Seriously? And then you go on to write an even longer post? You people are funny -- at least I think you are. I didn't actually read either post. Too long.
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I'm about 30 miles from the major station towers, but a few degrees offset from those are 2 other station on a different hilltop. Couldn't get them until I added an amp. This one is great with a signal meter to help you aim. Result: Now I get all the local OTA channels.
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every 3dB in sound is double the power needed to produce. Don't know if that directly relates to coax power transmission. But it doesn't directly relate to signal strength.
Each leg only looses 3.5dB
Turns out we are both "about right". Decibel is a logarithmic scale. The rule-of-thumb is that every 3db gain doubles the energy level. So, a 3.5 db loss is jut a bit more than a 50% loss.
I almost bought that antenna, but opted for a more well known brand instead ... ping-bing-ding, at least that what it was called when I purchased it. 
I get all the channels in the primary direction that its pointed, and of course channels about 60 miles in each direction 90 degrees to the left and right too, once in a while. Installed in the attic.
Curious to see how that other one works out for you.
Iâm thinking of putting a proper antenna to replace my pancake thing. But Iâm wondering if itâs worth the trouble and expense.
Question for you all: Is there anything youâre watching from your antenna that you wouldnât want to live without? Details please.
I record all Prime Time Dramas/comskip like to watch at my convenience also Watch My sports. The OTA tuners also free up my Prime Tuners from having to record broadcast available on OTA.
PS being that I am older ... I like to record the classic shows that are broadcast on secondary channels.
NFL, some EPL, some NBA/NHL/MLB, a bit of Liga MX/MLS, game shows (Jeopardy/Wheel)...and maybe some cooking shows but that's about it
Pancake thing? Please explain.
Not sure if I can say whether it's worth going antenna. We watch a lot of PBS, CBS, and other local programming but we don't want to be strapped to a TV so we use Channels with OTA and we're happy.
The actual antenna was an interesting experiment which I recently solved. I have a few HDHR tuners. I'm 14mi. from most of our local stations with a lot of 90ft pine trees between me and the towers.
I desired perfect reception so got a very good high gain antenna which picked up all signals very strong. Everything was fine until there was a breeze and the signals dropped out. And when the wind blew harder, reception was unwatchable!! I learned after spending a lot of money on expensive antennas that for local reception, having TOO much antenna causes a lot of issues.
The problem with trees is that the signals bounce off of the trees and create multipath signals. On a calm day you may get your antenna positioned fine, without multipath signals. But the minute those trees move in a breeze, they deliver multipath signals to your antenna and that causes signal dropouts!!
In fact, the bigger and more expensive the antenna, the more dropouts I had!
One day I noticed that I could also receive a VERY low power station, from the same tower, and it had a fairly week signal, BUT, when the wind blew, it never dropped out like the high power stations.
I finally realized the reason was because the signal was so week, my antenna couldn't pick up it's multipath signals, which were weaker. So I DOWNSIZED my antenna. In fact, I went with a cheap flat antenna you tape to the wall. I placed it up in the attic on an outside wall where the signal was the strongest (used a signal meter on the TV to determine this). My signal from these stations are now much weaker. Instead of 10 bars of signal, only 7. BUT, when a tropical storm moved through our area, my reception remained solid with no dropouts.
I no longer worry about receiving strong signals or high gain, expensive antennas. Marginal signals work just as good, but without the multipath issues. Also, with a small flat antenna, it's more difficult to find a good signal path. But when you find it, you'll find it's the most direct signal path.
So this "pancake thing" may actually work better than "a proper antenna" if you take some time to place it where the signal is the strongest.
I now tell people who live within 15mi of TV transmitters, don't even think about purchasing an outside antenna. Try a cheap, flat antenna with NO AMPLIFIER in your attic first. Invest some time finding your maximum signal location IN your attic and don't worry if it's not a full strength signal.
Multipath and even signal overload are real enemy's of digital reception. Finding your highest signal location with the cheapest low gain antenna will give you more stable reception. I also receive a station 70 mi away. I DO use a high gain antenna for that channel but I only get 3 bars of signal due to it's distance, however there is NEVER any signal interruption. Why?? Because the multipath signals are TOO weak to cause problems.
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Sports, NFL and NBA playoffs. Besides that, the only OTA content I record or watch is the network news, and recently I noticed I can get NBC and ABC News from YouTube after it's several hours stale. <---no commercials either using SmartTube .
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Local news. Though I dont watch the news daily. I have DVR setup to record and keep most recent of various local news broadcast. These may/may not be available to you via internet and TVE.
But when huricane hits and ISP goes down i still have the News.
The primary benefit of a high quality antenna is simply reliability over a indoor antenna.
Come to think of it, I rarely watch the news.but i like knowing its there.
The big thing for me was getting tired of the cable/sat/streaming companies constantly fighting with the content providers and cutting off my local channels right at football season or really any time. I didnt like being held hostage in their negotiations and telling me every 5 minutes how they are being treated unfairly by the content providers, blah, blah blah....so after several times of that I got annoyed and went full antenna and a couple of subscriptions to supplement things. Works great....as long as the local providers don't turn off the free OTA options as they lock down the ATSC3, I'll remain happy. But we'll see what the future holds.
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HDHR tuners are notoriously bad with too-strong signals. I have to use an attenuator with mine to get reliable reception on a couple of channels.
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Iâve heard often about the sensitivity of the HDHR tuners, but Iâve got mine paired with a Televes Dinova antenna (unamplified) with no issues. Even using the pre-amp caused no problems, but that might be more to the credit of the Televes tech.
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We moved into this house 20+ years ago and I'm no longer in touch with the previous owner. Due to an unfortunate leak in the corner, I needed some ceiling repair done, which revealed an interesting surprise, this dusty old antenna curled up in the deep recesses of the attic:
I managed to wire it up to my HDHR in the other room and WOW, it's performing much better than the indoor one I was using before! Can anyone shed light on what kind of antenna is up there managing this magic?
that's a VHF / UHF combo. Run that thing!!!
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looks like an antenna with Hi-VHF and UHF. I just purchased one like it because I had 1 station on Channel 12 that I was having issues with. Solved the problem and now I have 100% signal on that channel. If your signal strength is not as high as you think it could be, use SignalGH on your iphone and pull up several channels and re-aim the antenna. Sometimes even 1/2in can add 20% sig strength.
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Thanks! So far, so good. I'm running some A/B experiments and can definitely see / feel the difference. Channel surfing was already pretty fast before, and maybe it's just my imagination, but tuning charges feel even faster now. I was also able to remove the amplifier that the indoor antenna required before. In fact, this old antenna's signal improved even more once I cleaned up some long wires and removed that piece of the puzzle.
What a happy discovery! It's kind of a game-changer over here 
And to think, that antenna has been right there all along, hiding above my the bed where I've been sleeping, for the past two decades.
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No kidding, that's awesome! When I go up in my attic, it's rarely a happy discovery.
It looks similar to the Channel Master Advantage 45. It is a good choice in town for an attic because you need those VHF elements. But the UHF section does not have to be very large.
I had the DIGITAL Advantage 60 and the UHF gain was too much. I had to add an attenuator.
The nice thing about having a decent size directional antenna in the attic is good immunity to interference from nearby lightning strikes.
If you were to buy today, you probably want the Channel Master Pro CM-1776 antenna instead because it is smaller, optimized for TV frequencies that remain after spectrum was sold to cell companies. As such, it has a superior front to back ratio for those of you who have unwanted channels that can interfere from the behind the antenna.
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