Cord-cutting has become synonymous with dropping cable and satellite subscriptions in favor of streaming video services. That leaves a lot of live television on the table, which you can get for free. All you need is an antenna to tune into TV stations the old-fashioned way (in high-definition with digital signals, of course). If you want to keep up with local programming or just want some more variety beyond what you can stream, an antenna connected to your TV is the way to do it. Here’s how to choose the best antenna for you.
Location Matters
Before you start shopping for an antenna, you should check what channels are available near you. AntennaWeb has a helpful tool that lets you enter your location to see where the nearest TV stations are. It even provides a helpful map that shows distance, and the type of antenna you need to get a strong signal from each station. Once you know what TV you can get near you, you can figure out the best antenna to buy.
AntennaWeb’s TV station tool categorizes nearby stations based on the sort of outdoor antenna you need to tune in. This is because indoor antennas are highly dependent on the architecture of your home and any sort of structures that can interfere with signals. This doesn’t mean the map is useless for indoor antennas, though; yellow and green stations can be tuned into with small and medium multidirectional antennas mounted outdoors, which means you can probably get a signal from them using an indoor multidirectional antenna. For farther and weaker stations that require directional antennas or a preamp, you’ll need to be able to mount it outside.
Multidirectional or Directional Antennas
Multidirectional antennas are designed to pick up signals from any direction. They’re typically flat, shaped like rectangular sheets or discs that can be easily mounted on a window. If mounted properly, they can tune into any station within range, regardless of whether the station’s positioned north, south, east, or west.
Multidirectional antennas are the most common kind of TV antenna. Almost all indoor antennas are multidirectional, and many outdoor antennas are as well. They’re easy to set up, and don’t require knowing where each station is. They aren’t perfect, though; multidirectional antennas are weaker than directional antennas, so their ranges are much shorter.
Directional antennas are, well, directional. They tend to be shaped like fins, arrows, or tubes, and need to be pointed toward the stations they’re tuned to. This means they need to be adjusted to properly get signals from stations, so you’ll need to plan carefully when mounting them. Their ranges can be much, much farther than multidirectional antennas, though, letting you tune into weaker and more distant stations if the antenna is pointing at them.
Directional antennas generally must be mounted outside, so they’re better suited for houses than apartments. Pointing toward the station isn’t nearly as effective if the antenna is blocked by a wall.
With that in mind, we’ve selected a variety of the best antennas you can use for a number of different scenarios.
