What TV antenna should I get?
 

I wasn't sure what section I should put this in, so if it's in the wrong section I apologize.

I want to get rid of our satellite service and switch back to regular free TV. I used antennaweb to try and figure out which antenna to get, but between the results and the restrictions I have I'm not too sure what to get.

All of the stations appear to be less than 35 miles away. The restrictions I've been given are "There's no way you're putting anything up on the roof or in the attic!"..... :( I guess that will make it an indoor antenna then.

So is there any specific antenna you'd recommend? I don't want to spend much money, but I also want to receive as many of the channels as possible.

Re: What TV antenna should I get?
 

I used to use this kind of indoor antenna with very good success:

http://www.summitsource.com/images/products/AN4149.jpg

The key is that your HD local affiliates need to be on UHF frequencies for this to work well.

I guess I'm confused though --- you already have a dish and you're restricted on putting up an antenna?

Re: What TV antenna should I get?
 

My wife doesn't want me putting anything up on the roof. She wasn't happy when we had to put the dish up on the roof (that's not our reason for getting rid of it though), but she said "No more." as far as putting anything up there goes.

Re: What TV antenna should I get?
 

Doesn't "in the attic" constitute indoors? And what gives about being in the attic?

Re: What TV antenna should I get?
 

It's very small. VERY. There aren't any steps to get up there, and when you're in it you pretty much have to crawl. We likely wouldn't need to get up there to mess with the antenna after we'd put it up there, but in the rare event we would that would be a pain.

Re: What TV antenna should I get?
 

35miles is pretty close and you might be able to get away with just some cheap indoor rabbit ears.. I mostly record over the air HDtv by way of PC HDtv cards but it's the same basic principal. I'm with in 26miles of my local stations, according to antennaweb and I think I can pull in some stations just using a coat hanger if I had too..

I've used a super directional antenna like the older Silver Sensor
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-SDV278...dp/B001S0UH4U/
Looks cool but it's really, really directional.. so a few inches pointed one way or the other is the difference between pulling in stations or not..

best one I found was a DB2, that pulls in everything UHF
http://www.amazon.com/Antennas-Direc.../dp/B000EHUE7I
It's pretty small, but I'm not sure it will pass the "wife test" sitting in your living room of course.. The main problem I had with it is that it's UHF only and of course my local ABC had to change of VHF... :sad:

soooo that brings us back to the old school rabbit ears.. I've tried powered sets and unpowered sets, all of them have still pretty much pulled in everything signal wise..
It's not this model, but the one I'm running now is basically the same thing. Powered rabbit ears .. Mine was like $5 at goodwill..
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=3611256

IMO start there.. maybe even try to score a used pair at a thrift store just to test them out before buying something better.. Even some rabbit ears from 30+ years ago will work to pull in modern HD now if you are close enough to the stations.