Recommend a Digital TV Antenna

Railsplitter · Jul 23, 2018

A guy at work gave me this digital antenna and it worked pretty good for about 18 months but now it seems to be losing its reception. I can't seem to stay tuned into local channels like I used to.

I've checked both connections and I don't see any problems there. I don't know how old it was when he gave it to me but I think I need to get a new one.

I live in a city of about 117,000 people and most of the channels that I want to watch have towers that are within 20 miles of my home. That being said, I wouldn't mind getting a little more distance than that if possible.

Anybody got a digital antenna that they've been really happy with? If so, what's the brand and model? I would like to get a high quality one and I don't mind spending $100 if I have to.

Thanks.

JB in SC · Jul 24, 2018

Winegard FlatWave Amped FL5500A (about $50 or so) if it's an inside application. Outside and higher is always better though.

scottfish · Jul 24, 2018

I am a huge fan of the Leaf Antenna. I have two in different rooms and reception is outstanding.

PirateSeulb · Jul 24, 2018

So where I live there are plenty of towers in range however the terrain has very hilly this cuts the signal strength so much it has rendered the use of most antenna on the first floor useless for all but 2-3 channels and those 2-3 have reception issues that often occur when people get up and walk around in the house. I have been looking into OTA Antenna for a while and one thing is the amped are generally worthless all it does is boost the signal from the antenna to the TV(s) which generally won't fix the problem with the signal received. My finds the best solution is an Outdoor or Attic antenna with a signal booster to allow all TVs in to receive a signal as strong as the one picked up by the antenna. I will also say generally speaking antenna don't go bad as there is very little to them and in fact you can receive OTA channels with just a paper clip stuck into the COAX input on the TV assuming strong enough signal reception. The old rabbit ear antenna you had growing up, assuming you are at least my age, will still work today and in fact I have usually seen better reception out of them than modern flat antenna. My current recommendations for a modern indoor TV antenna would be either the Leaf or an AmazonBasics model that is not amped/powered if you just want something to hook onto a single TV.

Railsplitter · Jul 24, 2018

Thank you all for the recommendations. I'll look into all three of those. To clarify, I am in fact using it indoors on a single TV on the first floor.

Railsplitter · Jul 25, 2018

UPDATE: I did some research on the models mentioned and I headed out to Best Buy on my lunch break today and picked up one of the Leaf antennas.

My wife and I had to move the antenna around quite a bit to find the best results but we finally got it. With the old antenna in my first post were getting 7 channels and only 3 of them had reception good enough to watch. Today with the new Leaf antenna we are getting 22 channels and all of them have excellent reception. We are drawing reception from as far away as Champaign which is 85 miles away but I'm not sure where their tower is. We're pretty happy.

Thanks for the suggestions folks! I should have done this 18 months ago.

Scott321 · Jul 28, 2018

I think that tower location can affect how to setup certain digital antennas. There's a website which lets you put in your location and tells you where the local channel towers are to position your antenna accordingly. For me, this means that I get better reception on different stations depending on where my antenna is pointed (its more directional than yours, which gives it a little more range in certain directions).

Don't poo poo the amplification on some of these antennas. Although it doesn't boost the reception, it can help maintain the signal when using a longer stretch of wire (from your TV to the antenna). This allows you to place the antenna in an area of room that has better reception, whitout having to put it right next to the TV.

PirateSeulb · Jul 28, 2018

I don't mean to poo poo the amplifiers just don't want people to misunderstand what they do they only boost the signal from the receiving antenna to the display. It has no impact on the actual reception of the signal at the antenna.