to the side of the house or even on the ground. You can even have it indoors pointing through a window, but it's really meant to be put outdoors. That makes a big difference where snow can build up since it can be cleared.
This advantage is missed by many! Height off the ground doesn't matter with a sattelite dish.
Good Job thank you
We are the city of trees (officially) and OTA sucks here due to multi pathing. Now if you can put up an outdoor antenna to say 125-150 feet you no longer have that issue but you will need a rotor and if you can do all of that, safely and to code specs, you probably have cable without even thinking about OTA.
Good video as always
You'll often lose digital cable in a regional power failure. But if you can power your TV and antenna amplifier, you will usually still have local TV. Most larger stations have auxiliary power they can use during emergencies.
There are several portable TV sets, cell phone dongles, and PC dongles where you could watch antenna TV on them as well.
I think I get better reception during rainstorms.
Mine worked like a dream
My issue is not distance. It is dual -- there are woody hills of varying height all around and the tv towers are in two clusters on almost opposite directions plus two single towers on yet two separate directions.. I have an old Radio Shack VHF/UHF yagi antenna aimed to my most watched station and even though my second favorite is almost 90 degrees off the first one, I get both in fair weather. Also a factor is the amount of leaves in the trees. In storm, pretty much forget any TV. Oh, all the stations have been on UHF already for several years. I also had to build an outdoor antenna and an amplifier for receiving my cellular phone signals, while the cell towers are just one or two miles away.
During Hurricane Florence, we lost our power which isn't unusual. So when we lost our power as everyone on the NC coast did, we also lost our home phone and internet that we have thru Charter Spectrum. Meaning we would have lost our TV signal if we still had Charter Cable. You also lose Wifi sticks like Roku when you lose your service.
Once I hooked up the Generator My TV's worked and I got a signal to get local updates from the local tv network.
Now to be honest, My out side antenna was down. But I have a few indoor antenna that I had bought just to see what my options were when I got cut the cable cord. I was able to give a couple of my neighbors an antenna because their cable was out.
So the moral of the story is, when the cable company loses power, you lose signal.
Now another thing also happened. We lost cell service for about 12 hours. I have a Walmart Phone and my wife has a different service.
I've sat thru every hurricane to hit NC since Hurricane Diane 1984. As we all go further and further into the computer age, Mother Nature still rules and you better have a "Back Up App" for that!!!
In future outdoor antenna reviews, would love to hear your thoughts on durability and expected lifespan. I'm considering having a mast professionally installed for amature radio use, figured one more antenna (for TV) would a good idea while I'm at it, but to me it doesn't appear that TV antennas are very robust compared to units designed for 2-way communications of course this could be due to the fact that you won't be pumping a KW of power through a TV antenna. LOL.
Thnx for the info, I just check my area and we only get 13 channels, and out ofor those only PBS is good. No CBS, NBC, CW,ABC, FOX, not even Univision.
Shoot me an e-mail as it's possible that you may just be reading the report wrong. My e-mail is listed in the description of this video and on my website at antennamanpa.com
I've had my OTA for about 2 months. So far, very pleased with the results. Stations are located 45 to 65 miles away. For the most part reliable. However, I do have a strange issue with one channel, UHF 12, the CBS affiliate for my market. Signal strength hovers around 40 to 50 percent. Occasionally the sound will stop for a second or 2, but the picture remains and does not pix-elate. Any idea what this could be ?
Thanks
I use Antenna for local and Roku for streaming movies and TV on demand. Why pay for cable??!!??
If anyone reading this and thinking of cutting the cord CUT THE CORD !! We did that a year ago and have not missed cable one bit. We use a combination of our antenna and the internet for things like Netflix, RUclips and several music and other channels. I'll say our TV viewing quality has increased in that we watch what we want to watch and not just because we're paying for cable and figure we might as well watch something instead of just burning money.
You da man- antenna man!
OTA is the way to go
I live in Rhode Island I get it 44 stations with a Channel Master directional antenna. I get Boston most of the time unless we have a bad storm coming through I only lose 3 channels. Unless it's a severe storm I don't usually lose those stations
Petition: Burn that crappy antenna in the next video.
i'll sign
In terms of signal strength as measured at input, output. whatever, what exactly does your percentages mean? I mean in terms of dB, typically referenced to 1 microvolt? This should not be confused with field strength typically referenced to microvolts/meter?
City reception can be problematic if you live on the wrong side of an apartment or condo building or have other buildings between your location and the towers. This is my situation. I also get interference from planes taking off from Reagan Airport, wind affecting the trees in an adjacent park, and helicopters. An RF filter helps with interference from a nearby fire station. The Clearstream V2 does a good job most of the time, but sometimes I need a live tv streaming service despite being 8 miles from the towers. The issues are worse on my balcony because I get a better angle setting the antenna up inside.
Good helpful thank you
Three very important factors in mounting antennæ are height, height, and height, and did I remember to mention height?
Broadcasters generally go by a square - square route ratio system, and it works the same way for receiving systems.
Doubling your height is like quadrupling your antenna gain, quadrupling it is like adding twelve dB of antenna gain,
and a unity gain dipole at one hundred feet will perform identically to a fourteen dB gain directional antenna at twenty feet.
Good Advice & Video ! Every Time I Have Tried To Use Antenna Web Or TvFool It Says i cant get 1-2 Channels Even With a OutDoor Antenna But I Have a Small Yagi Beam & I Get 38-40 Channels & 38 Out Of 40 Are At 100% Signal ! With a Small onn Brand PreAmmp From wall-mart Into A HdHomeRun Prime Into My Plex Server & It Works When My Cable /Satellite Goes Out ! Love My OTA & DVR For Free..lol.
AntennaWeb and the FCC sites severely understate the stations I can get. I've found antennasdirect to be much more accurate.
Thanks for the suggestion. My ZIP code also shows a big difference.
@@user-lj5ri3gp5o Yeah it's spot on and gives you the direction you would need to point your antenna. Just picked up the Recast for $129 and it rocks, (if you are already in the Amazon eco system).
Agreed. Antennaweb is much more accurate.
I use Channel Master STEALTHtenna great small antenna for my area
I have a question does clouds can increase reception or serves as reflection to increase signal for weak signal station? My weak station just before the front came I have super and clear reception and after the front passed I start getting pixels and all the sudden I lost signal.
22,000 miles? They are above the Equator. That would be about 25,000 miles from New England. The signal first has to travel up to the satellite. Basically, Satellite TV signals are about 50,000 miles away. I used to install both.
mc3lizard
If we wait long enough, there’s always a know-it-all to show up in every comment section.
That makes sense. Supports his point even more regarding differences between satellite and OTA.
I have a question I have a local CBS station here in Palm Springs California in the morning time I don’t get it but around 5 o’clock or earlier my ClearSream Max 2 picks it up no problem you have any advice to give me I’m about 20 or less miles away from the Broadcast towers. Yes I have it outside the house.
Changes in atmospheric conditions because you are just barely getting the signal or interference. You may need a larger antenna.
Thanks for the info I was thinking I would have to do get a bigger antenna.
My attenna is in my apartment, but sometimes I still lose the signal. It depends on the weather. I can't afford to set it up outside.
You gave no specifics, but putting your antenna in a window or on an outside wall facing the broadcast towers is optimal. The Clearstream 2Max would probably be an antenna upgrade for you.
@@ericball6652 I get about 22 channels. Mostly around the Indiana area. I have a 50 foot cable attached to it.
Since they changed their freqency it easier to pick up.
I live about 50 miles from Evansville, Ind.
I am in an all UHF area..I use an outdoor log periodic..very directional and wider band than a yagi..good signal on a 20ft pole.
For others:
a "log periodic" has a good number of elements that step slowly in size from shorter to longer as you go front to back. All of the elements connect to the signal output. The yagi is the sort you think of when an outdoor antenna is mentioned. There is a lot bigger step in the lengths of the elements and the middle one is the only one connected to the signal.
@@kensmith5694 and its a bit more compact so the pole needs less support..mine has at least 10 elements or 20 depending on how you count them but its less than 2ft long.
If your a ham/cb operator like myself,you can design and build your own antenna,which is stronger then anything Channel Master or Wineguard currently offers and it's alot of fun.
(Just don't make one of those flat plate ones,those are garbage)
Someone with some land and a long distance to the towers could put up a rombic.
What percentage of firstly the USA population, and secondly the USA land mass are able to, using just the correct over the air aerials (antennas), receive clear reliable reception at all times of all the tv stations they are supposed to be able to receive where they live.
I would say at least 75% but the number is hard to say. This percentage is based on the number of people that reach out to me and I check on antennaweb.org for their reception
@@AntennaManI believe that in the UK 98.5% of the population can receive terrestrial digital tv broadcasts free over the air using an aerial (antenna). That is because although there is a mix of public broadcasting and comercial broadcasting the transmission system is very much rooted in a public service ethos. There are of course many massive tv masts or towers serving many millions of viewers, but there are also a vast network of relay transmitters filling the gaps where the signal is poor or non existent. Some of these transmitters are very low powered and small in size and serve as few people as 50 or even less. These type of transmitters give people in very remote, or difficult to reach areas due to local topography a decent television service which in similar circumstances in many countries they would be without. I realise that the UK is alot smaller than the USA, but even allowing for that I think a better service to distant far flung areas is provided here compared to the USA.
Can you please tell me if you could try to make a fractal antenna ??? The gray-hoverman antenna with special ends. Suppose to be the best available and an 180 degrees reception. Would you please tell us if this antenna stacked double slightly move from facial parallelism, just slightly asque make the antenna that one does not need to use a rotor ??? Thanks a bunch for your help.
I miss ota tv, because it was free. I wish I could put up an antenna, but I live in an apartment and we are not allowed. 50 mile antenna needed from here.
FCC DTV Map seems to be no longer showing vhf-lo channels, I tried to type in address of a tower for vhf-lo but the channels still not showing up
They sometimes miss information. Try rabbitears.info
Sort of related. Have a Google TV with OTA Ant. Shows lately are sometimes paused. Why? Thanks
Hi Tyler, Maybe you can help me out here. I live in a small city in OK. Only PBS is in my town. I have a Channel Master 3020 mounted outside about 30 ft up. The transmitters are located 82 - 87 miles from the house. (According to the FCC website). I receive around 26 channels when the Sun sets in the evening. Come morning and the Sun rises, I lose all of them except the local PBS channels. It happens everyday like clockwork. I run 50FT of RG6 cable into a fairly modern, 2016, Samsung TV. I have tried a pre-amp but it didn't help. Anything else I can try before I through in the towel and subscribe to cable TV?
Really the only reason why Ku band satellite service fails when it rains is because of the frequency it uses. Ku frequencies are highly prone to atmospheric absorption, and more so to water like humidity and rain. For the vast majority of the 22.300 miles there's no water and no atmosphere to absorb the signal, it's just the last 10 miles that's the problem. C band and L band signals form the same distance _don't_ fade when it rains. High band 5G service is close to Ku, and will fade from a hundred feet.
OTA broadcasts are more reliable because they use wavelengths that aren't prone to rain fade, and because they transmit using a *lot* more power and concentrate it in a much smaller area. The best thing you can do to enhance OTA reliability is to get one of those big rooftop antennas. You need size to be resonant at longer wavelengths. What you don't need is a high gain "deep fringe" antenna when close to the transmitter site, because "gain" is really directionality. If your antenna has so much gain that it loses signal when the wind blows, you may be able to use a less directive antenna, and if you need it, use a preamp for actual gain. Just know that you can't amplify a bad antenna into a good one.
Satellite reliability isn't worse, per se. It is just entirely different. In some areas that are highly subject to multipath interference but rarely get clouds, I imagine that satellite is much more reliable. Suburban Seattle is a pefect example of the opposite, where OTA will certainly be better.
I only seem to get channels when I don’t want to watch them. The second the show that we want to watch comes on, the signal is gone until the commercial break. Idk why
Just watched your recent video where you held up the big black antenna. LOL... "Don't make me burn this on my next video"!
I live 50 - 60 miles away from towers. Must use an outdoor setup..
Generally you have to go outdoors. Some houses have a tall enough space inside the roof to be high enough. It is a reasonable experiment for others to try. A good rule is "If I had X-ray vision could I see the tower in question" If too much stuff or a hill is in the way, you won't get the signal. A wall of a house an one tree is no problem.
Regarding 6:20, I noticed they also do the same with streaming boxes. They save lots of cash using OTT but resort to using cheap-o Chinese Kodi android boxes with limited Netflix 480p, Amazon and other streaming services compatibility instead of getting a decent streamer from Amazon, Roku, and Nvidia that would give them fully 4K UHD. They bitch about paying an extra $30 dollars for an Nvidia when OTT is saving them hundreds from traditional cable. I am glad I went with the Antop AT-400BV big boy antenna since it serves my needs. If I needed a bigger one, I would have done that instead of wasting money on vinyl window antennas.
I have 2 antennas in my attic with a combiner to a channel master cm7777, RG6 cable wire to the basement to a Channel Master CM3418 8-Port Distribution Amplifier to 3 tvs. What else can I do to get more channels.
I live in Milton Ontario Canada and currently receiving approx. 30 channels.
Not much beyond putting them outside
In Canada bought an trnna get nothing used to be able to get about 9 channels before they went digital. Now get none. Bought a new antenna too and not hing
Hi Antenna Man , do you have any knowledge about Canada OTA ? i live in Downtown Montreal Quebec and i can't manage to get Fox44 ( football fan ) . i got a outdoor antenna 2 bay that is hook up to my balcony on the last floor ( 25 feet up from ground ) . since 3 week i lost reception to CBS and NBC and have hard time to get PBS Vermont . Is there anything you can think of that would have made me lost all the CBS and NBC channel ? i did try to realign the antenna but didn't change anything with my reception . also tried to add an amplifier but i seem to close to the broadcast tower so i'm losing strength with it plug in. If you have any ideal what i can do please let me know . Thank Bob from Montréal
Refer to this video: ruclips.net/video/FqbydW8L-O4/видео.html
I want to ditch my rotator (unreliable and breaks frequently) but I need to build a 3 antenna array to cover my main channels because they're at 120, 210, and 280 degrees. is there a switch or combiner that would allow me to input all 3 antennas w/o huge ghosting or back feed issues, so I can just channel surf through all 49 channels w/o constantly changing antenna inputs? I'm using a channel master CM3020 and all channels come in rock solid regardless of weather as long as it's aimed properly.
Antenna consulting can be ordered at the link below. I go through your very specific reception scenario to make a recommendation. This can save you hundreds of dollars and time wasted on purchasing and setting up the wrong equipment antennamanpa.com/antenna-recommendations.html
Ok so i need a 1 mile high tower and a directional antenna pointed at each tv tower in my area within the 80 mile limit. Also i would need an signal amplifier for each antenna
Actually the FCC site list even fewer channels than Antennaweb.org for me. I can pick up 173 channels (43 OTA stations with their sub channels). Antennaweb lists about 148 channels (34 OTA stations with their sub channels), while the FCC list only 24 OTA stations (a little over 100 channels.) So the FCC site is even less accurate.
We’ve used an antenna for 8 years... we use a “junk”’flat antenna that we put outside on the west side of our house that we put up temporarily when our roof top antenna went out several years ago... we get just under 40 channels with very minimal interruption.
I live in Barberton, 44203. Wooster road west 21st street. I used the FCC tool, it is reporting that channel 3 WKYC RF 19 is in the green. I barely get it. I get WFMJ better from Youngstown reporting in Brown at 51 dB uv/m. We have a local repeater that is not reported on RF 18, for channel 19 WOIO RF 10. I was wondering if it being so close to 19 is my issue and why is it not on the list?
I have interference on the half hour and hour I live by the Sheriff's Office jli communication what kind of filter do I need for this