What's a good antenna?

[hometheaterman]

I have right now just a cheap radio shack antenna that is for car tv's and made with a magnet to stick on the trunk or roof of a car. It's shaped like a boomerang. It's sitting inside on a shelf. It picks up most of the stations I should be able to get but it randomly loses signal. Sometimes it works great sometimes it keeps losing signal which is getting old.

I want to upgrade to something better for my local OTA HD. I don't want to spend too much as in under $100 preferably. It also must either be small or inside. No huge antennas on the roof. I could possibly put one in the attic but honestly I'd rather not as I don't want it taking up all that space. Is there anything smaller in size I can mount in the house that works well or do I need to put one in the attic? Any idea's or recommendations?


BTW AntennaWeb.org says I'm about 7 miles from the stations I'd like to get. I will have this antenna hooked up to my Dish 722 receiver.

 

[boba]

Please give zip/city/state so we can make some intelligent guesses?

 

[hometheaterman]

In VA. According to antennaweb.org it says I'm about 7 miles from the stations like I said above. So I need something that can pickup nicely from at least 7 miles away. No exceptionally large buildings in the way that I know of. No skyscrapers or anything.

 

[charper1]

Distance is only one small factor and VA is a big state with multiple DMA's; what is YOUR zipcode? Do you need a VHF/UHF combo or only UHF? At what heading are all your affiliates? Will you be mounting this at or above the exterior roofline , in the home or in the attic? If in the attic, what is the interior construction like (materials)? Help us, help you! Thnaks

 

[Voyager6]

Assuming that you are 7 miles from the towers and all the stations that you want to receive are coming from the same direction, a cheap solution would be a DIY DB2 or DB4 clone. http://www.satelliteguys.us/hd-over-air-ota/119733-very-good-2-00-homemade-antenna-hdtv.html

 

[msadvertising]

Consider the ClearStream1

Assuming that you are 7 miles from the towers and all the stations that you want to receive are coming from the same direction...

Consider the ClearStream1 (indoor, outdoor and attic use) from Antennas Direct (antennasdirect.com), the same company that designed and maufactured the origonal DB2 and DB4 referred to.

It's only 10”h x 10” w x 4.5” deep, with a range of 30 miles. It is a high gain and compact design antenna offering excellent gain and impedance matching across the whole post 2009 DTV spectrum. The ClearStream1 is vastly superior to the existing compact antennas for receiving DTV signals. Good directivity at all frequencies with a peak gain of 8 dB, provides substantial performance gains over commonly available compact antennas.

Antennas Direct provides customers with a 90-day, no-fault return guarantee on all Antennas Direct antennas and a lifetime warranty against failure, corrosion, defects in materials or workmanship.

If the C1 doesn't do the job for you, just return it for a full refund.

 

[oljim]

Consider the ClearStream1 (indoor, outdoor and attic use) from Antennas Direct (antennasdirect.com), the same company that designed and maufactured the origonal DB2 and DB4 referred to.

It's only 10”h x 10” w x 4.5” deep, with a range of 30 miles. It is a high gain and compact design antenna offering excellent gain and impedance matching across the whole post 2009 DTV spectrum. The ClearStream1 is vastly superior to the existing compact antennas for receiving DTV signals. Good directivity at all frequencies with a peak gain of 8 dB, provides substantial performance gains over commonly available compact antennas.

Antennas Direct provides customers with a 90-day, no-fault return guarantee on all Antennas Direct antennas and a lifetime warranty against failure, corrosion, defects in materials or workmanship.

If the C1 doesn't do the job for you, just return it for a full refund.

My daughter fell for the great C1, I was at her place last week and did some testing. the C1 works no better than the CM4220 or the Aspen Eagle, both are 2 bowtie and 1/2 the cost of the C1. All the stations are 15 to 28 milesaway and UHF. All 3 were weak at the 28 mile station. I also had an old Radio Shack U 75..$25 and it was the best of the bunch by far.

 

[hometheaterman]

Well, I moved my antenna back about a foot and turned it a different way and instead of getting 75-76 signal strength on the HD channel I watch ota I get 85 or so. I haven't noticed any drop outs since I did this so hopefully it will work. Now the other OTA channels still only get a signal strength of 75 or so but I hardly ever watch them and only one appears to be HD so I'm not too worried about them as long as this one works well which is seems to be doing right now.

 

[bsr2002]

I'm using one of these: Channel Master CM 2001 UHF/VHF/FM TV Antenna (CM2001) | CM2001 [Channel Master] | CM 2001 CM-2001 CM 2001 CM-2001

Light as a feather too

 

[TRG]

I'm using one of these: Channel Master CM 2001 UHF/VHF/FM TV Antenna (CM2001) | CM2001 [Channel Master] | CM 2001 CM-2001 CM 2001 CM-2001

Light as a feather too

How does this antenna perform on VHF for you? My experience wasn't favorable. It was fine on UHF though.

 

[bsr2002]

How does this antenna perform on VHF for you? My experience wasn't favorable. It was fine on UHF though.

The only channel I get VHF is Digital Channel 8 which is my analog channel 3. I get at almost 100%

I also expect a couple or more channels will be moving from UHF to VHF after Feb 17.

I'm also using a pre-amp CM7777.

 

[scopx]

I built a 4 element and propped it up beside tv in living room. It was not even in the direction of transmitters which were 40+ miles away. Was suprised that it did receive. Then put antenna at patio door in approximate direction of transmitters and ran scan again. It pulled all of Austin Tx locals(low and high band). Then put in attic pointing exact toward towers and signal dropped. When reinstalled at patio door, discovered I was getting free bounce off of neighbors metal roof! Do get good lockup and little tileing. It was necessary to tilt antenna back some to eliminate all tileing.
Antenna was built with #12 house wiring, and 2x4 of approximately 32 inches. (Will put an adjustable foot to make a base.) I installed a reflector on the back of alum sheet. Reflector may not be neccesary if you are pretty close to towers.
This is nothing original on my part. Go to lumenlab forum. Much is listed there lots of folks are doing this. lots of choices.
Tom