Have you had experience with a TV antenna....

[Tripper123044]

I have had Dish but I’m ready to move on. I don’t watch a lot of TV. News, weather and sports. I live out in the country. Will a $40.00 antenna from Amazon work . Thanks.

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

Been using one for nearly two weeks until we had cable hooked up. Mine was 40 bucks and worked fine to pick up the one Digital TV channel available in my area. Check out this link from the FCC. If you have Strong reception, the El cheapo will probably work, anything less than strong, you may want to spend a few bucks to get something higher end that mounts outside.

https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

I went ahead and pulled a screenshot of Noxapater for you, assuming that's where all SPSers live until they tell us otherwise. Pretty jealous of all those channels.

View attachment 21331

 

[thatsbaseball]

LOL Yes but not recently

 

[mstateglfr]

10 years ago when we first dropped cable/sat, I bought a nice looking table top antenna that was next to the TV. It was a constant pain and to get half the channels it had to be moved to the baby swing next to the window and placed at a 35 degree angle facing south.
17 that.

8 years ago when we moved to our current home, I bought an $80 external antenna and used the mounting bracket on the side of our house that the old dish was attached to. It works perfectly.
We almost never use it now though. It used to be used to allow us to DVR network shows. We watch almost 0 network shows now and when I do, its usually from a different TV and I just use the network's live streaming app.

 

[Mjoelner]

I used one tailgating for several years. I don't know where you are but on MSU's campus, I could pick up WCBI (Columbus) and I think 2 or 3 of their alts, WLOV (Tupelo), ETV and sometimes 33/40 (Birmingham). I couldn't even sniff WTVA out of Tupelo when the tv was scanning for a signal. I have seen people say that their over-air power isn't even strong enough to cover the entire city limits of Tupelo.

 

[garddog]

Depends on elevation, hills, and trees. I have used them and helped a couple others.

If you live close to a metro area, its not bad. Deep rural can be sketchy. Need it high enough in the air to circumvent natural impediments.

 

[Dawgbite]

You were fancy. We had a pipe wrench on the pole outside and I had to open the window so I could hear daddy holler when to stop.

 

[The Peeper]

I have 2 at house in Starkville now (1 in attic and 1 on old satellite dish using old satellite cabling to get signal into the house). I get 10-12 channels there depending on weather mainly and probably 30 or so at house near The Rez. We don't use cable or any of the streaming networks so I use them for the local network channels and their sub channels. The network channels are just that, NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC, CW, PBS mainly). The sub channels are the ones that mostly show old reruns, MeTV, Decades, MyTV, Create, ION, Circle, Bounce, Laff, etc. I watch the sub channels more than networks because I like the old reruns. Only time I watch networks is for weather and news occasionally.

Depending on where you live you can get no channels or lots of channels which is determined by how far away from the tv towers you, how many hills are between you and the towers, trees, weather, etc. There are two sources that can help you see what you will get. One of them is Antenna Web and the other is TV Fool (links below). Both of them are similar, you put your address or zip code in and it shows you the channels you should receive, how far away they are, what direction to point the antenna and what kind of antenna is best i.e. directional, yagi, reflector, dipole, etc. THere's a YouTube channel called Antenna Man that talks about all of the above. Those cheap 250 mile antennas on Amazon are bogus unless you live near the signals. Most of what I've read says that you can't get any channel more than 80 miles away because of curvature of the earth and obstacles.

https://www.tvfool.com/

https://www.antennaweb.org/

 

[WrapItDog]

I couldn't even sniff WTVA out of Tupelo when the tv was scanning for a signal. I have seen people say that their over-air power isn't even strong enough to cover the entire city limits of Tupelo.

WTVA (NBC) and WLOV (ABC) are VHF band channels. You need an antenna that picks up both UHF/VHF if you live in the Colubmus/Tupelo TV market to get all the channels. The broadcast towers are in the Woodland area (except PBS). An antenna like in my amazon link will work. The 200 mile range in the description is ********.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082DN8L6...olid=2MOLEA2WVZJJR&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

 

[Dawgg]

I live 20-30 minutes south of Dallas and I get something like 50-60 channels.


The Charge! and Comet channels are legit.

 

[Tripper123044]

I live about 90 miles S of Memphis in the country. I’m afraid I ain’t gonna have much luck.

 

[Apoplectic_Objurgator]

True and the old man would yell from the living room until the snow cleared up on wwl so he could watch Manning and the saints get whipped again

 

[Maroonthirteen]

I live about 90 miles S of Memphis in the country. I’m afraid I ain’t gonna have much luck.

A relative lives in 60 miles SE of Memphis. They have an antenna about 30 feet up. They pick up Memphis stations, Tupelo and Columbus. Plus others. 10-12 stations total.

 

[The Peeper]

You may pull the Greenville ones that far South, maybe Tupelo and a PBS or 2? Buy a decent antenna after you check TV Fool or Antenna web. Go to Wal Mart and get antenna and put it on roof. If it doesn't work take it back. It's worth it sometimes just to have the backup when cable or satellite are out and you need weather or news

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

Littleman, have you used the FCC tool? If you are 90 miles due south of Memphis that puts you in the Cascilla area, FCC shows 2 strong signals and 5 moderate. A few more weak ones. You might get 7+ channels with a good external antenna.

 

[RocketDawg]

A relative lives in 60 miles SE of Memphis. They have an antenna about 30 feet up. They pick up Memphis stations, Tupelo and Columbus. Plus others. 10-12 stations total.

Is it a directional or omni antenna?

 

[TheBigEDawg]

https://us.amazon.com/Liger-Indoor-Outdoor-Amplified-Antenna/dp/B0186HXUOQ

This what I have. I live near the AL/MS line. I can pick up almost all stations from Biloxi to Pensacola. It is omnidirectional so you won't need to turn it.

 

[Maroonthirteen]

Is it a directional or omni antenna?

directional. Point nw. Get Memphis and tupelo. Point se and get tupelo and Columbusand I think a MState channel. Plus many more non locals In either direction.

you just have to buy a nice outdoor antenna and 90miles isn't out of range.

 

[Ballyhoo77]

Yes. I got one to watch games outside and the $35 antenna works great

 

[RocketDawg]

Was just wondering if you have to rotate the antenna to go from Memphis to Columbus/Tupelo. Looks like you do.

I have an antenna in my attic and it gets all the Huntsville channels except the CW. All the transmitters are on Monte Sano so in the same general direction, except CW, which is somewhere to the west so I'd have to rotate the antenna so I don't bother. I never watch it anyway. I've thought about an omni on my chimney (pretty high - maybe 35 feet above the ground), but I'd have to go through grounding it, etc., and the attic antenna is good enough most of the time.