Digital Antenna Recommendations

[COOPADUP]

With streaming service companies sticking it to consumers theses days, I wanted to see what Ingo members are having success with.

 

[Nugget]

A lot of it will depend on how far you are from the Indy broadcast towers, the terrain/trees around you, where your TV/s are located in your house, the nearest window and which direction it faces, etc.

We live about 22 - 26 miles southwest of the local stations, which are all up on the near north side of Indy. We bought a Mohu Leaf for $35...

Mohu Leaf Indoor HD TV Antenna (Grey) with 12ft. Coaxial Cable

The Mohu Leaf Is Redesigned for Style and Performance to Receive Free, Over-The-Air TV! Cut the Cord and Shop Our Indoor TV Antennas Online.

store.gomohu.com

We stuck the thing near a window facing northeast. We get a really good signal from CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, and FOX, along with all of their sub-channels. The CW (ch.8) comes in sporadically, but who the heck watches the CW anyway?

I would also recommend shopping for deals on streaming services. We just signed up for a year of Paramount+ w/ Showtime for half off ($60 = $5/mo), and a lot of the services have super cheap deals on Black Friday each year. We currently have Hulu w/ Disney+ for $3/mo and Peacock for $2/mo, both of which we got last year on Black Friday.

 

[Ziggidy]

I have 2 of these and works well. Certain times of the day the satellites seemingly change and I need to slide the antenna over a few inches but 90% of time, It stays clipped on top of tv. One for each tv.

Amazon.com

I have no paid subscriptions. Just OTA.

 

[Cameramonkey]

This site helps decide what kind and where to point.

Antenna Signal Prediction

Which broadcast channels can you receive for free? It's time you cut the cord!

www.antennaweb.org

 

[thunderchicken]

Been in the process of moving the last few days. The wife and I are really tired of paying the cost for cable. Debating of we want to do the antenna/streaming/Roku thing or if we want to suck it up and do cable again.
Some years ago we had DirecTV but we were never satisfied with how frequently we would lose signal. I mean a light shower or snow flurry and we had no signal. Their tech could never figure it out. Haven't had home Internet service in several years but I'm game to give it a go again it I don't have to watch the little wheel spin while it's buffering in the middle of a movie. That's why we always just bit the bullet for cable. Even if strong storms we always had signal.
Good timing for this thread because it may help me decide what to do

 

[04FXSTS]

I am pretty much in a desert when it comes to OTA TV reception. Tried a few different antennas and ended up with a "Channelmaster." I have it mounted 20 feet up and it does better than the original 15 feet. I also have one of their signal boosters which also helps. Jim.

 

[snapping turtle]

The old antenna style still work well if you know where one is at. Within 60 mile range you’re pretty good. I live in Madison county and pointing to Indy from the attic inside the house (not be best idea but it was easy) I get great reception of abc cbs CW fox pbs . I also get Muncie PBS somehow and a few of the offbrand stations with QVC and weird MtV style programs. (Of which I removed from the TV’s memory of stations because I will not be watching those. I get bloomingtons channel 4 or 29 cbs also and I know that is further than 60 miles but it can be in and out at times. (Also deleted in memory as same as insy CBS) I also have an amp in the house that feeds splitters to all tv ‘s but my wife watching local news and my sports viewing is about all we use tv for.

Eventually I will place the pole outside and get the newer style MESH setup which should be 75 miles omnidirectional(or so they say) but that will be a future project

 

[Expat]

I have this. Bought it in July. I put it on the wall facing South Bend. It does pretty well.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BN5Z2WM?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

 

[COOPADUP]

I am pretty much in a desert when it comes to OTA TV reception. Tried a few different antennas and ended up with a "Channelmaster." I have it mounted 20 feet up and it does better than the original 15 feet. I also have one of their signal boosters which also helps. Jim.

Reviewed one of these on their site. $150.00
Not sure about mounting an external setup off the roof.
This may be a buy once cry once situation though.

 

[bigretic]

I've installed a couple of these (office, and family)

Amazon.com

low price point for high reward if you have a place to mount. Can go on side of wall or roof or pole.
Personally, at the house I have a roof mounted 105" winegard or similar - been a long time since i put it up, but it was like $150, plus a tripod mount and whatever coax i needed.
These little $50 on a pole are hard to beat though.

 

[Born2vette]

Reviewed one of these on their site. $150.00
Not sure about mounting an external setup off the roof.
This may be a buy once cry once situation though.

I have similar antenna, can’t recall the brand but I think it was $80 20 years ago at Menards. When we moved to Westfield 20 years ago I mounted it in my attic (single story house so its about 14 ft off the ground) in the southwest corner. Ran some coax to the basement, attached a cheap inline amplifier and ran coax to 3 bedrooms, living room and the main bathroom. All those tvs get most of the channels listed as strong and moderate, and a few of the ones labeled weak here: https://www.channelmaster.com/pages/free-tv-channels-westfield-in-46074

That said, my garage TV has some rabbit ears sitting on top of my wall cabinets and it gets all of the “strong” signals.