Which OTA antenna do you use and what are the results?

[tron3]

I admit, I am a "free tv" advocate and addict. I get a kick out of more free digital channels which ended the 7 to 10 channel analog tyranny I knew for most of my life. I am finding out two things. Firstly, I should not shun the amplifed antennas as I am seeing what they can do. Secondly, the difference between bad reception or lost reception could be a few degrees movement of the antenna. I miss analog reception in that sense because you knew the channel was there, you just had to adjust the rabbit ears. Digital is a whole new ball game.

My first "tube based" HDTV is a 34" Sony. After buying the digital tuner I needed an antenna. The old Radio Shack Rabbit ears and UHF Loop antenna only gave me a few channels. Then again, only a few channels broadcasted digitally in 2003!

I purchased the Phillips Silver Sensor which immediately gave me stronger reception and more channels. That TV sits in a ground floor basement apartment with a 5 foot tall cement wall in the yard and concrete apartment complex behind that. Fortunately, most of the signals don't come from that direction. One day I was re-running the tuner and was very excited to see I started to pick up PBS digitally. Problem was the reception was spotty and it was virtually unwatchable. I finally figured out the secret. I was getting some sort of reflected signal off the metal blinds to the right of the tv. When they are raised about 75%, I would get PBS if I moved the antenna closer to the window.


With all the digital channel jumping before and after the June 12th deadline, I was no longer getting consistent reception. I would lose 4.x and get 9.x, and vice versa. The solution was the 27" Winegard SS-3000 amplified indoor antenna. Unamplified this proved to be nothing special. But with the amplified signal I now get all the local channels except for 50.x and such. But still with the aid of the reflected signal off the blinds.

I tired the original unamplified Terk with rabbit ears and "silver sensor" style, and proved to be the worst thing imagineable. Was not a fan of the build quality let alone performance. I see solid reviews for the new amplified version and am considering it. The existing Silver Sensor antenna is proving useful for the bedrooms, even though a few channels in the NY / NJ metro area are still using the VHF bandwidth.

Finally, the 20+ year old roof antenna is proving worthy of digital reception, yet doesn't seem to pull in any more stations than the indoor antenna. In short, the whole thing is a crap shoot. With a little know how and persistence I can now enjoy the pleasure of about 30 channels - FOR FREE.

What is your indoor/outdoor antenna reception like with your antenna?

[zicmubleu]

Obviously you live close to the antenna farms since you get a decent signal with an indoor antenna. I am not in that situation and have to use an an outdoor antenna mounted as high as possible, that I can strong arm into place. My house is down low compared to the surrounding topography and then I have tall trees to boot, so I had to put in a CM7777 antenna. That is an eight bay antenna, 8 little bow tie style UHF antennas with a screen behind it to block reflections and signals from the wrong sources. In addition I have a mast mounted amplifier to boost the signal as close to the source as possible and use RG6 wire from there. I still have problems with reception, especially when the weather is a little flaky which is very annoying since digital is so unforgiven and drops the audio when it gets weak.