Submitted by jujyfruit74 t3_106lctx in ColumbiaMD
Does anyone in Columbia have success getting free to air TV through an antenna setup from the Baltimore or DC market? What equipment are you using and do you have any advice on how to get it working (direction, roof vs indoor etc.)?
Generally the higher up you can get your antenna the better the results will be
I had mine mounted in my attic and got maybe 40-50 channels in total when counting digital sub-channels
Unfortunately I had to scrap it when I had solar panels installed, as the transformer from the panels introduced so much noise that it would essentially completely cut the signal during the day
Oh no. We are enjoying free TV and have solar panels coming this spring. This will make me so sad.
I got a $25 one from Amazon a couple of years ago and just stuck it in my window. Between the DC and Bmore channels I get fox/abc/nbc/CBS and PBS plus a bunch of weird channels like 23.6 or 5.2
https://store.antennasdirect.com/clearstream-max-v-hdtv-antenna.html; this picks up every Baltimore and pretty much every DC channel from my attic. Use the ‘Antenna Point’ app to aim it properly. I have it connected through a few feet of quad shield cable to a HDHomeRun tuner so all my streaming boxes can access the feed.
I have a pretty old medium distance all direction rca antenna mounted about 12 ft in the air on a wall above my roof. It’s flat and about the size of a piece of paper.
According to antenna web I’m about 15 miles from Baltimore signals and 25 from DC.
I get channels 4,5,11, 20, and 50 pretty well I get channels 2, 13, 24,45,54,67 really well.
I don’t get 7 or 9 at all.
I think with a better antenna I’d get them all well.
I bought one of the indoor HD Antennas off Amazon that claim to get you 60 miles of signal, was very hit or miss for both Baltimore & DC channels. There's about half a dozen being sold under different names.
What I ended up buying on was a separate signal booster (most of the antenna packages come with a weaker booster) and it made a world of difference. No issues since. I will recommend that also hanging the antenna on an exterior wall (hid ours behind a bookshelf) seems to help.
Yeah. I found out by accident that our internal antenna which sucks inside actually works pretty well outside even with imprecise aiming.
Ours is still inside, the signal booster made a world of difference. Was about $30 on Amazon.
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We have this one: https://store.antennasdirect.com/ClearStream-4MAX-Outdoor-TV-Antenna.html
We tried inside antennas, but were very disappointed. I friend convinced me not to give up and mount one on the roof. We did and it did not disappoint. We get all the networks from DC and Baltimore. It’s pointed toward DC, because I read you want to point toward the furthest you want to receive. But same friend told me that’s not true. The only issue we have is on windy nights, when we get some stuttering.
Our house is one story. We have one large tree nearby (in front of it), but fairly clear after that.
I've had okay results. My solution - I realized there was a 70s era "roof" antenna in my garage's attic already mounted. It can be powered... but I don't trust plugging it in, so it's unpowered right now. The coax cable (cox installed it - but I use Verizon for internet) ran right by it... so I just pulled the cable up, and screwed it directly into antenna and it ran directly down to my living room. I went through the TV's auto-scan settings and it picked up a whole bunch of stations. If you actually watch it (I rarely do) look for tv-guide related apps that tell you what stations/what's on.
You can install these roof mounted antennas in your upper attic too, it's just a matter of figuring out how to run the wire to your TV. The best approach is following your old cable you aren't using anymore and literally cut the cable (compression tools are less than $20, and many even come with the ends,. Antennas run less than $40).
Check out the Antenna Man YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/c/AntennaMan?app=desktop
He has videos with both indoor and outdoor TV antenna reviews and recommendations.
Also check out the FCC DTV Reception Map website that shows which OTA TV channels can be received with strong signals in an area. Here is the info for Columbia/21045 zip code:
I don't personally use it, but I see quite a few people at my apartment use the outdoor square looking antennas, so it must be decent.
m0n3yman t1_j3heqdv wrote
Channel Master products work great. Here is their map for you to see what is actually available over the air.
https://www.channelmaster.com/pages/tv-antenna-map