Directv

[Reggie]

I'm thinking about canceling Directv. I've been doing research on OTA antennas. There are so many out there, my head is swimming. If someone who uses or has used in the past I would like to hear some feed back. The range I'm looking for is 60 Miles.

Thank You for any advice.

Reggie

[bare65]

@Reggie

I'll ask my son what the brand of OTA is that he uses. His is the indoor type..it's small, square/flat, and mounts flush to the wall. He has it on the wall behind his tv, so you don't even see it.

He originally bought it and used it in Lemoore, CA...but has since moved and now uses it in AZ.

I'm not sure what the range is for his, but I do know it works great. He gets approx. 16 channels..but he also only lives approx. 30 minutes outside of the Phoenix, AZ area. He just didn't want to be paying for cable TV or the likes..so he went to a swap meet and found the OTA for around $40.

It's funny as I had just mentioned OTA's in another conversation a few minutes ago.

I wish we could find one that would work out here..but we are some 100+ miles from anything, in any direction, and so far I haven't encountered anyone out this way having much luck with any kind of antenna...we barely get any radio stations out here.

[bare65]

Just talked to my son and while I doubt the range would be sufficiant for what you need, as his has only a 40 mile range, the brand is 1byone HDTV Antenna.

[Reggie]

Thank You, maybe they have one with  60 mile range.

[kitnbob]

---

@bare65 wrote:

..but we are some 100+ miles from anything, in any direction..

...we barely get any radio stations out here.

---

@bare65
Sounds remote. What? Do you order your groceries from amazon? and delivered by Fedex?

[bare65]

@kitnbob

LMAO....does my recent samsclub.com order for laundry soap, dish soap, and carpet shampoo count as groceries?

Our FedEx driver travels some 3 hrs (one way) from the FedEx hub to our house to deliver our packages...if I have several packages all coming in on different days, I will call him up and simply have him hold them until they all arrive at the hub, this way he's not having to drive up here multiple times in any given week.

[kitnbob]

@bare65

That's Rich!!! Haa haa.... keeping your driver on speed dial.

Maybe we aught to get busi on that molecular transporter.  beam me up scottie

[bare65]

of course, 'calling' up anyone, including the FedEx guy can pose it's own challenges, haha

right now, I have my cell phone (Verizon wireless) literally velcroed to the back of my headboard in the back bedroom as this is the only place...in the surround 20 miles radius of desert terrain, that I can pick up 1 bar...If the phone moves even in the slightest..so does the signal.

(thus the reason for the heavy duty velcro)

I pop in my bluetooth ear piece and can walk around the house carrying on a conversation for as long as I have that 1 bar on the phone...

It works 60% of the time...

When the weather is really crappy outside...and I need to make a call, I have to jump in our car and drive 20 miles up to the top of the hill to do so. Needless to say, we keep plenty of gas on hand...(closest gas station is 45 miles away, lol)

[kitnbob]

@bare65

Have you tried HughesVoice?  It's only $29.95 for the first 2 years. (then what?)

[Reggie]

Thank You, everyone for the great advice. Now it is time I go back doing more research.

[GabeU]

My DirecTV bill is more than twice my HughesNet bill.  It's awful.  😞 

[BirdDog]

I get 24 chanels OTA and 80 miles from towers although elevated in mountains. Have one of these antennas with an amplifier at the antenna then a distribution amp. Granted towers are in one location. Others may need a rotator.

[kitnbob]

@Reggie

My neighbor likes this one for the price

Lava HD2605 | 

Model # HD2605 ULTRA 4K 1080P

LAVA HD2605 Ultra 4K Motorized Outdoor HDTV UHF/VHF

Antenna

LAVA HD2605 Ultra 4K Motorized Outdoor HDTV UHF/VHF
An

[MarkJFine]

Be real careful of the terrain you're going to use it in.

I'm in the foothills of the Piedmont, where even a 10' antenna mast mounted on the roof doesn't clear the top of the hill that's in the way. I'm roughly 50-60 miles from DC TV market, but with the terrain I might as well be 100 miles away.

As a result I only get 3 reliable stations over the air: 2 of them were in the old VHF range (7 and 9), and one in the low UHF (30, and part of that station is actually only ~10 mi away).

As you may know, the old analog channel numbers aren't necessarily similar in freuqency when it comes to the new digital stations are on. For example, what used to be Channel 4 (VHF low) here is now broadcasting on a frequency equivalent to what was Channel 48 (UHF).

[kitnbob]

@MarkJFine

(grin) I know all about hills and no line of site. 

Cell coverage drops out at my neighbors' mailbox.

I am 10 mi N of Winchester, in the foothills of  Capon Bridge WV.

Thats Why everything is dish sourced here, Even HughesVoice. 

DirecTV wont stream very well on my HT2000 either.

I'm kinda screwed when we get 2+' of snow. I dont even have a land line anymore.

You guys are GREAT  helping me keep HughesNet working. (grin)

My neighbor is on the top of my hill and gets 42 channels with her digital antennae 

[MarkJFine]

@kitnbob

Yeah, so you know the stations and the situation I'm talking about.

I also get two bars of LTE if I'm in my upstairs office/gym/... (if it's dry out, and the trees are bare), but zip anywhere else in the house.

[MarkJFine]

And then I got my DirecTV bill.

The one that just went up 4% this month...

[Reggie]

---

@MarkJFine wrote:

And then I got my DirecTV bill.

The one that just went up 4% this month...

---

This is the reason for my interest in OTA. My Directv bill is $ 40 a month more than my HN bill. Both are one of lowest plans they offer.

[MarkJFine]

@Reggie- You won't want to trade bills with me then. DTV costs are crazy enough, and between the way the networks 'negotiate' now and the way the F C C looks the other way... Imagine a major network like ABC or CBS being discontinued on your TV provider because of a contract negotiation. Nuts.

Incidentally, found this to be a pretty good resource for planning OTA: http://www.tvfool.com/

When it gets warmer was going to fetch the extension ladder and see if I couldn't manually rotate in some stations (aka TV DX like a proper caveman). Probably needed to tweak the thing when we had the roof replaced anyway.

Even thought of using a way to have my laptop local-skype a picture of the tuning meter of the TV up to my phone while I'm on the roof so I could see what was going on real time.

[kitnbob]

@MarkJFine

@Reggie

---

MarkJFine wrote: 

When it gets warmer was going to fetch the extension ladder and see if I couldn't manually rotate in some stations 

---

The Lava Antenna HD2605 that I recommended has a remote control to rotate the antenna. (like we ALL NEED another remote layin around the room)

advertised range of 100 miles. 

[kitnbob]

@MarkJFine

I need a 20' cell antenna on top of my house

and booster inside to get 2 bars

if im putting a cell tower on the side of my house, I may as well put a $65 HDTV antenna up there with it.  🙂