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don62
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# Posted: 20 Apr 2016 01:24pm
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Our cabin is in northern Minnesota and I'm thinking I'd like to get an antenna for some local news channels or something for rainy days, Has any one had any luck with this? Anyone have any advice?
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don62
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# Posted: 20 Apr 2016 01:29pm
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Should also add I would also like to use a splitter for FM..
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razmichael
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# Posted: 20 Apr 2016 02:09pm
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check out TVFool - it has some good tools to allow you to assess the Over the Air (OTA) channels available from your location. This will give you a good idea on the type of antenna that will suit your needs (from $20 set of rabbit ears to a $200 directional with amplifier).
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 20 Apr 2016 02:29pm
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We use an antennae both at home and our cabin. Only 11 miles to the towers at home and about 40 miles at the cabin. The cabin works but would work better if I cut about 1000 trees down or had a 75 foot mast.
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NorthRick
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# Posted: 20 Apr 2016 02:54pm
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Find out where the broadcast towers are located for the channels you want to receive. You need something close to line of sight between your cabin and the tower. If there is mountain between you and it, no antenna is going to overcome that.
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bobrok
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# Posted: 20 Apr 2016 02:54pm - Edited by: bobrok
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In addition to TV Fool I recommend
antennaweb www.antennaweb.org as well to get you started.
Major caveat, however, with rural, remote searches (if this applies to you): start with the recommendations but don't be afraid to do your own experimenting with location, positioning and height. OTA signals are greatly affected by terrain as well as distance and you may be able to take advantage of things like signal reflection, repeaters, etc.
VHF signals travel farther than UHF. I'm in a very poor, mountainous reception area but lucky enough to grab a VHF-HI (channel 7-13) digital signal + 1 subchannel from roughly 80 miles distant.
That's a big coup for me.
Also, if your far enough north you might get analog from Canada.
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Smawgunner
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# Posted: 20 Apr 2016 03:16pm
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Seems everything is digital now and you have to use some kind of converter no?
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creeky
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# Posted: 20 Apr 2016 04:22pm - Edited by: creeky
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i think the converter is built into the tv no a'days. only real old tvs need a converter.
i bought a basic 4 bay antenna for 50 bucks from a discount place. looks just like the more expensive ones. and mounted it a whole 10' in the air. sort of free of the trees. i get stations from up to 75 miles away depending on how much I want to fiddle with the thing. about 12 stations all the time. and another 10 with fiddling.
according to tvfool that's about all I can expect.
basically tho. unless it's hockey season. I watch netflix, downloaded movies or web tv.
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RichInTheUSA
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# Posted: 20 Apr 2016 05:50pm
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I have an OTA antenna at my cabin... while I get pretty good reception, i must say the content is kind of funny...
I get 2 or 3 channels in Spanish, and 1 in Korean. I also get a few food channels, and one channel that airs old shows (I think Wonder Woman was on the last time... what's not to like? ).
Anyhow, at least the shows are free!
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pizzadude
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# Posted: 20 Apr 2016 05:58pm
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I'm 90 miles NW of Duluth.
Bought a 150 mile range HD antenna from Wal-Mart's website a year ago. $30.
It's cheaply made, mostly plastic parts.
But deep in the woods I can get these local channels(Duluth):
ABC
CBS
NBC
FX
CIN
ABC(Me TV)
4 PBS channels
And FOX(analog)
Antenna mounts on 3/4" pipe and comes with a built in rotor with remote control.
I'm pleased with it and HD is crystal clear.
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Steve961
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# Posted: 20 Apr 2016 06:41pm
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I researched this extensively a few years ago and went with the following antenna. It's one of the most reviewed and highest rated outdoor antennas on Amazon. I'm about 45 miles away from the nearest stations.
RCA Compact Outdoor Yagi HDTV Antenna
I did use the TV Fool website to make sure the antenna would be a good fit though.
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rockies
Member
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# Posted: 20 Apr 2016 08:49pm
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Would this work?
http://www.cleartvkey.com/
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hueyjazz
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# Posted: 20 Apr 2016 09:25pm
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I use this in my remote cabin in dense woods and do pull in stations from 70 miles. Cheaply made but works. Comes with built in rotor which is weak but you really don't have to play with it much. Comes with amp to boost signal and that does work.
URL
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darz5150
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# Posted: 20 Apr 2016 11:01pm - Edited by: darz5150
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I have the same one that Huey jazz has, it works pretty good and it is convenient to have a remote control to rotate the antenna.
I have 3 different TV's connected and they are able to receive a different amount of stations. Some more than others. I believe that the HD receivers built in the TVs are different. We do have a satellite dish, and in bad weather the antenna still gets a signal when the dish doesn't.📡
Also as an added bonus, if you have security cameras you can attach a camera to this antenna, then have the ability to rotate your camera with the antenna rotator remote control.📹
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don62
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# Posted: 21 Apr 2016 12:40am
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Jazz and Darz, that looks like a good start, I ordered one to check it out. Have you tried it for FM? Do trees affect it?
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Julie2Oregon
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# Posted: 21 Apr 2016 12:44am
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That's awesome, hueyjazz. I've added it to my Amazon wishlist so I can find it easily. 
Is there anything you do or can do to protect it (and the cabin) from lightning strikes as much as possible? That's one thing that concerns me about any sort of outdoor antenna and electronics.
I do love my Smart TV. I have a bunch of apps saved on it and can watch all sorts of great programming for free. PBS has a free channel app for their programs; so does Smithsonian. The major networks and even local networks do -- some even more than one -- so you can watch local newscasts live plus recorded broadcasts if you missed the news.
One of the coolest apps I found the other night was MIT open courses! I haven't explored it yet but, basically, you can audit MIT courses for free! There are also all sorts of language acquisition app channels. If I get bored some winter, there's one for Mandarin Chinese that offers Chinese instruction for just 99 cents/month! Might be interesting.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 21 Apr 2016 12:49am
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Quoting: Steve961 RCA Compact Outdoor Yagi HDTV Antenna
Steve, I have that exact antenna, its mounted inside my attic, invisible to everyone. Crystal clear digital TV.
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hueyjazz
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# Posted: 21 Apr 2016 07:01am
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Don62
I do have the radio hooked to it and also have excellent results. Unit comes with two inputs but I added a splitter for a third input with no ill results.
Julie
They do make a surge protector for the coax line and some plug strips have them too
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ChuckDynasty
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# Posted: 24 Apr 2016 09:29pm - Edited by: ChuckDynasty
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http://www.walmart.com/ip/Eagle-Aspen-DTV2BUHF-DirecTV-Approved-2-Bay-UHF-Outdoor-Ant enna/21152494
Bought this one at walmart in December for 12.99 ship to store. I have it mounted in attic and I get 19 channels including the 3 major networks, the furthest about 30 miles out. It would pick up a station during scanning that I was interested in that was 48 miles out but pretty much wasn't able to get it consistently or at all most of the time but that station was in different direction then the others. I don't think it would last long if mounted outside but amazing for the money at my location considering attic installation.
http://www.amazon.com/Quad-Outdoor-Bowtie-Television-Antenna/dp/B00DHHL6H4?ie=UTF8&ps c=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00
Bought this one off amazon for 24.99 shipped in December as well...trying for the 48 mile out station but was about the same as the cheaper walmart one. Additionally his one did pick up several spanish stations as well which didn't help me any.
I have a little 10 inch haier DC tv so I don't know if a better, newer tv would have a stronger tuner and receive more stations.
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old greybeard
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# Posted: 27 Apr 2016 07:00am
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Buy the biggest antenna you can mount and afford. The more elements and longer size and gain are what you need for distance. Rf is RF, don't worry about HDTV claims. I'm using a 10 ft long yagi type and pulling in 6 stations from 75 miles plus. Use a inline amp mounted at the antenna.
The 4 bay bow tie antenna's work well also if you don't have to pull so far.
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hueyjazz
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# Posted: 27 Apr 2016 11:48am
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Greybeard
Bigger doesn't have much to do with it and doesn't mean you get more. The wavelength of the signal determines length of dipoles for the signal they will collect.
Dipoles are the metal Segments the antenna is made of. Since broadcasters now transmit a digital signal that is mostly in the UHF range the antennas needed to receive are quite small. The large VHF antennas are a thing of the past. In fact that small close bundle of dipoles on the end of your VHF antenna was your UHF antenna.
This is one of the better places to see all of the offerings for antennas.
URL
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old greybeard
Member
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# Posted: 28 Apr 2016 07:08am
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Huey, no disrespect intended. But size does matter. And the elements of a large yagi are still tuned for gain across the entire tv band. True the low VHF channels aren't desired for ATSC, but FM and Hi VHF still are. And a larger UHF element will beat a smaller element.
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Xancla
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# Posted: 21 Nov 2018 08:18am
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I did this very thing a few years ago. I suggest going to antennaweb.org. Based on your address they will show you all the stations you can receive, what direction the antenna needs to point and the size of the antenna to pull in those stations. I'm in the Bay Area and was able to get 1 antenna pointed between San Francisco and Oakland to pull in the stations from both areas and a second antenna to pull in the stations from San Jose. I used a combiner that joins the signals so I can reach all the stations without adjusting antennas. While most stations (if not all stations) should be UHF now, I found that one station in my area was still VHF so I got a combo UHF/VHF antenna. Having VHF reception also allowed me to pull in FM radio stations too. You can supplement your movie viewing via an Xbox, PS or Apple TV like these types URL (there are other internet boxes beyond this list). I think the hardest adjustment for me was not being able to watch Monday Night Football as ESPN has that locked down and no way to get that without cable or a dish.
elav is offline
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paulz
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# Posted: 21 Nov 2018 09:40am
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Does an amplifier improve the signal from the transmitter to your antenna or from the antenna to the TV?
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darz5150
Member
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# Posted: 21 Nov 2018 10:56am - Edited by: darz5150
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From antenna to tv I believe.
If you cant get a signal, there is nothing to amplify.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 21 Nov 2018 12:31pm
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Got a signal, one station. Iffy though, sometimes I can watch it, sometimes it pixelates and cuts out too much. I know at my house, also OTA, if I add splitters and extra coax it also does this. Just the one tube at the cabin, 40ft. of coax from antenna. I don't think that's the problem though, cause once I took a TV up on the roof with 6" of coax, same thing.
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darz5150
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# Posted: 21 Nov 2018 05:30pm
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I think there are different type tuners in different brand tv's.
I have hooked 2 tv's to the same antenna. One tv gets way more stations than the other.
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slgerber
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# Posted: 24 Nov 2018 11:29am
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>> I think there are different type tuners
>> in different brand tv's.
Darz, which brand TV do you own that locks in the most channels? And which brand does worse?
I've observed this difference between tuners too. I have an old Magnavox TB100MW9 converter box that will lock in VHF 11 which is my local PBS station but my 2 year old Vizio D43-D2 almost never locks in VHF 11. It's very frustrating! The tuner box says it's getting about 40% signal strength which should be plenty but the Vizio still can't lock it in. I'd like to try a different model on my next purchase.
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darz5150
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# Posted: 24 Nov 2018 01:01pm
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Quoting: slgerber Darz, which brand TV do you own that locks in the most channels? And which brand does worse?
15 on the newest vizio.
19 on a sansui and a naxa ac/dc.
24 to 27 on an emerson.
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darz5150
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# Posted: 24 Nov 2018 01:05pm
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There are atsc and ntsc tuners.
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