This article details how to watch network television using over the air digital signals. Any television made after 2007 has a built in digital tuner, as mandated by U. Before we continue, check if there is an ota tv listings already on your roof. Find the cable coming off your roof, and locate where it comes in the house. Be aware you should ensure the. Click on any of the topics below to navigate to that part of the article. Ultimately, I went with the and my family loves it. First, you will need to get a signal report to see which channels are available to you. To discover the signal power in your area use from tvfool. Once you enter your address, you should receive a signal report like the one below. Stations do this to keep their channel brand while broadcasting on a higher powered virtual channel. Many things can cause signal loss and I cover that later in the article. The important thing to know is once the noise margin hits 0, the channel will not come in. I always recommend going with an outdoor antenna when possible. Omni-directional antennas are designed to pick up channels in all directions. This tradeoff off is done by focusing the antenna gain, which is different from amplifier gain. Omni directional antennas balance their gain to pick up channels in all directions. Of course, if you want to know more about concepts like noise margin, I go a bit more in depth later in this article. My favorite is the recently released. It does a great job of pulling these channels. Antennas like the older and the are also good options. The Curve and Leaf are very similar in function. The choice here comes down to aesthetics. They are both available to purchase. The type of antenna really depends on the channel locations and the noise margin. The noise margin also has to account for noise in the line which I cover later in the article. If you do need a bit more signal power and your channels are roughly in an 180-degree arc of one another, then the Channel Master. If you need a bit more gain you can get the which provides 12 dB gain. If you need a bit more gain you can give the a try. While the arc on this antenna is about 60 degrees it packs a bit more gain at 15. You can even get a bit more gain with the. This one is also a bit of a bear to install. For an indoor antenna, I would go with the. Check out my for more information. As for outdoor, the Antennas Direct is a good option. It pulls channels within a 70 degree arc and adds about 8 dB of gain to the noise margin. If you need a bit more antenna gain you can try the. It offers a gain between 10-13 dB depending on the channel you are trying to receive. If all the channels you want are within 45 miles then go with the. In fact, I strongly recommend it, and review several options in this. I recommend an outdoor antenna for this in most situations, but check out the link for more information. It will mitigate lightning strikes and other electrical anomalies that are possible, but unlikely. The height placement will affect the type of path the antenna can ota tv listings. Below you will find the values found in the columns and their definition. Basically, there is nothing in the way of the antenna and the tower. ota tv listings When this happens, the obstruction acts as a secondary, albeit weaker, source of signal generation. The picture below demonstrates this concept. As you may have guessed, this results in a much weaker signal than 1Edge. Basically the signal has been refracted by the high level of moisture in the upper troposphere. I recommend 10 dB to account for weather and other anomalies. Signal Loss Signal loss comes from various sources and is measured in decibel dB loss. An estimate of 3 dB should suffice. I go into more detail in this post on choosing a. Adjacent House —An adjacent house in line with the generation of the signal and casting a shadow either on the antenna or on the exterior wall that is in the path of an indoor antenna creates a loss. Studies also show that raising the height of an indoor antenna will lessen the loss. Tree Shadowing — This is when a nearby tree in line with the generation of the signal casts a shadow on the antenna or on the exterior wall in line with the antenna. In rare cases raising an antenna can actually degrade reception. Often in these cases a, dense tree canopy can be blamed. Home Penetration — This only matters for an indoor antenna. Expect a loss of around 14dB for a signal to penetrate a home and reach a first floor antenna. Installing the antenna on the 2nd or 3rd floor can greatly mitigate a portion of these losses. Anything else with a quantifiable decibel dB loss — Yes this is ota tv listings, but any nearby obstruction can cause a dB loss. Where to Install an Indoor Antenna To figure out ota tv listings we can use and Indoor Antenna, we will first figure out the available Noise Margin after estimating the dB loss using the information above. Figure out where your antenna will be mounted in relation to that tower. If this is the case, only subtract 14 dB for home penetration; otherwise subtract around 34 dBs to account for your house shadowing the signal. If you are below 12db try and find a higher area to mount the antenna. This may be an upper floor, or even the attic. You may want to consider the roof if possible. If there is enough noise margin on the weakest signal, the next consideration is the distance of the antenna from the tower. Commercial antennas typically indicate the range at which they can capture a signal. This is extremely dependent on how much loss the signal takes before reaching your antenna. I have seen indoor antennas work over 50 miles from the broadcast tower. The last concept we need to ota tv listings is direction. To figure this out refer to the channel table report once more. Find the number under magnetic Magn. Note the number next to each. Now we have everything we need to know about the signal. We can now cover the types of antennas available and their strengths and weaknesses. Antenna Gain Vs Amplifier Gain This subject can be confusing as there are really two types of gain in relation to antennas. There is antenna gain, which we discussed earlier as being inherent to the antenna. It essentially aids you in receiving a signal from the tower and can be added to your noise margin. Then there is amplifier gain, which is added from a powered amplifier. This amplifier will not impact the antennas ability to actually receive the signal, but will mitigate noise created by splitters, cable length, and tuners between the antenna and your television. Please note that an amplifier also adds noise that will impact the gain of the amplifier. This brings up another important point. Clean up your coaxial runs. If using splitters, be sure they are rated at least 5-1000mhz. Remember that signal strength is divided by the number of outputs on the splitter, whether they are used or not. A splitter causes a 3. Modern Omnidirectional Antennas Flat— This is the aesthetically pleasing antenna pictured below. They are easy on the eyes. Stylish- Companies like Mohu have introduced aesthetically pleasing indoor antennas like the Mohu Curve. Directional Antennas Grid Antenna — These antenna are intended to direct the antenna gain to a beam width not typically exceeding 25 degrees. Yagi Antenna — These are my favorite directional antenna. The beam width can vary from 30 — 80 degrees, but packs a lot of antenna gain. Older Omnidirectional Antennas These antennas still work fine for stations close by. If you live in a metro area with lots of signals close by, you could give one of these dinosaurs a shot. Loop — A loop is an omnidirectional antenna and is shown in the picture below. This antenna also contains a pair of rabbit ears. Bow Tie — The bow tie antenna is pictured below. If you enjoyed this article, please. It goes out every Thursday and keeps you up to date on information relevant to cord cutters. Subscribing will also inform you on the latest deals out there for internet, streaming, and more. If this article didn't answer your specific question, check out the. For tips and tricks on cutting the cord and other tech topics be sure to join our and follow us on Twitter.
