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I’m heading that way-Spectrum just jacked up their unreliable, borderline worthless internet/TV package by 25%, & Disney/ESPN tried to renew me at TRIPLE my existing yearly price (canceled them quick). Going to try T-Mobile wireless 5G, and will likely pay off the Spectrum Mobile cellphone, I’m honestly tired of Spectrum’s lousy, slow service! Shopping for a new HTDV OTA antenna as well-$21/month for “broadcast TV surcharge” would buy a really nice new one…

I was on Spectrum off and on many times over the years. I left them for the last time about 4 months ago and will never go back again. Every time I tried to add something to my package they'd add on more than I asked for, plus they added too much on at the start that I never signed up for, and I'd have to spend 1/2 to 1 hour on the phone every time to get this stuff taken off my bill,, talking to someone in China that didn't speak very good English. I swear, I'd never go back to Spectrum / Charter even if they were the only choice for broadband. I got so fed up with them and their stunts! And 2 weeks after I finally disconnected from them, their stupid rep was ringing my doorbell with more phony offers and I went out and told him to get the hail off my property and don't come back again. They're really an awful company and super greedy and aggressive.
 
My Roku tv has my antenna stations and Pluto ( I believe ) combined .
Yes, I get Pluto, Youtube, and much more. I watch Pluto network often.
Youtube videos are also very interesting.
I get ABC News on Roku but it's not the same as getting antenna stations in real time, which is why I wanted to set up another antenna of some sort.
 
We have been pay TV free before people knew the meaning of "cut the cable" We cut the cable in or around 2011, never looked back.
We use a passive TV antenna that is in our attic. Purchased for around $100 at the time in Lowes. (RCA branded, I installed a similiar Channel Master in my sons attic) We get roughly 30 channels through the TV antenna and of course all the major networks. The image from the antenna on the major channels is superior to cable TV. The antenna is hooked into our old cable TV coax network and distributes to 5 of 6 TVs in the house/ I used a cheap $15 signal boaster as shown in the last photo to insure good quality throughout the home.

It's easy as heck to set up an antenna now, just search in google TV Antenna aiming, enter your address, get out a compass and face the antenna in the direction it specifies. There is even a government website to do this on.

We also have 6 Roku players and subscribe to Netflex and Apple TV. We share our Netflex subscription with our daughter in another state and she shares her HBO with us.
TMobile pays for half of my Netflex monthly bill too.

For the heck of it I posted some links below to give an idea of what is available on line and help you search.
(For clarity in my post, we recently sold this home after 16 years in Nov 2022 and waiting for our new one to be completed in with I will do the same again)
IMG_0219.jpeg

IMG_0221.jpeg

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Some useful sites =


transmitter-locator.html


 
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My son bought me a well regarded Winegard antenna and it seems mediocre also. I live in a rural, fringe suburban area with good channels available within 10 to 40 miles. What am I doing wrong?
Perhaps placing the antenna on the wrong part of your house?
Metal roofs can be a problem if you want to try placing antenna in the attic.
I'm trying to access a city that's 15.6 miles away that broadcasts about 10 channels if I'm not mistaken, and it's NW of here which is the kitchen area. I've never tried an antenna on that part of the house before but I will if I have to.
 
ANY outdoor aerial installed with quality RG-6 coaxial cable and quality “F” connectors will help immensely if installed properly. You don’t need an “HD” antenna or one of those crap powered antennas that you find saturated on Amazon when you search. Think this:


E22F225B-D829-46AB-A8A1-67B331B77B07.jpeg

Also, a rule of thumb with antennas is Height equals Gain.
The higher you mount an Antenna, the more gain it achieves.
If possible, mount it outside your house, not inside.
Don’t use any amplification as this may overload your tuner which is worse than a weak signal.
 
There are a lot of free tv apps like pluto and freevee if you have internet.

There sure are and I have about 50 or more saved stations on my Roku.
I picked up about 5 more recently, and some of them have awesome old movies, which I really like.
Even if I only get the evening news from ABC news and not much else from the speaker wire antenna or amplified indoor antenna, I can still resort to WiFi TV that includes the Pluto Network, youtube, and many other good stations. I also have amazon Prime on there, Roku TV, etc.
I like FRNDLY TV for $9 a month but I think I'll cancel it because I get so many free stations that I really don't need it. Plus it has DVR which I thought I'd like, but I ended up doing what I did when I had DirecTV and that' records lots of programs, and then never get around to watch them all. With so many stations, you always wonder if you're missing something on some other channel.
 
I cancelled Time Warner cable back in 2015 when the monthly cost was approaching $100 and that didn't even include any movie channels. I installed an HDTV antenna up in my attic and tied it into the existing cable wiring. I got something like 60 channles but about half were in Spanish so I deleted them from the station memory. I was quite pleased with over the air HDTV broadcasts and the internet for additional content.

Now though I live in the mountains and there is no reception via an antenna. The only provider is through the internet with Spectrum or going with a satellite company like Direct TV. Spectrum just jacked up the cost to $85 a month with no options for slower download capability. I called them, threatened to cancel, asked for a long term customer discount, a senior citizen discount, a discount for signing up for a year or whatever they could do. Nope. Nada. Zilch. Goose egg.

It's $85 a month or no internet or TV where I live. The satellite companies are even more expensive. As far as I'm concerned the service should be about half of their current rate. They've got me over a barrel.
 
Check out antennas from well known manufacturers like Winegard, Channel Master, and Televes.

I live about 40 miles (as a crow flies) north of Boston and use a Channel Master Omni+ mounted on a 5 foot mast on my shed, (it was easier for me to get up there than my roof, and I’m afraid of heights 😳) I also use a Channel Master pre amp.

It’s a small and compact antenna and unless the weather is terrible, all the main local and sub channels come in great (60-75% strength). Sometimes I even get Maine and RI stations. There’s almost 70 of them available, but a lot of those are repeats or stations I don’t care about and I only programmed in about 35 of them.

In addition to Sling TV, I get just about everything I got with cable for less than half the price, actually much less than half the price.
Where do you aim that? Westborough MA? I was thinking I would need a powered rotator or two antennae and a selector
since the NH transmitters are in Bedford W and two WNW. Boston is S of my location which is just south of Epping a few miles.
 
I've been watching TV on this home made gem for a couple years now.. Gets better reception than the store bough antenna's I had previously. I have a second one hung in an oak tree with 150 + ft of cable at our cabin and get stations that are over 40 miles away..

View attachment 134032
I hope you didn’t spring for a brand new piece of wood for that.
 
Where do you aim that? Westborough MA? I was thinking I would need a powered rotator or two antennae and a selector
since the NH transmitters are in Bedford W and two WNW. Boston is S of my location which is just south of Epping a few miles.
It’s an omnidirectional antenna so you don’t really have to aim it. Most of the Boston stations are in Needham, but ION is in Hudson, MA and it’s kinda weak, I actually get the NH ION (wpxg) in better.

I’m on the MA/NH border.
 
When buying a new TV be certain it includes a receiver with antenna input. Noticed the trend is to just sell monitors that forego the ability to receive off-air transmissions using an antenna. Not always clear unless you take a look at the details.
 
The Bold part is the #1 reason why you should NOT just have an antenna..... You should be doing/watching something else when that crap is on!

I know what you mean.
The evening news is getting worse all the time.
The weather has gotten terrible and someone, somewhere is always being hit hard by flooding, 6' of snow, tornadoes, you name it.
But perhaps the local news and weather are worth watching more often.
 
When buying a new TV be certain it includes a receiver with antenna input. Noticed the trend is to just sell monitors that forego the ability to receive off-air transmissions using an antenna. Not always clear unless you take a look at the details.

If I get another TV I'd want on that has an ethernet port so I could run ethernet from my router to TV for wired TV.
They say ethernet TV is better than WiFi TV.
Many TVs don't have ethernet, but some brands like Samsung seem to.
 
For quite a while I've been using WiFi TV with Roku and a 32" LED TV. It comes in great and gets so many stations that I don't think I'd ever get to see them all in my lifetime for the amount of time I spend watching TV. Before that I used an antenna mounted on a 6' pole outside my living room window. Then after a while with WiFi TV I decided to remove the pole and antenna. But lately I've gotten interested in antenna TV again, so I can get the 3 local channels and more with an antenna. So today I hooked up an 18' piece of TV antenna cable to the TV, with an adapter screwed in to the end of it, and a 32" piece of speaker wire at the end of that, and hung it up over a curtain rod, and I now get about 10 stations with that. The image quality is HD and seems better than most things I get on WiFi TV.

I may get an amplified antenna. The amazon reviews say they work great, and I'm supposed to be able to get about 45 stations from right here.
Now I'm going to cancel FRNDLY TV, which costs me about $9 a month.

I don't know why but antenna TV seems better quality than WiFi / Roku TV.
Maybe I'll watch them both, but at least I'll have the evening news on NBC, CBS, and ABC.
Digital over the air tv is the best pic you can get. All other providers of tv have to compress and uncompress the signal which compromises the pic quality.
 
Check out antennas from well known manufacturers like Winegard, Channel Master, and Televes.

I live about 40 miles (as a crow flies) north of Boston and use a Channel Master Omni+ mounted on a 5 foot mast on my shed, (it was easier for me to get up there than my roof, and I’m afraid of heights 😳) I also use a Channel Master pre amp.

It’s a small and compact antenna and unless the weather is terrible, all the main local and sub channels come in great (60-75% strength). Sometimes I even get Maine and RI stations. There’s almost 70 of them available, but a lot of those are repeats or stations I don’t care about and I only programmed in about 35 of them.

In addition to Sling TV, I get just about everything I got with cable for less than half the price, actually much less than half the price.


Just don’t but this hunk of junk from Amazon:

View attachment 134027
I tried one and it didn't last more than a few months. Piece os junk.
 
ANY outdoor aerial installed with quality RG-6 coaxial cable and quality “F” connectors will help immensely if installed properly. You don’t need an “HD” antenna or one of those crap powered antennas that you find saturated on Amazon when you search. Think this:


View attachment 134099

Also, a rule of thumb with antennas is Height equals Gain.
The higher you mount an Antenna, the more gain it achieves.
If possible, mount it outside your house, not inside.
Don’t use any amplification as this may overload your tuner which is worse than a weak signal.
Yes, I agree, the good stuff online is being overshadowed by this compact high profit "powered" junk saturated all over Amazon and other websites. The reason for this is they are easy to ship, large profits and large promises. But most of all, promote thoughtless set up which most the public today seems like they need to be spoon fed everything.
The antenna you have pictured (passive) is the way to go. I would say one other thing, using the antenna pointing websites I posted above in my other post, you can calculate the distance.
I always promote buying the largest antenna you can, I do agree outside the home is always best but inside the attic with a larger more oversized antenna than you would need outside will work for many people not to far from towers such as I posted above.
I have done this in two different areas of South Carolina and worked well for all major networks, actually where my son lives he gets SC and NC stations, roughly 50 channels in all though granted some are duplicates with the second largest Channel Master installed in his attic, no boaster.

As far as amplification there too I agree unless needed. Most modern TVs have signal meters to show how strong a signal you have. My set up posted above with photos had one weakness, FOX network, everything else was 95 to 100% Fox would fall short and pixelate at times, so I went out and bought the cheapest signal boaster for $15 as pictured in my other post, this took care of the FOX network for good, no other problems with the other stations. Buying too powerful a boaster will create issues but chances are a low power one wont harm even the already strong channels, at least didnt with me.

(ps, born raised most of my past adult life on the South Shore of Long Island)
 
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Now though I live in the mountains and there is no reception via an antenna. The only provider is through the internet with Spectrum or going with a satellite company like Direct TV. Spectrum just jacked up the cost to $85 a month with no options for slower download capability. I called them, threatened to cancel, asked for a long term customer discount, a senior citizen discount, a discount for signing up for a year or whatever they could do. Nope. Nada. Zilch. Goose egg.
It amazes me how fast they can change their tune if you have signed-up with another ISP and call to cancel service.
Case in point... when Google Fiber was installed in my neighborhood I signed-up for their service, got it installed, called Spectrum to cancel, and a "deal" quickly emerged to try and keep my business. I asked them why they didn't present me with the "deal" when I called previous to my signing-up with Google, I got crickets. I then told them "too late", "goodbye".
Do you have T-Mobile Home Internet available where you live?
 
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