In my building, we're not allowed to have an outdoor antenna, so I'm limited to indoor models. This isn't a big problem where I'm at, because the transmitters for all of the channels I want are all within 35 miles. Luckily, I'm on the third floor of a building on a small knoll (hill) relatively far above ground level for the area. The downside is that all of my windows are on the north side of the building, and all of the transmitter towers are to the general south.
The current rage for indoor antennas is the flat variety: a typical one looks like a piece of thin cardboard or plastic in the shape of a rectangle. Inside the plastic casing is an array of metal which serves to pick up the signals from transmitters.
There are 7 stations broadcasting in my area, and a total of 17 channels on those stations. The tower for one is within 5 miles, another is 34 miles away, and the other five are about 18 miles away. Almost any antenna will get the stations within 17 miles; the slightly tough one is the station whose transmitter is 34 miles away. 35-40 miles is generally the outer limit of what an indoor antenna can pull in.
With that in mind, when I decided to get rid of cable TV, I found the Channelmaster Flatenna on Channelmaster's site for $10, with free shipping. Here's the URL:
http://www.channelmaster.com/flatenna_s/346.htm
I ordered this, and it arrived four days later. the antenna is paper-thin with about an 8 foot cord. This wasn't long enough to reach from my TV to a wall/window, but I had plenty of coaxial cable from Mediacom to use. I connected it and began searching for the ideal spot.
Contrary to popular belief, the best spot is not necessarily a window. An Over the Air (OTA) TV signal goes through solid walls. As a general rule, you want the antenna to be as high up as possible, because TV signals don't bend around the curve of the earth or bounce off of the ionosphere like some radio signals do: TV signals are straight-line. Since the earth curves, the higher up the antenna is, the better the chance to pull in a distant station. It wasn't surprising that the best spot for me was nearest the wall to outside as high up as I could put it. The Flatenna comes with two adhesive squares to hold it firmly to a wall, but the position I had it in was high enough up that the coaxial cable (and its added weight) pulled on the cord and eventually pulled the antenna from the wall. resting the end of the cable against a wall (to take the weight off of the antenna's cable) and three strips of masking tape on the antenna itself fixed the problem.
HDTV isn't like the old analog was. An analog station could be clear and sharp if close by, and a bit snowy if further away. Digital TV is yes or no, hit or miss, on or off. You either get the station or you don't. If it's a borderline case, it will be spotchy, as the station's signal is caught, then missed, caught and missed. Generally, a signal strength of 45 to 50 is watchable, and anything above 50 will mostly work. Ideally, the signal should be in the 60s or higher.
The result was that the Flatenna pulled in all seven stations clearly, although as will be the case with any OTA broadcasting, there was some rare pixelation and splotchiness when interference existed (such as a storm). The five stations that were all in the same mile-radius of each other all pulled in signals of 72. Not oddly, the station that was closest only pulled in a 55; the station itself is relatively low-wattage, but it worked. The station that is 35 miles away draws a signal of 56 to 60. In addition to those seven stations, the Flatenna also pulled in a religious station that was about 50 miles away with a signal strength of 48.
With that as a base, I then went out to various stores and bought the most-touted alternatives. Here are the results, vs the Flatenna:
Mohu Leaf $40 non ampled, $70 with amplifier): The Leaf pulled in the same stations with similar readings. Using the amplifier did not help the stations that were 35 and 50 miles away, but it did hurt the stations that were closer. That's not a surprise; an amplifier is meant to boost weak signals. If the station is already coming in clearly, the amplifier will probably make the signal too strong, which will ruin its quality. Amplifiers are mainly for those who live farther (40 to 60- miles) from the towers, and from what I've read, that doesn't always help.
Wineguard Flatwave ($40) The Flatwave pulled in the same stations at the same strength.
Terk Triniity Trimodal ($40): The supposed technology that the Terk is supposed to have was useless: the five stations were in the 60-65 range, and the 35 and 50 mile stations didn't come in at all. It also had problems with the station that's 5 miles away.
RCA ($7 to $35): I tried three versions of their antennas: two flat and one that looked like the old "rabbit ears". All got the closer stations; none got the distant stations.
THE VERDICT: The Flatenna was as good or better than all of them, and it was cheaper than all but the RCA pseudo "rabbit ears" model.
As an experiment, I bought a 1byone amplifier and attached it to my Flantenna. It had the same effect as the amplifier on the Leaf: it made the closer channels worse and only boosted the distant channels by a negligible amount.
Be aware that most of these indoor antennas don't have the circuitry to get VHF-band stations. You can tell if a station si VHF by going to TVFool, entering your location, and looking at the report. The stations whose "real" channel are from 2 to 12 are VHF. Some of the indoor antennas pull in the high-VHF frequency (channels 7 to 13), but very few will do well on the low-VHF frequencies (2 to 6). Fortunately, most stations have moved to the higher UHF band. If you have a low-frequency VHF station that you want to watch, and the Flatenna won't pull it in, you may want to look into a roof or attic-mounted outdoor antenna. The Flatwave did well in getting the low-VHF station in my area, pulling in a signal of 40 to 45, which is spotchy, but better than the others I tested. Fortunately, this station also broadcasts on UHF 47, which gets an acceptable signal.
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