Forum Discussion

Ron3rd's avatar
Ron3rd
Explorer III
Mar 25, 2020

OTR Indoor Antenna

Just looking to get local live stations. I know the rooftop antennas work well but is anyone using one of those OTR Indoor Antennas? Don't really want to put an antenna on the roof but was wondering if any of the indoor antennas are worth using.
  • I don’t know of any indoor antenna that will work well. It all depends on the height of the antenna and obstructions. Any trees or buildings in your way will degrade your signal. We started with a fairly expensive flat one you hung on the inside wall. This worked no better than a $12 set of rabbit ears. Then put a standard antenna in the attic. This worked better but even the framing members and the shingles degraded the signal. We then moved it outside to the roof and now we are told this is as good as we will get without putting it up higher on a pole. No rotor was needed as all our station transmitters are fairly close together. In the end we were quite satisfied and don’t pay anything to watch tv.
  • Almot's avatar
    Almot
    Explorer III
    Ron3rd wrote:
    Sorry I should have been more clear, I meant for the sticks and bricks.

    I'm dumping cable TV and their constant price increases.

    Been there, done that. After a many research on OTV websites I bought Channel Master, I think it was This one, 40 miles range.

    Put it on the 2nd floor South balcony, with 4-floors building right across, and local TV tower on the North (i.e. no any kind of line of sight to the tower). 10 out of 12 channels worked well, 2 worked intermittently. It is "sort of" omnidirectional, very wide angle of reception, so no frequent adjustment was necessary. Picture quality was perfect. In a digital era these antennas either work well, or don't work at all, not like 10 years ago with analog channels when you could sometimes get a stable but poor picture.

    If you have a direct line of sight to the tower, pretty much any antenna will work. Even a 3 ft piece of wire will get you some channels.

    Free TV broadcasting sucks. Too many commercials, and all shows and movies are old and/or not the most popular. Worse than very basic cable plan, though not much worse. Sold it a few years later.
  • I have the small rabbit ears on the outside of mu Capri Camper and was in Loveland, Colorado last week and picked up about 20 channels. No matter what antenna you have the closer to civilization you are the more channels you get.
  • The square antennas will pick up the UHF stations but not the VHF stations. Channel 10 and 7 where I live transmit on VHF so I need the rabbit ears. I also point the antenna at the transmit towers and use an amp on my antenna. Place the indoor antenna by a window for best results.
  • $39 for antennae & rotor. $25 for 2 10ft chain link line rail. Bag of cement. 22 channels but don't watch any of them.

    Went with Hulu live for less than half of DTV. Try it for 7 days free.
  • steveh27 wrote:
    I use old rabbit ears and get many channels. I am within 10-20 miles of the stations.


    As I remember, the rabbit ears were best for VHF signals. Most stations, at least in my area, are broadcasting UHF, which works better with one of the antennas made for UHF. They come in a variety of configurations. The multiple bow ties are pretty good but any you try should be amplified. If there's any way I would try an outdoor variety or, at least, an attic mounted.

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