Indoor/Outdoor HDTV Antenna with Mast


 
ChuckO

ChuckO

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Now that I'm a Hillbilly, and I'm cutting expenses, I dropped YouTube TV because it's $90 a month and the fact is, I only watch the SF Giants, the rest of the time I never get on it

I still want to watch the games, and I still for the most part have Internet TV, which is exceptional because I have my TV's wired to my Mesh Routers and the picture has never been better. The downside, is that if I want to watch the Giants, I have to subscribe to a provider (NBC Bay Area) or look into other means. I can subscribe to NBC, and it's $25 a month, which brings me to the Hillbilly part. I'm thinking about getting a TV Antenna (roof mount) as I can toggle between inputs on my TV, one of which is cable (coaxal)

So this is what I'm looking at


Which is also available here, for the same price

store.antennasdirect.com

ClearStream 4MAX COMPLETE UHF VHF Outdoor HD TV Antenna with Jolt Switch Amplifier, 20-inch Mast, 30-foot Coaxial Cable, and Splitter

The ClearStream 4MAX Complete Amplified Indoor Outdoor UHF VHF HDTV antenna will make installing your antenna a breeze and split signals to three TVs.
store.antennasdirect.com store.antennasdirect.com

There's six towers less that 50 Miles from my house (35 miles, but whose counting)

Is anyone doing this? How do you like it? Picture & Sound any good?
 
I installed an Antennas Direct DB8e (UHF) with their VHF dipole add on. Its on a mast mounted on the chimney. I have a pre-amp mounted on the antenna then a distribution amp to the TV's.

I can pull in stations 75 miles or so.

I used RG6 quad shield wiring throughout.

Make sure your grounding is proper.
 
I'm in a valley ( Fox Valley ) and the only OTA's that work are on a tall pole and even then CBS and Fox out of Chicago still pixelate.
It's either cable, sat or streaming or a antenna that looks like a B-52.
 
i've been OTA since 2015 (over the air) and without cable tv since then. never looked back.

www.antennaweb.org

Antenna Signal Prediction

Which broadcast channels can you receive for free? It's time you cut the cord!
www.antennaweb.org www.antennaweb.org

i have a channelmaster antenna in my attic and get all the locals.

www.channelmaster.com

Channel Master: Over-The-Air Broadcast Entertainment Products

The official Channel Master website. Consumer electronics brand established in 1949, focused on innovation, quality products and first-class customer service. Shop professional-grade TV Antennas, installation accessories and more. Get product recommendations and installation support from our...
www.channelmaster.com www.channelmaster.com

choose your antenna based on distance from tower. we run this which is slightly overkill but i didn't want to come up short: https://www.channelmaster.com/colle...ts/ultratenna-60-outdoor-tv-antenna-cm-4221hd

check out HDhomerunFlex for OTA DVR:

HDHomeRun – Silicondust

www.silicondust.com www.silicondust.com

we only pay for peacock as we get a huge discount for my wife being a teacher. otherwise our streaming is Amazon Prime.
 
I have a pretty giant antenna, super long yagi portion for UHF which out here pretty much nothing is VHF, it's also on a rotator, fed in and even amplified. Our Fox channel barely comes in locally. same with a couple other locals. Yet, I can twist that big guy around and grab Madison WI channels many times easier than local. Go figure that one out. Sadly MLB will not show in market games. Only way I can get them is Marquee and the only was I can get a streaming package with it is on FUBO TV, but now they're cranking up their pricing to about $100 month! *** is with this, and of course they have to add their "Regional Sports Fees"
I am disgusted with the whole thing. Plus I use Netflix and Paramount+
 
The fact that Brett is using a similar antenna (CM 60) and have good success is encouraging
www.channelmaster.com

EXTREMEtenna 80

Channel Master (CM 4228HD) 8-bay Digital HDTV/UHF Outdoor TV Antenna picks up High VHF with a range of 45 miles and a UHF reception range of 80 miles.
www.channelmaster.com www.channelmaster.com
I think I like this better than the one I put up. A little more expensive, but I like it

Thanks everyone for all the good info, I figured members here might be up on "OTA" TV
 
ChuckO said:
The fact that Brett is using a similar antenna (CM 60) and have good success is encouraging
www.channelmaster.com

EXTREMEtenna 80

Channel Master (CM 4228HD) 8-bay Digital HDTV/UHF Outdoor TV Antenna picks up High VHF with a range of 45 miles and a UHF reception range of 80 miles.
www.channelmaster.com www.channelmaster.com
I think I like this better than the one I put up. A little more expensive, but I like it

Thanks everyone for all the good info, I figured members here might be up on "OTA" TV
Click to expand...
CM makes good amps too if you need to boost your signal. Overall, been 100% satisfied with my CM purchases. And that'll be 10 years this March.
 
MLB will not show in market games. So, I could watch all the Red Sox games I wanted (I don't want to), BUT, if they play a Chicago team I would not be able to watch. Honestly MLB TV is a joke
 
LMichaels said:
MLB will not show in market games. So, I could watch all the Red Sox games I wanted (I don't want to), BUT, if they play a Chicago team I would not be able to watch. Honestly MLB TV is a joke
Click to expand...
I concur, MLB would be my last choice, but if there's no other choices..... I'm hoping OTA will fill the bill for my Baseball Jones
 
ChuckO said:
I concur, MLB would be my last choice, but if there's no other choices..... I'm hoping OTA will fill the bill for my Baseball Jones
Click to expand...
I don't know of any teams broadcasting OTA anymore. Occasional games on Fox Sports are, and I've noticed sometimes I can get a Brewers Game OTA out of Madison. But OTA sports of any type are pretty scarce.
 
Chuck I’m really interested with this roof antenna thing.
Let me know how it works out for you.

Our place up north came with a huge antenna on top of the house with cable going
throughout the house.
The last owner was deceased so we couldn’t ask any questions about anything.
I think that I probably can get some free channels off that antenna but I don’t really know.
I do know a few more free
Channels would be cool.

We cut the cable 6 years ago to both our houses and went with StarLink.
The savings from cutting the television service to 2 houses is amazing, even after we pay for a few streaming channels.
Thanks.
 
AndyK said:
Chuck I’m really interested with this roof antenna thing.
Let me know how it works out for you.
Click to expand...
Will do! I too have Starlink and it's amazing, I bought their mesh routers and have plugged my TV's directly into the mesh routers and I get amazing picture, and even the sound, sounds better. The mesh routers are $200 each directly from Starlink

My streaming Services are now Disney+ (which has Hulu, Max & Nat Geo included, commercial free) and we have Pandora as well as Sirius, so between Starlink and my two subscriptions, I pay about $160 per month. That's why I want to try this OTA thing, I really don't want to exceed $160 a month, because the fact is, I spend more time doing outdoor stuff than watching TV (but I do like the SF Giants and hope OTA will fill the bill)
 
Brett-EDH said:
i've been OTA since 2015 (over the air) and without cable tv since then. never looked back.

www.antennaweb.org

Antenna Signal Prediction

Which broadcast channels can you receive for free? It's time you cut the cord!
www.antennaweb.org www.antennaweb.org

i have a channelmaster antenna in my attic and get all the locals.

www.channelmaster.com

Channel Master: Over-The-Air Broadcast Entertainment Products

The official Channel Master website. Consumer electronics brand established in 1949, focused on innovation, quality products and first-class customer service. Shop professional-grade TV Antennas, installation accessories and more. Get product recommendations and installation support from our...
www.channelmaster.com www.channelmaster.com

choose your antenna based on distance from tower. we run this which is slightly overkill but i didn't want to come up short: https://www.channelmaster.com/colle...ts/ultratenna-60-outdoor-tv-antenna-cm-4221hd

check out HDhomerunFlex for OTA DVR:

HDHomeRun – Silicondust

www.silicondust.com www.silicondust.com

we only pay for peacock as we get a huge discount for my wife being a teacher. otherwise our streaming is Amazon Prime.
Click to expand...
I've had the 8-bay version of that Channel Master antenna since about 2008, that I received free from one of our local TV stations during the changeover to digital TV back then:

www.channelmaster.com

EXTREMEtenna 80

Channel Master (CM 4228HD) 8-bay Digital HDTV/UHF Outdoor TV Antenna picks up High VHF with a range of 45 miles and a UHF reception range of 80 miles.
www.channelmaster.com www.channelmaster.com

I mounted it on a rotator on a mast outside my house, replacing the gigantic Channel Master yagi I had installed there many years prior.

The 8-bay antenna has been a very good antenna for OTA digital TV, but I did need the rotator because while many of the local stations' transmitters are directly south of us, one that we like to watch (the local PBS affiliate) is due west, meaning we need to be able to point the antenna in two different directions.

As for finding where one's local TV transmitters are, I used to recommend a signal locator off of a site called TVFool.com because it gave very detailed information including a side looking terrain view for individual channels when you selected one. However, when I looked just a bit ago, it appears as though the site hasn't updated their signal locator in 10+ years, so their information is stale.

The signal locator site that Brett suggested is good resource, although when I ran it for my location, it seemed to be missing my local PBS station.

Another signal locator site that may help is the FCC's official DTV maps site:

www.fcc.gov

DTV Reception Maps

www.fcc.gov www.fcc.gov

That one seems to be up to date, using the FCC's own records of transmitter locations.

Good luck with your endeavor Chuck; not having to pay to watch TV is a major plus.
 
Last edited:
Larry D. said:
I have toyed with the idea of building a Gray-Hoverman antenna, but have not yet done it.
cosmic.simdif.com

HovermanTV Antenna

Hoverman antenna specifications for building and experimenting. Create the element video.
cosmic.simdif.com cosmic.simdif.com
Click to expand...
As for DIY antennas, I've built at least four of the DIY 4-bowtie antenna similar to this one:

sites.google.com

Mayhem Creations - Mclapp-4

It should be noted first and foremost that I am not an antenna design expert. I have tried to explain how this antenna and the Gray-Hoverman antenna work and how, but tried to leave out the real technical details to others. I have just taken what has been designed, modeled and successfully used
sites.google.com sites.google.com

I can vouch for this design if it is done carefully, and there are moderate signals available in the area

I built one if these for each of my two sons, and one of my sons still uses his, while the other antenna is in use by a friend of the other son.

The advantage to these DIY antennas is that if you're a bit handy, these can be built inexpensively, lowering the bar to try DTV without a large outlay.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top