How To Set Up Your Clear Tv Antenna
Imagine if someone offered you a car for $1,000 that ran forever without fuel, but they couldn't guarantee that it would get you to any of your favorite destinations. This resembles the dilemma that cord-cutters face when they're ditching their cable or satellite TV box in favor of an indoor TV antenna. Some antenna owners find that they can just position the thing anywhere, run a channel scan, and have instant access to all their favorite local stations. For others, the process of tuning in over-the-air channels is an exercise in frustration. If the latter describes your situation, we're here to help, with a few tips to maximize your chances of pulling in your can't-miss shows.
As we found in our research and testing for our best indoor HDTV antennas guide, you can find plenty of good antennas priced between $25 and $100, but even a broadcast engineer can't be 100% sure which stations any antenna will pull in at a certain location. There are just so many variables affecting the performance of an indoor TV antenna, and the design of the antenna plays only one part: The characteristics of your TV's tuner, the construction of your home, the room you place the antenna in, the way you mount the antenna, trees and other outdoor objects that may block reception, and multipath interference caused by signal reflections from mountains, bodies of water, or buildings all can affect antenna performance. The number of channels you receive might even change from day to day or week to week.
We've learned the tricks we describe below over years of antenna testing and experimentation, in settings ranging from high-density urban areas to sprawling suburbs. We've also asked numerous antenna manufacturers for advice. Unfortunately, even after following these tips, you still might not get all the channels you want, but you are almost certain to get more than if you were to just slap up an antenna in the most convenient place.
Find your local broadcast transmitters
Why it's helpful: Knowing the location of your local TV stations' broadcast transmitters helps you make a better decision about where to place your antenna. Broadcast signals are not narrow beams; they're actually more like wide waves rolling over you at the beach. Generally, you get the strongest signal if the maximum amount of the antenna is exposed to the wave, so you should position your antenna parallel to the wave front and perpendicular to the signal direction. You're usually best off placing the antenna on a wall that runs at or close to a 90-degree angle to the direction of the signal.
How to do it: You can find the direction and distance of your local transmitters by visiting AntennaWeb or RabbitEars, or you can use either of the free smartphone apps from RCA and Winegard, both of which are available for iOS and Android and work with antennas of any brand. The RCA app is particularly nice because it shows you which direction to orient the antenna for optimum reception of any specific station.
In some cities—such as Denver, New York, and San Francisco—most of the TV transmitters are clustered together atop a mountain or a tall building, which makes positioning your antenna easier. But most cities—especially those in flatter areas, like Atlanta, Boston, and Houston—have TV transmitters in multiple locations. In these locales, if you point the antenna so that your favorite channels come in reliably, you may sacrifice reception of some other channels.
The two websites mentioned above will also tell you if any of your local TV stations broadcast in the low-VHF band (radio-frequency channels 2 through 6), which has much longer wavelengths and thus requires a longer or wider antenna for optimum reception. Many small indoor TV antennas struggle to pull in low-VHF signals, no matter where and how you position them. (Note: The channel number that appears on your TV screen is a "virtual channel" that may not reflect the actual radio-frequency channel the station uses—for instance, what you see as TV channel 2 might actually be transmitting on channel 28.) If one or more of your favorite channels transmit in the low-VHF band and you can't pick them up with your indoor antenna, you may have to consider an outdoor antenna.
Use a signal-level meter to find the strongest signal
Why it's helpful: If you're having trouble tuning in desired channels, using a signal-level meter can make it faster and easier to position your antenna to pull in the strongest signals. A meter eliminates the time-consuming trial-and-error process of placing the antenna, running a channel scan on your TV to see how many channels you get, trying a different antenna position, and rescanning to see if you get better results. A signal-level meter responds in just a few seconds, rather than the 10 minutes that a TV channel scan typically takes, so you can evaluate all potential antenna positions in a minute or two rather than an hour or two.
How to do it: Some indoor antennas, such as the RCA ANT3ME and Winegard Flatwave Amped Pro, come with a built-in signal-level meter. Just move the antenna around until you find the position that gives you the strongest signal on the meter, run one channel scan on your TV, and you're done. In our antenna tests, both of these antennas became top performers when we optimized their positions using their integrated signal-level meters.
If your antenna does not come with a signal-level meter, you can buy an add-on signal-level meter, such as this model from KKmoon that we tested. However, we found this inexpensive meter fussy to use because it requires you to adjust its sensitivity to suit the characteristics of your antenna. This isn't difficult—you merely turn a knob until the needle is more or less centered on the meter. But in our case, the meter jumped around a lot, while the audible tone accompanying it often shifted wildly in pitch and volume. We found the meters built into the RCA and Winegard antennas more helpful and less frustrating to use.
Position the antenna higher on the wall
Why it's helpful: Placing the antenna near the ceiling generally produces the best results because it puts the antenna above the level of low-lying objects in nearby rooms or outdoors that might block the signal. This is part of the reason, in our experience, wall-mounted antennas typically outperform antennas placed on top of a table or TV stand. However, this is just a general rule; the construction of your house, the orientation and position of the wall, and whatever is on the other side of the wall might actually cause worse reception if you mount the antenna high up.
How to do it: The only difficulty you're likely to encounter when mounting an antenna near the ceiling is that the cable might not be long enough. All of our picks come with at least 10 feet of cable, which in most homes should be enough to position the antenna up near the ceiling. You can lengthen any antenna cable with an extension cable and coupler.
Try a different wall
Why it's helpful: Even though it's generally best to mount the antenna flat against a wall that runs perpendicular to the direction of the signal you want to receive, the construction of your home and other variables in and around your home may make other positions work better.
How to do it: Although moving an antenna around to different positions on the same wall can positively affect performance, we've found that you're likely to see a bigger difference if you move the antenna to an adjacent wall that runs at a 90-degree angle to the first wall.
Mounting the antenna on an exterior wall may produce better results than mounting it on an interior wall, even if the exterior wall is oriented in the wrong direction—just because there's less of your house or apartment building for the signal to penetrate.
Positioning the antenna on an adjacent wall may not be great for aesthetics, as it might make hiding the antenna and cable more difficult—and you may need an extension cable if the cable included with the antenna isn't long enough.
If all else fails, get a rooftop antenna
Why it's helpful: In most urban areas and many suburban areas, a properly positioned indoor antenna should be able to pull in most or all local network-affiliate TV stations along with several independent stations. But if you're more than about 30 miles from most of your local TV transmitters, if you're in a dense urban area where multipath interference is a big problem, or if one or more stations transmit on a low-VHF channel (something you can find out on AntennaWeb or RabbitEars), it's worth your time and trouble to install a rooftop antenna, provided you live in a place where that's possible. It's easier for the larger elements of a typical rooftop-antenna design to pull in both weaker signals and the longer wavelengths of low-VHF signals.
My rooftop antenna consistently outperforms all the indoor antennas I've tested; at my house, it typically pulls in about 150 Los Angeles–area channels, while the best indoor antennas usually top out around 100 channels. The antenna I use is a large model with eight "bowtie" elements, similar to this Channel Master model. It happened to be the winner of an antenna roundup I performed years ago using a radio-frequency spectrum analyzer. I wish I could tell you the antenna's brand, but that would mean climbing up on my roof, and it has probably been discontinued, anyway. It works great in Los Angeles, where almost all of the TV transmitters sit atop Mount Wilson, but in other cities, an antenna with a motorized, swiveling base might work better.
How to do it: The ambitious do-it-yourselfer who has access to their roof can probably install a rooftop antenna in about three hours. That's how long it took me to mount my outdoor antenna on the roof and then run the cable through an exterior wall, through my attic, down into my living room wall, and finally to a wall jack. But for that three hours of work, my reward has been 15 years of perfect TV reception—and I later added a splitter to get the same clear signal in other rooms of my house. If you're unwilling or unable to mount the antenna yourself, it's a task that should be well within the capabilities of any home handyperson for hire.
No matter what type of antenna you choose, spending a little time to set it up right will pay off in many hours of viewing pleasure. Best of all, that antenna will never cost you an extra penny and won't ask you for your credit card number or password.
About your guide
Brent Butterworth is a senior staff writer covering audio and musical instruments at Wirecutter. Since 1989, he has served as an editor or writer on audio-focused websites and magazines such as Home Theater, Sound & Vision, SoundStage, and JazzTimes. He regularly gigs on double bass (and occasionally ukulele) with Los Angeles–area jazz groups.
How To Set Up Your Clear Tv Antenna
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/guides/how-to-set-up-indoor-tv-antenna/
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