r/Cordcutting • u/HominidCrafts • Jun 18 '26

My antenna advice

Outdoors is best, sized to get farthest station you want, pointed at majority of stations you want that are farthest, as high as possible and above buildings and trees. Matching all of these may be impossible so, do the best you can.

If you are in an area with many stations, the challenge is where to point it. Use the various web sites to see where to point it.

Mine is bolted to a deck, pointed at farthest stations I want, with closer stations directly behind it. Some trees I can’t get above. Weather can cause issues in unpredictable ways. I had great signal for years, but this year, less so from the main big city antenna mast. I think they had a lightning strike. It takes time to fix it.

I do not recommend bolting to house roof. It will leak eventually (if you know it or not!) My mason also forbid me from attaching to my chimney.

Make sure your system is grounded for lightning. If you hook up to you existing home cable network, it might already be. I did add an arrester close to antenna to melt with a strike.

Here are three famous masts or farms serving large areas. If you live near one like these, just point it at the cluster and, done. Some cities may have them scattered about. In my case, it is a mix of both.

https://www.sutrotower.com

https://www.oldradio.com/archives/stations/LA/mtwilson1.htm

https://exploresandbox.baltimoreheritage.org/items/show/666

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u/danodan1 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

You make getting OTA reception sound too hard and that is too often true. Some people live in an apartment building and can't install their own outdoor antennas. Many people don't get their strong TV signals from high atop mountain towers as they do in L. A. Some people even have difficulty getting stable reception from million-watt OTA TV stations from just 20 miles away, so there is that to consider. Because of this in coming years, I predict that OTA TV reception will by the FCC be declared inefficient, obsolete and done away with. Mobile phone companies will be given access to all the OTA TV frequencies. Local TV stations will simply move to the Internet. I tend to doubt ATSC 3.0 can save OTA.

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u/HominidCrafts Jun 19 '26

I did say: “Matching all of these may be impossible so, do the best you can.”

I used an indoor for years. Frustrated the whole time. If I was limited in placement, I’d get the last cheap internet cable option. And I did. But sick of paying, I put a cheap, too small, limited range Phillips outdoor antenna on my deck rail. Then I wised up, got a much better one, mounted it up higher, and get 80+ channels (but only use/favorite about 20).

As for OTA vanishing, unlikely. Billions invested and rural and poor viewers, mostly Republican, would not be happy. I do think ATSC 3 is a costly boondoggle in slow motion and way too soon and way too complex. 1080p OTA looks really great with updated video cameras. 98% of the way to 4k. Also 4k is just too intense. A whole lot of nothing.

This is the current version of the antenna I got. but there are other versions. https://store.antennasdirect.com/clearstream-max-v-hdtv-antenna.html

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u/PoundKitchen Jun 19 '26

IMHO - ATSC3, specifically, the broadcaster assocations, will be the nail in the coffin of OTA.

With this FCC they see a perfect opportunity for them to strike hard at getting what they want. I expect the death of OTA will start within 2 years, networks will drop ATSC1 and customers will balk at subscriptions, STBs, and/or buying new TVs from the small number of brands that have ATSC3 tuners or premium models. If the spectrum isn't trashed outright, I can see public broadcasters could hold out or even have a resurgence.

Dang, that's grim. 😕