Rooftop Antenna

Yup.

I sort of messed up. I had one larger Channel Master UHF Bowtie antenna that got great reception from the market it was point at, and reasonable reception from the opposite direction from the signals that came through the backside. Had I realized I could buy a signal combiner, I would have purchased a second Channel Master, tied them together and had really great reception. But none of the articles I read about combining two antennas discussed such a unit. They only talked about Phase Synch issues. So I got that Antennas Direct package that had everything pre-synched. Or maybe the combiners were not available 6 years ago.

My neighbor gets good reception because he has a Yagi and a rotor, but I knew I'd burn out the rotor with my 2 markets being nearly opposite each other. He also has an older TV and a separate tuner, and I have a flat screen TV with the tuner built in. My understanding is that the tuners in modern TVs are only added as an obligation, and you get a lot of signal loss through them because they are poor quality.

Either way, I get over 40 channels (with some signal loss at certain times of the day during certain times of the year on a couple of channels), so I'm not complaining. When I was paying for satellite, rain would refract the signal. UHF seems to be more durable...and it's free.

 

This is yet one more thing in my life I would have been better off going to an expert than researching on my own...or going to an expert to augment what I think I 'earned. I got a Crutchfield store up the road in Charlottesville.

But the few stations I don't pick up are a couple of UHF ones that are 50 miles away from me and 45° out from the main transmission points, and one lonely little NBC station that still transmits via VHF. So I'm not missing much. And as I've mentioned before, I'll be getting fiber next year so will have access to some online video resources.

 

You can find the small ones at Walmart for around $10-15, and a good variety of them on Amazon. Ours came from Amazon and Bobby put it on the roof, but it actually worked fine even inside of the house. The smaller ones are meant to be used inside.
We no longer have any cable, and we just have Wifi connection and use our iPads most of the time, and watch the television if the weather is bad.

 

Antennae are my only source of television. Where I am, internet is insufficient to stream video (I can hardly watch YouTube stuff.)

I used to have satellite TV, and then installed an antenna 5 or 6 years ago when I realized I was watching the same few satellite channels over & over. I am about 25 miles from one transmission area and 40-50 miles away from another in the opposite direction, and I get 45+ stations from my rooftop antannea. Some of those stations are duplicates usually playing the same programming (CBS from both markets, PBS from both markets), although the programming for the same network differs at times. This works out fine for me in the rare event that bad weather (or other issues) may affect one transmission point.

As Yvonne says, if you are in an area where the transmission points are reasonably close, you can pick up most of the available stations with an indoor antenna. These are not like the antennae you and I grew up with:



Some are flat panels that mount on the wall.
Some are small modules that plug into the back of the television.
Some just sit on the table top.
Some have "boosters," so the thing also plugs into an AC power outlet.

To find what antenna channels are available at your house, go to TVFOOL, enter your address, and it will give you a list of all the stations you can receive at your specific location. It color-codes them with relative signal strength:

Green=Indoor "living area" antenna suffices
Yellow=Requires indoor attic-mount antenna
Red=Requires rooftop antenna
Grey=Requires "extreme measures"

Of course, these all depend on what may be nearby that affects the signal (trees or house that blocks the signal, hi-powered FM radio transmitter nearby, etc.)

TVFOOL has all sort of other technical features that you will not need unless you really get "into the weeds" as I did when I installed this two antenna rig:


The left pair of panels points to one city while the right pair points to the other. TVFOOL told me exactly which compass direction to aim each for maximum reception.

One last item: ZAP2IT is the best online TV Guide I have found that lists programming specific to each region. You choose from a list of local Cable Providers, a list of local Satellite Providers, or just Antenna.

 

You're very welcome.

I fear that my overly-long answer may have made things seem more complicated than they really are.

Did you go to TV Fool and look up your address? There may be things you can pick up without too much trouble. My place is in sort of a hollow...a 75 foot drop in elevation from the paved road, with trees surrounding the house. I still get over 40 channels.

I did not know that you lived in an apartment. I wonder if there isn't a community antenna already installed by building management you can attach to.

 

The first thing I would do is check with property management to see if there's a common rooftop antenna installed already you can just tie into. That will be your best bet as far as convenience and quality are concerned.

I have not bought one of these in over 10 years. @Hal Pollner @Frank Sanoica and I believe @Faye Fox all have radio and/or electronic backgrounds. If you go back to TVFool and look up your address again, this time using the Title For Report field, you can use that Title to give them access to the analysis without revealing your address. You're gonna want to look this up again anyway for purposes of deciding which way to aim the antenna/where to install it (because it identified the direction of the transmitter towers.)