Anyone here use a UHF antenna for free TV? I just got one, and I've hooked it up the way the pamphlet said (it had no real instructions) and nothing is working. It has the antenna, and a coaxial cable that runs into a power supply box. From there a shorter coaxial cable runs into the television, and a 12V power supply into the wall. The power supply has a rotate button on it, and there's a mini remote with rotation buttons on it. Does a coaxial cable carry power to the antenna to turn it? Shouldn't the actual channel that the local channel is on (3, 11, 32 etc) be the channel I turn the TV to? This is an HD flat screen not an older analog.
I tried to google it and all I found were places selling this antenna, no help at all, and GRM can help with anything.
it looks like this.
Did you run autoscan on your tv?
I just bought a cheapie $30 one from WalMart and it picking up 12 of the 22 channels that are within range.
How far away are the transmitters?
Also, you need to select the antenna as your input source.
Is this a digital TV or an old analog one? Then the TV channel would be like 3.1, 13.2, 52.3, etc.
Running autoscan as I type, 33 channels!!
Transmitters are mostly in Louisville/Lexington and between 75 and 90 miles away.
As I was typing this, VOILA!
Thanks, guys, for the first time in about 15 months, I have television!
In reply to BoostedBrandon:
I'm interested in where you bought your antenna, I'd like to get all the available channels when we move to the new place in a couple weeks.
In reply to nicksta43:
My mom bought it for us, but she got it at amazon, and I think this is it.
it's awresome!
I don't get any cable channels, but all the local big network affiliates, and freakin 20 or so PBS channels. All I wanted it for was my local news in the morning as I get ready for work.
We have four or five stations broadcasting from the north with three or four broadcasting from almost the exact opposite side. A couple more coming in from far away so the idea of having the ability to turn the antenna with a remote and it being able to pull in the weaker signals is appealing. The ones I'm picking up now are only 14 miles away and sometimes it doesn't even pick those up good.
I didn't have to turn anything. My place had an old antenna tower that was about 15 or 20 feet tall. I just placed it on top of that, pointed the UHF portion towards the north, and it picked up everything that our antennas did back when I was a kid.
But yeah, you may be able to dial in channels here and there if that will suit your needs.
I really want to cut our cable, but without a giant array on the roof I can't get NBC and I can't seem to pull the trigger on one. I can get 12 or 13 other channels using anything from a hacked together homemade antenna to a big amplified indoor one but not getting that one channel really bothers me. I refused to buy a cable box for the tv that the kids use when Charter decided that all tvs needed one so they've become addicted to Netflix. Maybe when I get the $135 cable bill this month I'll finally do it.
I hooked up a 102" CB antenna to my TV before I got cable. I still have the antenna in the living room hidden on the curtains. Now it is hooked to a scanner.
The truth about TV antennas is that they are just RX, so specifications aren't really an issue. In hilly areas, sometimes a paperclip will work and sometimes you need a 30' tower. Amplifiers can be helpful.
Chrispy, is that channel you want accessible via internet?
Probably. Until recently my wife worked at home and needed the background noise for her downtime. Hitting "POWER" was easier than searching for programming, so I put cord cutting on hold. She's back to working on-site and the last bill of $145 (someone ordered PPV movies that we already had access to via Netflix) got me looking into it again. We already have streaming capability on all the tvs and a laptop with Windows Media Center so I just need to decide on an antenna.
About the paperclip, I could get the local ABC affiliate, PBS, and a weather radar channel on the main TV using one. That, and $100/mo for channels I don't watch, lead to our first experiment with OTA tv. It lasted 6 weeks before Charter pulled me back. That promotion ran out and I feel like we are wasting money on channels we don't have any interest in watching.
