My parents place is inhabited. There are two smart TVs but i cut the cable whem my mother passed.

Would like to be able to watch free digital (OTA) TV when i visit, so a small footprint antenna would be ideal. Indoor. Plug and Play. Easy.

The local offerings are few, a montruosity that looks like a mini version of the outdoor antennas of my youth, a short antenna that looks like stolen from a car roof and finally a flat, solid plate that looks like a mouse pad.

Not looking to have the best reception but to be able to watch TV without feeling that my sight and my brains are melting.

If someone is kind enough to educate me. The local hardware stores are clueles.

Thanks

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Don't know if you have Amazon down there, Nicky, but these are working here: Winegard FL5500A FlatWave Amped Digital HD Indoor Amplified TV Antenna

We're about thirteen miles from a cluster of TV broadcast towers, as the crow flies.

I have used one of the flat antennas here, it picks up plenty of stations, but we are close to many towers, the ones far away are difficult to get signals from.

It depends on where the location is in respect to the tower locations. If your stations towers are clustered in a general direction and you can place that antenna where it can receive the signals then the flat one would work.

if your towers are spread all over and some long distances then you may have to move it around to get a good signal, which isn't difficult to do. Like moving the ears on the old set top antennas of our youth...

There are quite a few good ones on Amazon.com. I have had mine for years, kind of looks like a big mouse pad on the wall. I simply used two thumb tacks to hold it up...been working just fine.

Don't believe the overhyped ranges. They are lies. Things that can limit your range are dense walls or roofing, sheet metal to be more specific. The better your line of sight to the broadcasting tower the better off you are. Other than that, they are stupid easy to install, just plug it in and scan the channels on your TV.

quote:

Would like to be able to watch free digital (OTA) TV

The quality of performance all depends on a few physical factors.
1. Where the station (broadcast tower) is located, how far and if any major obstacles in the way (like a mountain or tall building in front of you).
2. Which bands they broadcast on ~ UHF (preferred) or VHF (there is low and high).
3. Then selecting the proper antenna and pointing it in the right direction.

Note: UHF is better and is what most here in the US have switched to.
VHF bands need a larger antenna especially in the low freq VHF.

Distance matters too ~ and if farther away then a larger antenna is needed.

If the channel broadcast towers are not all in the same general direction ~ you will need to either move the antennas to pickup or have multiple antennas..

There is some online broadcast tower information data here in the US to help find the direction, distance and bands of this but not sure if there is where you are?

Good Luck

PS also know there is no such thing as an "HD" antenna and those cheap, unobtrusive flat antennas are worthless for the most part.

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If you don't mind a bit of installation work, antennas designed for the attic can get you pretty good reception.

I don't have this, but it get's good reviews and is only $30

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D...perz_origin1-20&th=1

I'm confused. I thought there's no such thing as a "digital tv antenna"?

Digital TV or analog TV, the radio waves don’t care. If you needed a big antenna at this location in the past to get a solid signal and nothing else has changed besides the switch to digital TV, you’ll probably still need a big antenna of the same style as what you had.

Maybe a little smaller because as an analog station’s signal got weaker, the more snowy of a picture you would get. As a digital station’s signal gets weaker, you don’t see a change in the picture until just before the signal is too weak and the TV just stops showing a picture all together.

Yes, "digital TV antenna" is marketing mis-speak.

Most TVs capable of receiving and decoding digital signals must do a scan to register which channels they can receive. So you want to perform this step when reception is at its best, or you will never know what channels are available since they will not show up in the channel selection guide.

I have one of those "looks like a stubby car antenna" units (link), it is just OK, but at least is omnidirectional so you don't have to keep moving it during the channel setup process, or for each channel you want to watch. In my area, the vectors to the various broadcast towers are all around the compass, if your reachable broadcast towers are in a single direction, you might prefer a directional antenna. But, even then, there are some downsides. You need to record and remember what antenna direction goes with what channel(s). Or your dad does. Inhibits channel surfing if you don't know in advance what you want to watch.

Here's my Digital HD Ultra High Frequency 4K 1080P antenna. Properly adjusted, it receives every analog-to-digital signal in my service area. I think it set me back all of $3 from Radio Shack, but I considered it a worthwhile investment...


Antenna by kpkina, on Flickr

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
I'm confused. I thought there's no such thing as a "digital tv antenna"?

You're not confused. "Digital antenna" is simply marketing hype. Radio waves are radio waves, regardless of whether what's modulated onto them is digital or analog.

Can you mount an antenna in your attic? I put a Channel Master EXTREMEtenna 80 in my attic and am extremely pleased. I live about 35 miles from Chicago and pull in many channels. Land here is flat. The antenna is oversized for my needs, but that isn't a bad thing and it helps with splitting the signal to multiple rooms.

Channel Master makes some great stuff. Their booster splitters are top notch too. They also sell a Tivo box for antenna TVs that usually goes on sale around Black Friday.

My building is 30+ stories high. I live on the 1st floor.
The building is a monster and its shadow is a signal black hole.
The surrounding streets get little or no reception.

Even using the cell phones requires you to lick the window glass for a slight improvement.

Not expecting much. Luckily my parents place, nearby, is on the 9th floor and has a clear view all around it.

Not sure what type of signal carries digital TV around here. They figured a particular standard so people would be forced to buy local TVs instead of importing them.
Amazon not an option.

Will look for the flat pad types

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In the US we have the ability to see what stations are available given a particular address. Maybe there is something like this available in Argentina?

https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

A flat antenna should be fine, but as there is a reception issue, be sure to get an amplified one vs. passive.

I actually use an in-line signal booster with my little bowtie antenna, and it works just fine.

Nicky,
A lot of sound advice here thus far.

I have a 10+ year old Winegard Ghost Killer yagi outdoor antenna feeding my downstairs home theater.

Upstairs in the master bedroom we're running a ClearStream 2Max TV antenna we acquired in 2019

and have a vintage 23+ year old Recoton RV600 in a guest room.


Most stations are within 10 miles but none are line of sight. All of these work well for us although the Winegard and Clearstream have an edge in performance.

FWIW I'm no fan of the flat "mousepad" type as they can not be readily oriented to optimize the signal reception as they're invariably tacked to a wall or table. They maybe touted as omni-directionnal but they will in fact have a somewhat directional reception pattern.

Check out the Antenna Man:
https://www.amazon.com/shop/an...list_spv_ofs_mixed_d
https://www.youtube.com/c/AntennaMan

^Bald1 has a point about flat antennas. My brother got one, but to get reception had to tape it to a cymbal stand that sits in the middle of the room. You might hopefully have better luck.

Given our socio-economic mess, imports are a thing of the past. Our currency was officially devalued a few days ago (while inflation is sticking it to us at a 8%+ every month).
What is a available is the remnants of whatever chinese crap was brought in a long while ago and couldn’t be sold.

For aesthetics, i’d go with the flat antenna if i can find one. Doubt the powered one is available. The simple stick became rare a long time ago. Have one in one TV already. Image comes and goes with a melting effect most of the time. Freezes regularly too. The fugliest one is the inbred child of siamese telescopic radio antennas (think old cars) with a more recent circular antenna. Looks like the The Thing partially shat a tube TV.
Guessed no one wants to take one home and be yelled at.

LOL

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Nicky,
Do a search for DIY TV antenna. I think this is your best bet and very decent results can be had for very very little money with many made from stuff lying around the house.
-Bob

You won’t need an amplified antenna unless you are using splitters or have a long cable run. The amplifier can only amplify the signal it receives. It won’t male a poor signal any better just louder in a manner of speaking.