What indoor or small outdoor DTV antenna should I purchase?

[Icangelp]

I want to purchase a DTV antenna for local reception, and I'm less than 10 miles from all locals.

I am at the allowable limit (for a harmonious marriage) for outdoor antennas, so indoor, or very small outdoor if I negotiate properly, is what I am after.

All suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[w9wi]

What market are you in?

Within 10 miles of the locals, I'd start with a set of rabbit ears.

*Stay away* from "flat panel", "amplified", and "boosted" antennas. Flat panels don't support all channels. Within 10 miles of the towers, a "boosted" antenna may deliver signals that are *too strong*.

 

[KR4BD]

For inside reception in Lexington, KY, I am using a simple Rabbit Ears-Loop antenna. I receive all the locals quite well. I would say this should work fine if the stations are within 10-15 miles of you. I also have a small Radio Shack VHF-UHF outside antenna up 55' on my ham radio tower. With it, I can get all the locals in the Lexington area plus about half of the Louisville stations reliably. With a little tropo enhancement, All the Louisville and most Cincinnati stations will also come in.

 

[landtuna]

I've had reasonable signals with $10 combo rabbit ears/UHF loop you can buy from Target or Walmart. I have noticed though that location can be critical. If you can put the antenna close to or in a window in the direction of your TV towers reception will likely be much better than on a shelf with a major appliance in between. Sometimes the location of only a few inches can make a difference so be prepared to experiment.

Also, in the event you have VHF stations in your market find the one in the middle of the RF range and optimize your VHF "ears" for that channel. There are people here on the forum that can give you specific direction on this but I found a length of 10" on each "ear" works best for my local VHF's (RF 8, 10 and 12).

 

[KeithE4]

I want to purchase a DTV antenna for local reception, and I'm less than 10 miles from all locals.

I am at the allowable limit (for a harmonious marriage) for outdoor antennas, so indoor, or very small outdoor if I negotiate properly, is what I am after.

All suggestions will be appreciated.

I use the Terk HDTVa - UHF log-periodic with VHF rabbit-ears and a preamp. It works quite well on UHF, so-so on VHF-high (no stations on Channels 2-6 in Phoenix). I'm 5 miles from the South Mountain antenna farm, but in an apartment that's a virtual screen room, so I actually need the amplifier.

 

[ddsparxx]

I agree with others about the rabbit ears. I avoid amplified antenna, because...they just amplify noise along with the signals.

 

[Darth_vader]

Same here. Ears-and-loop at the flat; no amplifier. A lot of amplifiers tend to add their own self-noise into the signal, and when you consider that apartment complexes generally tend to be very noisy places for RF reception (especially these days), it'd just make a bad situation worse. Your results may vary.

[size=8pt]Also, considering my proximity to the Portland towers and my line of sight, I'd probably end up overloading the front-end of my receivers with an amp.

 

[fybush]

I use the Terk HDTVa - UHF log-periodic with VHF rabbit-ears and a preamp.

The HDTVi is the version of this without the preamp. I use it when I travel, usually with quite good results. Not easy to find on stores, but easy to find online for $25 or so.

 

[spunker88]

You can build a simple UHF antenna from metal coat hangers that would work fine for 10 miles. If you have any channels on VHF bunny ears will work good for that.

 

[Icangelp]

Thanks to all.

 

[dave73]

To Icangelp: If you're only interested in the Lexington stations, then all you need is a UHF antenna, as Lexington is a UHF only market. I always recommend an outdoor antenna, if possible. Any 2 or 4 bay whisker antenna will work for you. Now if you want to also get Louisvillle stations, then you need VHF-Hi as well, & you would need an outdoor antenna for those stations. If you want to try & get Louisville stations as well, then a Winegard HD7696 - 7698 or Antennacraft HBU44 or 55 for VHF-Hi/UHF. Otherwise, just a UHF only antenna.

 

[vibe]

Weighing in w/ the other responses; I have a small home in SW Fla about 34 mi NNW from the Ft. Myers antenna farm. I thought i'd need an outside 4 bay (all are UHF's). I bought an older (1980?) RCA indoor antenna w/ rabbit ears, a dish like loop, w about 12 clickable locations. Some clicks result in a better signal. With it I get 6 stations-11 channels but no hint of PBS. The antenna is located on top of a box on top of a clean empty basket near the ceiling. Yes, I had to find THE sweet spot. The signals have to go thru the entire house as the LR is on the N side of the house. But I don't have to adjust the antenna with this set up. I do tilt up the dish part of the UHF about 10-20 deg for best signal strength.
After sunset I get 3-5 more reliable stations-sometimes more from the Tampa antenna farm about 60 mi due N in Riverview There's nights where I get 3 ABC's (St Pete-Ft. Myers-Sarasota).
All of the reception is UHF. And with a converter box whose tuner, in my opinion, is better than some of the newer DTV moderls.
I tried a more expensive amplified antenna with much poorer results. Only 2 stations.
So my 50 cent yard sale find really works. Go passive, and experiment a bit. 10-15 mi should be doable.

 

[w9wi]

Weighing in w/ the other responses; I have a small home in SW Fla about 34 mi NNW from the Ft. Myers antenna farm.
..
With it I get 6 stations-11 channels but no hint of PBS.

Yeah, unless they've implemented their permit, WGCU is a bit of a wimp All the major Ft. Myers stations are 1000kw, except WGCU at 63kw...

 

[vibe]

That explains it. Thanks w9wi