Need Antenna Recommendation. Stations are 35-50 Miles out.

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doug_7506

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 17, 2004
Messages
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Just as the title says. Finally got the wife on board with cutting the cord. Use antennapoint.com to find my local stations. Looks like the are all about 37 - 42 miles out. Need an antenna to catch these stations.

Mounting Option One:
Have a bookshelf on side my TV. Could use one of those flat sticky antennas and mount it to the back of the book shelf.

Mounting Option Two.
Put the Antenna in the Attic and run a coax cable down through the wall to the AVR.
 
If you're crafty you can make a DIY one pretty cheap. I use a similar setup with good results (stations about 25 miles away). Here's an example
As an added benefit, trying something like this will tell you if you can get away with a passive antenna or if you need one with an amplifier.
 
By "cutting the cord", is this dropping cable or satellite? I used to have DirecTV, and after cancelling it I mounted an antenna on the dish mount outside and it has worked well ever since. I'm more of a proponent to mount antennas outside whenever possible, especially if your roof has any metal. In my case, I used an RCA ANT751R antenna, although the range of this antenna (40 miles) is right at your requirement (37-42 miles).

A quick word of caution about the ClearStream 5 - it doesn't look like it's built to handle low VHF channels (2-6). If these stations aren't in your area, then I agree that this antenna may be a good option as well.
 
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I would go to TV Fool and find out what you can receive from your location. TV Fool gives much more information, like contour maps ( using local or Google Earth ) and path information and graphs. This information is useful in determining whether mountains/hills are in the signal path. I'm using an Antennas Direct DB4 in my attic and pick up stations up to 60 miles away and up to 80 miles away IF I point the antenna towards individual towers. My next step is to get an Antennas Direct DB8e or Solid Signal HDB8X and pole mount outside. These double 4-bay antennas can be rigged together or pointed in two different directions, which is what I need since I have towers scattered everywhere. I only have one channel in VHF which is a duplicate of my local network. These are UHF antennas but will work with VHF up to about 20 miles.

TV Fool provides a link to your station/signal report which you can include in a forum post for us to look at.

As far as cutting the cord. Doing it completely depends on your goals. I'm a long-time subscriber to Dish network and had their Everything Pack. I dropped down to the Welcome Pack ( $20 ) and added HBO for $10 a month. Main reason was so that I could keep the DVR and record OTA programming. My Dish bill is $38 a month. I have a Roku 4 ( but using my old Roku 3 since the 4 doesn't work with my Denon receiver ) and Amazon Prime and also use the Roku to access HBO Go. I have plenty to watch, but I also don't have a lot of time to watch TV and the DVR/On Demand is a requirement for me to time-shift.
 
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Here is my area. I called antenna direct and they were extremely helpful. They recommended a ClearStream 4.

From the chart above, I'm really only trying to pick up channels 34, 45, and 13. Anything else is a bonus.

Also, I'm dropping cable, but have a satellite dish outside. I may consider mounting it on the pole outside. Good advice!
 
Stereodude said:
The product page for it at Antennas Direct says it's only for channels 7-13.
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Yeah, when I talked to them they said the CS5 wouldn't work. I went ahead and bought the CS4 and a powered distribution block. By calling they also offered to take 10% off my order. Paid $180 for antenna + mounting hardware + distribution block.

After doing some research, looks like I shouldn't have any problem picking up NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, and Fox, which is great.

Also ordered the Hauppauge xbox one OTA adapter. With the planned DVR functionality coming soon, it seems perfect.
 
I have a ClearStream 4V in my attic with a cheap radio shack amp'd distribution block. I pick up stations 60+ miles away with no problem and it's not even pointed at those stations. Overall I get about 40 stations and I'm situated about 25+ miles from the Charlotte stations, 60+ from Hickory stations and 80+ from Greensboro stations. Get them all.
 
I get a butt load of channels. But most are jesus channels. So I have to delete all them in WMC.
 
Riccochet said:
I have a ClearStream 4V in my attic with a cheap radio shack amp'd distribution block. I pick up stations 60+ miles away with no problem and it's not even pointed at those stations. Overall I get about 40 stations and I'm situated about 25+ miles from the Charlotte stations, 60+ from Hickory stations and 80+ from Greensboro stations. Get them all.
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That's awesome. I am going to point the CS4 at Baton Rouge (330 degrees), which is showing as having a stronger signal, but I was hoping to get some channels from New Orleans as well (80 degrees). Im about 45 miles from Baton Rouge and 55 miles from New Orleans. Hopefully our relatively flat South Louisiana terrain will help me pick up those channels.
 
I decided to try a ClearStream 2V. For $45 shipped for an open box via eBay I couldn't resist. I have a "small" (for a boom) boom antenna in my attic now and I'm about 15 miles from the local towers, but sometimes have reception problems. I'll see how the ClearStream 2V compares.
 
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Stereodude said:
I decided to try a ClearStream 2V. For $45 shipped for an open box via eBay I couldn't resist. I have a "small" (for a boom) boom antenna in my attic now and I'm about 15 miles from the local towers, but sometimes have have reception problems. I'll see how the ClearStream 2V compares.
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Let us know how it goes. Good luck.
 
doug_7506 said:
That's awesome. I am going to point the CS4 at Baton Rouge (330 degrees), which is showing as having a stronger signal, but I was hoping to get some channels from New Orleans as well (80 degrees). Im about 45 miles from Baton Rouge and 55 miles from New Orleans. Hopefully our relatively flat South Louisiana terrain will help me pick up those channels.
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You could try pointing the antenna at around 25° to see if you can hit the towers at both 330 and 80. The " spread " on these antennas is about 30° so it probably won't work but it doesn't hurt to try. You'll probably have to do the same thing I'm thinking about doing and get one of the 8-bay dual directional antennas. I'm semi-lucky in that most of my towers are at 90 and 310 at 15 miles and 26 miles. The ones I want to pick up ( I want Comet TV and Movies! ) are at 180° and 50-80 miles out, which I can pick up with my DB4 pointed at 180° but lose the others. DB8e would allow me to point one side at 310 and the other at 180. The CS4 pointed at 330 and then at 80 would at least let you know whether it is possible at all with a DB8e. You could also go old-school 1970's and motorize the antenna to rotate manually. They probably have kits that are more advanced than the ones back then.

You can go to RabbitEars and get sub-channel information for the towers you want to pick up.
 
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I used the amazon basic amplified ota with good success. Placed in a second story room. I get all the basic channels plus some extras.
 
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