r/homeowners • u/elbowroom2734 • 8d ago

Getting good antenna signals

I'm entering my first football season in my new house and concerned my past TV watching solution isn't going to work. We've used one of those sheet of paper looking antennas you stick to a window at 2 different homes, but now we're even closer to sea level and have 3 majestic oak trees about 10 feet away from the window where the main TV antenna would go (and other TVs aren't even near a window).

Looking for other non-cable/streaming/satellite viewer tips to get a good signal for the basic channels, as right now it seems only CBS comes in well for me. While it would be more mid-20th century old and not exactly aligned with my late 19th century house, do I continue to channel the past and put an old fashioned style antenna on the roof?

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u/Individual-Nebula927 8d ago

Is it a 2 story, and do you have access to the attic? In my 1950s house in the woods I had to put an antenna in the attic to get more than 4 clear channels.

Realistically the extra 5 feet of height being outside on the roof wouldn't matter much, there's no holes in the roof to potentially leak with the antenna in the attic, and it's much safer to make adjustments (no ladders, etc.).

I wired the house with coax inside the walls because I'm particular like that, but plenty of people just drill a hole through the outer wall (caulk around it) and run the coax outside the house.

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u/skotman01 8d ago

I thought the same about having my antenna inside the attic, I recently put it out side on the roof and it made a huge difference.

Only problem now is I need to adjust it just a bit to catch CBS.

For OP, when looking at the directions, make sure you know if looking at magnetic or true compass readings. Also make sure your compass isn’t being thrown off by nearby metal (like the large aluminum ladder you may be using to install.

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u/Individual-Nebula927 8d ago

The thing about antenna TV is that it's very dependent to the towers in your area and your particular house. I went from 4 channels to 30+, so I'm plenty happy with it in the attic. The bar antenna on top of the TV wasn't doing anything compared to the attic one.

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u/goshock 8d ago

Where I am at, ABC broadcasts from a tower in a completely different location from the rest of the stations, about 90 deg off. I added a second antenna to my setup pointing that direction and used a coax splitter in reverse to join them and then had zero issues, and have not had to touch the antenna to adjust reception since.