My family and I are trying to cut back on costs, and with the availability of streaming content available online as well as OTA HD programming as well as the small amount of time we spend watching TV, we thought it would be good to cancel our DishNetwork subscription and go OTA.
We have a 25' tall antenna mounted outside, however it's about 30 years old. In fact so old that when I tried connecting the wires to it, the bolts it connects to actually crumbled off. Some of the elements are split off and I don't believe it's functioning properly. I did the best I could to wire that one up just to test what I could get with it, and was unable to pull any signal with my TV (built in digital tuner).
Here are my
TVFool Signal Analysis Results
I went to the AntennaWeb site and these are my results:
Call Sign Channel Network City, State Compass Heading Miles From RF Channel
blue vhf
WESH-DT 2.1 NBC DAYTONA BEACH, FL 104° 23.6 11
blue uhf
WOFL-DT 35.1 FOX ORLANDO, FL 106° 22.1 22
W21AU-D 21.1 AZA ORLANDO, FL 197° 4.0 21
WKCF-DT 18.1 CW CLERMONT, FL 109° 22.5 17
W21AU 21 AZA ORLANDO, FL 194° 4.0 21
violet uhf
WFTV-DT 9.1 ABC ORLANDO, FL 111° 24.5 39
WTGL-DT 45.1 FMN COCOA, FL 109° 22.5 46
WOTF-DT 43.1 TFA MELBOURNE, FL 109° 22.5 43
WKMG-DT 6.1 CBS ORLANDO, FL 104° 23.6 26
WHLV-DT 53.1 FMN COCOA, FL 109° 22.5 51
WVCI-LP 16 UNI ORLANDO, FL 169° 5.1 16
WMFE-DT 24.1 PBS ORLANDO, FL 107° 21.6 23
WRDQ-DT 27.1 IND ORLANDO, FL 111° 24.5 27
BLUE/VIOLET for the antenna type? This seems kind of extreme.. I was looking antennas up online and to get a UHF/VHF antenna in the 'BLUE' Category the boom length would be between 120" and 180", which to me seems to be a MASSIVE antenna. I need the VHF to pick up WESH-DT, which is important to me.
I'm not in a rural area of any sort, the furthest channel is 24.5 Miles away. 20 of the channels in my area show up in the "Green" category on my TVFools Signal Analysis, and 9 more channels appear in the Yellow one. Why would I need such a large antenna? The product descriptions for these antennas talk about having 45-80 mile ranges. "Violet" is one of those antennas in addition to a preamp to increase the signal. This just seems crazy. I want to replace the 30+ year old antenna with something newer to pick up the channels but i'm not putting something up with a 10 and a half foot boom length up...
Perhaps I'm putting too much trust in the AntennaWeb site. Before I go buy a giant antenna, can a human with knowledge in this area make a recommendation of the type of antenna I would REALLY need? I need VHF to pick up Channel 11 (23.6 Miles away), and UHF for everything else.
I understand people have personal preferences when it comes to Antennas, and certain models are no longer available, so although a recommendation of a specific model would be appreciated, what I'm really looking for is what CEA Color code antenna I would really need so I can research from there and make the decision myself. Blue/Violet just seems crazy when I'm so close to the broadcasters.
Thanks for any knowledge or advice.