Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The indoor/outdoor (“60 mile”) version is a darn good antenna… significantly better than the square/flat ones you hang in a window. First, when dealing with any antenna, there’s 3 golden rules: 1. Line of sight is key. 2. Connections and wire (coax cable) can make—or ruin—a good signal. 3. Re-read #1 and #2 again. Use any of the free resources online, like antennaweb.org or dtv.gov (and click on consumer resources, then reception maps) will let you know if you’re a good candidate for over-the-air (OTA) reception, and the quality of antenna you’ll need. In my case, I live in San Diego on a pretty prominent hill with little obstructions – no trees, tall buildings or anything else nearby that would impede line of sight (remember #1 above) towards the transmission towers. I have two sets of towers about 15 miles north-west and south-east from me, and another set of towers about 19 miles due south (in Mexico.. TeleMundo, oh yeah!). When I got this antenna, I tested it by resting it on the front porch steps and got a full 30+ digital channels. On the porch. Fast forward a few hours and after building a simple base out sections of 2x4s and weighting them down with a cinderblock on the roof (didn’t want to deal with risks of leaks by drilling into the roofing), the thing is rock solid up there and gets me 43 digital channels. Placement is everything and although the antenna isn’t overly sensitive to direction, having it going cross-wise perpendicular to where the 2 main cluster of TV towers are got the best results. Side note: I hooked up the included “amplifier” and the number of stations dropped to 33. YMMV. I say, try running the channel scan without it, then with it, and go with whatever works for you. On the second point, clean, quality cable runs of limited distance and minimal “connections” are your friend. Don’t piece sections of cable together with splitters. Avoid connections wherever possible. It’s best to spend $12 for a good quality 25-foot cable, than to use splitters to join 2 or 3 sections of cable. And use a good quality cable, splitters (only as necessary), and you should get a good result with this antenna.