• Welcome to the FREE TUGBBS forums! The absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 32 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 32 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 32nd anniversary: Happy 32nd Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    All subscribers auto-entered to win all free TUG membership giveaways!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $24,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $24 Million dollars
  • Wish you could meet up with other TUG members? Well look no further as this annual event has been going on for years in Orlando! How to Attend the TUG January Get-Together!
  • Now through the end of the year you can join or renew your TUG membership at the lowest price ever offered! Learn More!
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Antenna test for cord cutters

easyrider

easyrider

TUG Review Crew: Elite
TUG Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2005
Messages
19,076
Reaction score
11,621
Location
Palm Springs of Washinton
Resorts Owned
Worldmark * * Villa Del Palmar UVCI * * Vacation Internationale*
Recently I helped some people with their tv's. It was an ota conversion for people with cable and satellite. All the new tv's were ONN with Roku. To get the ota channels the tv's needed an antenna. I took the coaxial used to connect to what ever service they had and cut about a 2ft length off and striped 1 ft to the coper wire for a temporary antenna. All of the tv's received 50 ota channels.

Today the real antennas showed up so I went to install a few. I went to the first location and the new antenna picked up 36 channels so I left the diy antenna. I went to 3 locations overall and discovered the coaxial antenna work better or as good as the $20 antenna. The best is 50 ota channels and the coaxial catches this.

Just a heads up for anyone cutting the cord.

Bill
 
Bill, were these homes in metropolitan areas, near to where the channels were broadcast? I'm wondering how well that would work, here in the remote areas northeast of Las Vegas.

Dave
 
DaveNV said:
Bill, were these homes in metropolitan areas, near to where the channels were broadcast? I'm wondering how well that would work, here in the remote areas northeast of Las Vegas.

Dave
Click to expand...

Yeah Bill? I was thinking the same thing? How far were you from a major population center?
 
The hills on both sides of the valley have transmitters so any location in the valley should get decent ota signal. The tv's were in the valley. The coaxial antenna is a pretty cheap but very good antenna, imo. All you need is 2 ft of coaxial and the end to screw into the tv. Strip the coating off the top 1 ft to coper. I did use black electrical tape over the coper in case the antenna moved and somehow poke into a hole in back of the tv. I did this to prevent shorts. All in all it looks as good as any antenna hidden behind a tv, lol.

When I cut the cord at my own home I tried a regular square indoor antenna but didn't have good reception because we are outside the valley and midway up the hill so the signal is partially blocked by hills. At our house I installed an outdoor antenna where the mini dish was. I removed the dish and used the coaxial wire that already went to the tv and caught all 50 channels. We use a tivo so we can record and skip commercials and fire stick for other streaming.


Bill
 
Last edited:
I used an antenna to watch television on my porch and deck. I can pickup about 56 channels in the Tidewater Virginia.

I used the RCA rabbit ears antenna.
 
We purchased an HD OTA antenna and put it in our attic. Of note, this was a whole house antenna, not the little flimsy ones for that may, or may not, pick up OTA channels based upon the location of the TV and any walls that might interfere with the signal. We then hooked it to a coaxial cable, dropped it through the soffit and connected it to the coaxial cable that runs throughout the house for the old cable box. All of our TV’s receive OTA channales equally.
 
This is why coat hangers wrapped with tinfoil can work too.

Digital or analog - the OTA signal is going through the air & anything that captures them works. The plug in concept uses your house wiring.I would assume the copper in the stripped coaxial captures it well too as it worked for @easyrider

Distance from the signal is key. Once you get past - 40 miles you start to need an amplifier ; particularly for mid & lower power OTA signals. Further away you need height due to the curve of the earth.

I Have found this a useful website. You can look at every TV market and geographic location in the USA , Canada and Mexico.

Www.rabbitears.info

You can input your location and figure out OTA options.
Input a stations call signal & you will see all OTA broadcasters in the TV market. Click on a particular station & see all it's sub channels & then click on technical data and then the channel number & you can see its broadcast footprint. With a directional antenna , height and an amplifier you can easily expand this IF your geography is fairly flat.
 
Last edited:
T-Dot-Traveller said:
This is why coat hangers wrapped with tinfoil can work too.

Digital or analog - the OTA signal is going through the air & anything that captures them works. The plug in concept uses your house wiring.I would assume the copper in the stripped coaxial captures it well too as it worked for @easyrider

Distance from the signal is key. Once you get past - 40 miles you start to need an amplifier ; particularly for mid & lower power OTA signals. Further away you need height due to the curve of the earth.

I Have found this a useful website. You can look at every TV market and geographic location in the USA , Canada and Mexico.

Www.rabbitears.info

You can input your location and figure out OTA options.
Input a stations call signal & you will see all OTA broadcasters in the TV market. Click on a particular station & see all it's sub channels & then click on technical data and then the channel number & you can see its broadcast footprint. With a directional antenna , height and an amplifier you can easily expand this IF your geography is fairly flat.
Click to expand...
I liked that rabbitears.info.
The technical information is just outstanding. IMHO.
 
Last edited:
There are also tvfool and antennaweb with similar services.

It really does depend on your location, distance to transmitter, and to some extent reflections off nearby buildings. Pre-move, we were half way between San Diego and LA -- 60 miles from either transmitter location and not line of sight -- and even a big antenna only did well on higher frequency channels in good weather. Now in Evansville, most transmitters are 6 miles one way and the farthest I care about is 9, and I think a wet noodle would work. We got this antenna to try, and it's fine indoors just above the TV. In fact I have to have the preamp off or it overloads. There are cheaper ones which will probably work, but the ratings on this one were astronomical.

Pick one from Amazon and send it back if it doesn't work for you.
 
I just checked availability to my location. It listed a whole bunch of stations, and everything had either Bad or Poor strength. Guess I won't be going down this road very far. :D

Dave
 
DaveNV said:
I just checked availability to my location. It listed a whole bunch of stations, and everything had either Bad or Poor strength. Guess I won't be going down this road very far.
Click to expand...

Confirmed what I've known for 20 years. We can get exactly 1 channel with "fair" reception. All others are "poor" or "bad". At one point I had a large yagi antenna on the peak of my roof, with an antenna rotator and an amplifier. Exactly the same results -- could only pull in 1 channel.
 
Blues said:
Confirmed what I've known for 20 years. We can get exactly 1 channel with "fair" reception. All others are "poor" or "bad". At one point I had a large yagi antenna on the peak of my roof, with an antenna rotator and an amplifier. Exactly the same results -- could only pull in 1 channel.
Click to expand...

I tried a yagi directional antenna at a property in the mountains. The results were worse than yours, lol.

Bill
 
this is interesting, will try this for the tv on the back porch.

ive tried a half dozen different OTA antennas, both in the house and in the attic...all are poor to fair unless specifically aimed in the correct direction down to just a few degrees, and even then I only get 3 of the 4 major channel broadcasts (cbs/fox/nbc). I believe that the 4th one is broadcast from a different tower/building downtown and explains why it never comes in properly like the other 3 do.

the leaf (both powered an unpowered) was ok...maybe a 6/10. didnt do any better when "powered" vs "not powered". I had an unpowered leaf "clone" as well that performed just as well. I would not choose to buy the leaf ones again especially since you are limited to a flat surface to mount it somewhere.

one that has performed much better than the leafs is this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W52G8Q5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

although i do have to set it up on the tv stand and aim it roughly at downtown ( https://www.rabbitears.info/searchmap.php ) is great for figuring out where your local broadcast towers are.

will try the coax trick on the back porch tv and get back to you! if this works i have an even better idea for my garage tv with a metal roof!
 
I got this Luxtronic antenna for emergency backup, and was surprised how many channels it picked up.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HB9Y8S7/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_YCHZ5CXQ3V16EJMY8TE6?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I never had an emergency until a couple of weeks ago when Comcast was broadcasting the wrong CBS feed and I couldn't get the Vikings game. I switched to the OTA antenna, and the local CBS channel came in perfectly clear, with no compression artifacts, and I was able to watch the Vikings. Comcast must have been flooded with calls, but I don't think they fixed it until the second half.
 
dougp26364 said:
We purchased an HD OTA antenna and put it in our attic. Of note, this was a whole house antenna, not the little flimsy ones for that may, or may not, pick up OTA channels based upon the location of the TV and any walls that might interfere with the signal. We then hooked it to a coaxial cable, dropped it through the soffit and connected it to the coaxial cable that runs throughout the house for the old cable box. All of our TV’s receive OTA channales equally.
Click to expand...

That's what I did, luckily my attic has a clear line of site to the mountain with the antennas on it. I just reversed the splitter and I had OTA signal at the TVs.
 
I guess living in Kansas on the plains has its advantages
 
artringwald said:
I never had an emergency until a couple of weeks ago when Comcast was broadcasting the wrong CBS feed and I couldn't get the Vikings game. I switched to the OTA antenna, and the local CBS channel came in perfectly clear, with no compression artifacts, and I was able to watch the Vikings. Comcast must have been flooded with calls, but I don't think they fixed it until the second half.
Click to expand...
LOL. This reminds me of the long-ago analog days when I lived north of Denver and had a large rooftop antenna on my house, in addition to my cable subscription. Pray tell, why, you might ask? So that THIS Vikings fan could turn the antenna north and pick up a clear signal from Channel 5 in Cheyenne, WY. They had the CBS feed that carried the Vikings, whereas Channel 7 (local CBS in Denver) did not!
 
PcflEZFlng said:
LOL. This reminds me of the long-ago analog days when I lived north of Denver and had a large rooftop antenna on my house, in addition to my cable subscription. Pray tell, why, you might ask? So that THIS Vikings fan could turn the antenna north and pick up a clear signal from Channel 5 in Cheyenne, WY. They had the CBS feed that carried the Vikings, whereas Channel 7 (local CBS in Denver) did not!
Click to expand...

80 miles - for analog not a problem / a well aimed antenna would probably get a clear picture with no "snow"
 
We live about 40-50 miles from the transmitters but there are hills in the way. During the day we can get some signals via a "fringe" effect. But it is a bit marginal and when the sun goes down, either the fringing phenomena drops or the transmitter power drops.
 
BJRSanDiego said:
We live about 40-50 miles from the transmitters but there are hills in the way. During the day we can get some signals via a "fringe" effect. But it is a bit marginal and when the sun goes down, either the fringing phenomena drops or the transmitter power drops.
Click to expand...
Yup, not surprised. Here in inland San Diego County, OTA reception is very poor with lots of rugged terrain.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top