Best indoor OTA antenna recommendations wanted, Thanks

[EscapeVelocity]

Thanks for your thoughts. Feel free to link to the guide for newbs wanting a quick rundown on indoor antennas.

 

[EscapeVelocity]

Ive been working on ugrading and expanding my indoor antenna guide. Check it out.

 

[Zero]

I prefer the homemade 4221.

http://www.digiblur.com/forum_pics/CM4221_home.jpg[[/QUOTE]

Hi Digiblur,
Does your home made antenna work on HI-VHF. I need an antenna that can work on VHF 7 and 12 plus UHF 19 to 63. I am in an apartment, patio facing south (took it for getting LOS for sats), where as all transmission towers are in North. There is no LOS to any Tx tower for me. I made a home made antenna similar to one made by [url=http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9613&st=650][I]BluBtl[/I][/url] and it works OK, leaving frequent breaks.

I prefer to keep the antenna in the storage room so that it is not visible to our apt owner. Any suggestion is appreciated.

 

[gpat]

Jim is right. Outdoor antennas are the best for reception, the higher the better and a small outdoor antenna mounted indoor will also do a good job.

Most TV consumers think of antennas as low-tech devices, but there is more behind some of the newer antenna designs than just bent metal and plastic. Many of the TV antenna designs on the market today, such as the Yagi and your rabbit ears have technology roots going back 30 to 50 years or more.

By the window or not, your rabbit ears are picking up Multi-path (bounced signals). These signals are bouncing off the walls in your home, confusing the ATSC tunner chip in your receiver.

The fact that most designs on the market now were developed prior to the advent of much of the computer technology, software and algorithms in common use today, left open numerous avenues to improve upon tried and true designs and develop new ones. Additionally, recent regulations and standards are opening new doors for antenna engineers to develop smaller antennas with improved performance and aesthetics.

Antennas Direct will have on the market in July a new indoor antenna, the Micron, pictured below. It's small, powerful and cool looking. If you can wait, try it. They offer a no-fault 90 day gaurantee. If it doesn't do the job for you, return it for a full refund or try a DB-2 (indoor/outdoor) antenna.

Humm bookends

 

[Peter Parker]

I like the CM4228 better The miracle antenna as I call it. But that's not indoors either, although I've seen one indoors.

They bot have their applications. I have a 4221 and get more channels than neighbors with the 4228. The weak point of the 4221 is the narrower beam width. I live close in to a city so the better beam width of the 4221 gets me al the cities in my area and some in the next. The neighboring 4228s just can't do that.

But if you are 50 miles form the transmittters and they are more or elss in a staright line go for the 4228.

 

[texasbrit]

They bot have their applications. I have a 4221 and get more channels than neighbors with the 4228. The weak point of the 4221 is the narrower beam width. I live close in to a city so the better beam width of the 4221 gets me al the cities in my area and some in the next. The neighboring 4228s just can't do that.

But if you are 50 miles form the transmittters and they are more or elss in a staright line go for the 4228.

I think you mean the weak point of the 4228 is narrower beam width, not the 4221. Higher gain equals narrower beamwidth, it's just the physics. High gain antennas that you need for fringe reception all have narrower beamwidth than lower gain antennas.

 

[jgantert]

Plus the 4228 has the larger screen, which should be better for upper VHF. In my area, after Feb 2008 there are several channels moving to digial upper VHF. So the 4228 will be the better choice then. Of course this is all "in theory". Come next year, we'll see just how good the 4228 really is at upper VHF (yes, I know it really is a UHF antenna).

 

[Zero]

Hi Digiblur,
Does your home made antenna work on HI-VHF. I need an antenna that can work on VHF 7 and 12 plus UHF 19 to 63. I am in an apartment, patio facing south (took it for getting LOS for sats), where as all transmission towers are in North. There is no LOS to any Tx tower for me. I made a home made antenna similar to one made by BluBtl and it works OK, leaving frequent breaks.

I prefer to keep the antenna in the storage room so that it is not visible to our apt owner. Any suggestion is appreciated.

To answer my own question- I bought CM-4221 and it was better than home made but signal used to break once in about 5 minutes. Yesterday replaced it with a CM-4228 and I get all the channels absolutely perfect.. It scanned channel 7,9,11 (Analog), but unwatchable. It also tuned in 5, but says no signal found after tuning.

 

[digiblur]

Hi Digiblur,
Does your home made antenna work on HI-VHF. I need an antenna that can work on VHF 7 and 12 plus UHF 19 to 63. I am in an apartment, patio facing south (took it for getting LOS for sats), where as all transmission towers are in North. There is no LOS to any Tx tower for me. I made a home made antenna similar to one made by BluBtl and it works OK, leaving frequent breaks.

I prefer to keep the antenna in the storage room so that it is not visible to our apt owner. Any suggestion is appreciated.

It works okay for HI-VHF but I live real close to the one VHF HI and it is on 13. I have seen the CM4228 work just fine on a RF 7 channel that was about 20 miles away though.