Anybody have any experience with OFF AIR antennas? I have a client who wants to cut the cord...

I tried a "flat" RCA antenna at home... It SUCKED!

Can you put one on the roof or in the attic

Roof or outside is better for signal then in an attic. Use antennae.org or other online locator to find how far and what direction the available tv stations are located. Then call Denny's antenna service and get what they recommend.

Yeah, that one is a real POS.

Call a company called Digitenna- based in WI and they make their own.

http://digitenna.com/

I'm very interrested in this as well. I recently cancled my cable service because we just don't get our money's worth out of it. I'm thinking of putting an antenna inside the roof of my garage. Actually the previous owner has a massive array of antennes in the already. I just don't know if they are the right ones as I have no experiance with OTA.

I don't know Denny, but I'm sure he's a great guy, and I'm very far from WI. Can anyone recommend and brand and model that the usual suppliers would have? Something that can go in my garage or on my chimney?



Thanks, Craig

Best antenna depends.. Do you have an RF meter so that you can take baseline readings at your location? If you don't all you can do is guess.

Antennaweb or tvfool will get you the proper antenna for your area. But one thing I have learned is that you never know what will work until you try it. There are too many variables that dictate what signals you will receive and how strong. I had a set of $10 rabbit ears at my last 2 houses that picked up all the HD stations perfectly. In my last place, I installed them in the attic. We normally install the big winegard or channel master antennas in attics for clients and depending on the area they work great or not good at all. Sometimes I have had to aim them 180 degrees from where the towers are to get good signal. I have had good and bad luck with every type of antenna. It all comes down to how friendly the environment is. Some parts of town here are just horrible to try and get anything.

I bought a Mohu Leaf for our current place which is a suck for TV reception because of the hole we are in and maybe the high voltage lines running right by the house. It worked better than anything else I tried but was still not perfect. I let a friend borrow it to try before he bought an antenna. That was 3 months ago and I have not seen it since. It worked great at his place less than 15 miles from me.

Go to best buy or wherever you feel comfortable, and buy one of each and return all except the one that works best. :)

I have been to TV fool (I think) and aperently I can get decent reception in my area. I'm near Toronto and being up on a hill I can see the CN tower on a very clear day. I'm probably 45 km as the crow flies. I'm also in a good area to get stations from Buffalo NY but it's much farther away.

I don't have an RF meter. I should hook up these massive antennas in my garage and just see what I get. One is oriented vertically, the other horizontally. The wires aren't connected to anything. Do I just connect them to a piece of coax or is there something else that goes in the signal chain as well?

I've done hundreds of antennas over the years. In my area the broadcast towers are in other cities anywhere from 25 to 50+ miles away. I've wworked with just about every antenna made.

If you need uhf reception the channel master 4228 (now called Extremetenna 80) antenna is the best there is. For shorter distances use one of the smaller models.

For vhf reception use an antennacraft Y5-7-13 for the high band and a Y5-2-6 for the low band.

In the past I have always used a channel master 7778 amplifier. It used to have separate vhf & uhf inputs. The new version of the amp has a single combined input so if you need vhf & uhf you have to string the antennas together with 300 ohm cable.

In general bigger is better with antennas. But you need to know direction, distance, UHF/VHF stations. Sometimes you need two antennas. Attics often give 50% less signal than outside due to shingles/ roofing felt. I give Denny's antenna service my info and they will help you select what you need. I should of put up their link earlier, here it is.
http://dennysantennaservice.com/

Bruce, that's like asking what kind of boat you need.

It depends.

If your local supplier can't answer those questions, you need a new supplier.

Craig

These are the guys you want to deal with in the GTA.

http://www.saveandreplay.com/

They carry Channel Master products which you were looking for in another post.
They're located in Mississauga. They have everything you will ever need for OTA cable.

If you are interested I have a Channel Master CM-7000PAL PVR Sitting around collecting dust! No need for it living in a condo!

I hate doing antennas, but I have used this kit in a garage attic at about 25miles/40k. I wasn't at the top of the hill, but not in a valley either. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked, omnidirectional, no twisting or turning.

[Link: solidsignal.com]

I live in a house that I've been in since the 80's. When first moved in, there was an adjustable antenna on the roof. We probably received 10 channels. With stand alone antennas on each TV during the same time, probably 8 to 9 channels. So having that thing on the roof didn't help too much.

With that said, some channels came and gone. As a kid, I found the cable that was torn down from a hurricane. Brought it in and hooked it up to see if it worked, well it did for 10 years we lived here. We moved out and rented the place. So the cable had to be legally brought back in by the renters. lol

Anyways, I've installed a powered HDTV antenna that was given to me. I probably saw 1 to 3 channels on my HD set. My question is, would a roof antenna/attic improve with several more channels? Or would my gains not be worth the cost of this type of antenna?

KOT

Thanks KRAZYK.

I'll check them out.