A few weeks ago my wife and I cut the cord on cable.
We have an old style TV antenna In the antic. It works but we loose the signal from time to time. We think a digital antenna would fix this problem. I have the ability to place one outside our home but it would be a little bit of a pain. This would still an option tho.

I was wondering what you all have been using for inside possibly near a window.
We live 30 miles from the Orlando market and 50 miles from the Tampa market.
What have you all been having good luck with.
Thanks

I got this https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and it works great.

I just picked up the channel master, so far it works well and I got the white one, so it matches the walls better.

https://www.channelmaster.com/...-antenna-cm-4001hdbw

I have my eye on the Clearstream4. $99 at a local warehouse and can be mounted in the attic or outside.

I am 35 miles over mostly water to the stations and the flat pad type were not quite enough.

Where are you in relation to the the transmitter towers is an important piece of information. For example, most Orlando channels come from towers located halfway between Orlando and Titusville. Most of Tampa's towers are 20 miles SE of Tampa on Boyette Rd.

If your existing antenna is a Yagi type, it's directional and needs to be aimed at the transmitters you wish to receive. There's maps available on the internet that will show you where to aim the antenna for your zip code.

Also, there is no such thing as a digital TV antenna; it's marketing BS. The same radio waves, VHF and UHF, that carried analog TV signals in the past are being used to carry digital TV signals now. All the same physics still apply. Height, size, direction, line of sight, etc.

Check out "Antenna Man" on You Tube for no BS reviews and explanations of indoor and outdoor antennas. I've had good luck with a MoHu "Wave" indoor antenna, but it's been discontinued.

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
A few weeks ago my wife and I cut the cord on cable.
We have an old style TV antenna In the antic. It works but we loose the signal from time to time. We think a digital antenna would fix this problem.

Nope.

"Digital antenna" is marketing drivel. Antennas emit and catch radio frequency (RF) energy. Digital vs. analog is simply different data modulated onto the same RF signal. The antenna neither "knows" nor cares what data is modulated onto the RF it emits or captures.

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
I was wondering what you all have been using for inside possibly near a window.

We've been using Winegard Flatwave Amped antennas here in the ensigmatic household. Well, we were. They're still up, but no longer much used. I threw a networked tuner on the rooftop (N.B.: Non-"digital") antenna a few years back and we use streaming devices on each TV to get the streams from that.

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
We live 30 miles from the Orlando market and 50 miles from the Tampa market.

I don't think any antenna like the ones we're using will work for you at those distances.

E.g.: One of our stations, CBC Channel 9 in Windsor, Ontario, is 40 miles away as the crow flies. The rooftop antenna receives it flawlessly. The Flatwave Amped antenna in the corner of the house in the direction of that station does not. At all. Given our elevation ASL (above sea level) and the transmitting tower's height and elevation ASL, we're LOS (line-of-sight) to that tower. And it's a major station in the area.

quote:

Originally posted by M'headSig:
I've had good luck with a MoHu "Wave" indoor antenna, but it's been discontinued.

The MoHu Leaf, perhaps? I A/B'd that against the Flatwave Amped antennas we're using. The Flatwave Amped blew the Leaf away.

The MoHu Leaf, btw, was UHF-only. The Flatwave Amped works also for VHF-High. Particularly important since the last channel repack moved a bunch of stations back down into that band. That is perhaps why it was disco'd.

I have been using a Wineguard amplified antenna purchased at Home Depot for years, and it works.

I put it in the far end of the living room and ran the cable over to the TV as I have to get any antenna as far away from the high tension power lines that are outside as possible.

The power lines are between me and the TV towers, and yet with this antenna I get reception of many of the local (SE Washington) stations which are across the river from me here in NE Oregon.

As noted earlier, there is no such thing as a digital antenna. Antennas work by frequency, not type of signal

That said, many areas in Florida still have stations on VHF frequencies. You will need a VHF/UHF antenna unless you're not interested in any of the VHF stations.

Look at https://www.rabbitears.info/market.php and check for your area. You'll need to find the actual location for their transmission towers - you may have some in different directions.

If you're in a reasonable distance, you can hang the antenna in the rafters, and can put a rotator on it if you need to point in different directions. You'll lower the risk of losing the antenna in high winds from storms if it is in a protected area.

As ensigmatic and SigSAC mentioned, there is no such thing as a digital antenna. Just marketing.

Here's what I use. Works just fine. Position is way more important than the antenna itself.


Antenna by kpkina, on Flickr

I have one like this: link in my attic pointed at the towers in Ft Myers. It happens that the Tampa towers are 70 miles away from my house in the exact opposite direction, so I get those channels as well without realigning the antenna.

Mohu leaf 50, it works well.

Antennas Direct Clearstream 4 TV Antenna

Antennas Direct Clearstream 2MAX TV indoor antenna on master bedroom set. Winegard HD7210P Ghost Killer outdoor yagi on home theater set.

$7.00 rabbit ears w/ a 12 inch x 12 inch piece of aluminum foil on one side,
Your results ma vary .
( I get 31 channels)

 
The hawk adds 10 dBi of gain to my Winegard HD7694P antenna.
 

Thank you for all the help.
I am going to first try to better aim my existing antenna.
It is in my attic and a pain to get to so I will try this during the week.
Thanks

Try here. https://www.antennaweb.org/viewing-options
I have used this site as I moved around.

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
Thank you for all the help.
I am going to first try to better aim my existing antenna.

You best first visit rabbitears or something to get a list of the bearings to your TV stations of interest.

Hint: Yagi antennas, like the one henryaz pictured, above, receive best off the pointy end, second best off the backside (which is counter-intuitive, I know), and usually worst at right angles to their axis.

Such antennas also have smaller lobes at, for example, 45° off the antenna's axis, front and back, both sides. (45°, 135°, 225°, and 315°. To really find out what they are you have to find the antenna's polar plot, which is often not available.)

quote:

Originally posted by Bob at the Beach:
Try here. https://www.antennaweb.org/viewing-options
I have used this site as I moved around.

I have found TV Fool to be a better option. Antenna Web, for example, says my antenna (linked above) is a mid-range (40-50 miles) antenna, and the manufacturer (Winegard) says the same thing. Yet it is amazing what a good, true line of sight will do for you. Using the linked antenna, I pick up all of the PHX stations, whose transmitters are located in one place (South Mountain), and yet they are 68 miles distant. I get a good strong signal on all of them, and the Winegard yagi I use is not an amplified antenna, nor do I use any inline amplification.
 
I mention TV Fool because if you input your GPS coordinates, it will give you the exact compass direction to point your directional antenna.