For those in Boston: what antenna are you using for over the air TV?

[map92map@gmail.com]

Hi Sean,

Before you spend $50-$80, Here's a simple, tried & true and very inexpensive
suggestion:
Being reasonably close to the tv towers, you may be pleasantly surprised by
trying an old fashioned pair of "rabbit ears" extended about 10-14" on each
side and positioned up about 45 degrees. I've tried many antennas for local
reception like this, and the $2-$5 rabbit ears win out for Non-Directional
reception of the maximum amount of stations within line of sight (usually 15
miles on flat terrain).

Depending on which way Mom's apartment faces, reception will come direct or
by reflection, but will be subject to some near field reflections--but
that's not nearly as much of problem with ATSC as it was with analog, and
these simple antennas should work well in this case.

Out here, between Springfield & Hartford, With rabbit ears, I get all the
Springfield stations (10-15 miles) via reflection when adjusted for max
reception of all the Hartford stations (20-30 miles away, but still LOS to
my location). Using (any) much more expensive directional antenna , I might
pick up an additional station or 2 that is 60/70 miles away, BUT, I always
lose some of the local stations that would all get to me using the rabbit
ears.

Last year, we traveled with a camper out to the Southwest and back using an
LG TV and mostly, rabbit ears. When we were within 20 miles of larger
cities, it was not uncommon to get 20-50 stations. Outside Los Angeles, I
got 158 stations (with rabbit ears), while parked at my son's house.

How many TV's does mom have? If she has 2 tv's the investment is around $10
for 2 rabbit ears (with F connectors--check details) shipped to her door
from ebay, amazon, or maybe even walmart.com. And, Walmart should have these
on the shelf for $5-$10 each.

In the recent past a few of the Dollar Stores had these. For a Dollar
(grin)!!

Terk makes some good quality antennas and the HDTVa/az should work well, but
it is directional, and given the close-in location, I'd be greatly surprised
if it works any better than the rabbit ears.

Another question is: what brand of TV does mom have? There is a wide
variation on the tuner quality of different brands. LG has consistently had
the best tuner in the models I've tested and/or owned. Most Panasonic,
Vizio, JVC, Toshiba & Sony are also very good . Samsung OK. But, Some of the
cheapo brands are not good in the tuner dept.

Oh...
repack no problem, just do a channel rescan if mom loses a channel
subchannels (mostly) no problem
channels transmitting from locations Other Than the towers near RT 128 in
Needham/Newton area and/or downtown/Pru, etc may be a problem.
channels transmitting with very low power may be a problem.

Mark Casey

-----Original Message----- 
From: Sean Smyth
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2018 8:08 AM
To: Boston Radio Group
Subject: For those in Boston: what antenna are you using for over the air
TV?

Hi broadcasting friends:

My mom might soon drop cable and go strictly with OTA. She lives in an
apartment building in South Boston. I see good reviews of several antennas
on Amazon, but I’d like to hear from folks in the city who pull in OTA
signals. Would a decent antenna pick up all the in-market network
affiliates and their subchannels, or would I need a range extender? I know
repack is ongoing, but haven’t been following super closely. She’s on the
side of the building, not directly facing the street. Any signal would need
to fight its way through a wall or two (an older brick wall at that).

I trust you all more than any Amazon review. Thanks in advance for any
help.
-- 
Sent from my iPhone