Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We live in a rural area - northwestern Massachusetts, hemmed in by the Taconic Mountain Range to our immediate west and by Mt. Greylock to our south. The Green Mountains rise to the north of us and the Florida-Windsor mountain range rises to the east. We've been told that no one ever got much in the way of antenna-driven tv receptivity here. We used TV fool to see what that site thought about receptivity here and it wasn't encouraging. Our best shot looked to be out to the Albany, NY area - 42 miles away and over on the other side of the Taconics. TV fool suggested aiming an antenna's boom at 277° and, basically, praying. Other signal-strength-estimating sites were even more discouraging. But you know, this antenna was only $33 or so and we thought we'd give it a try. I mean, our satellite tv service expense continued to inch upward in cost and the selection wasn't getting any better. I was underwhelmed while unboxing the antenna. VERY lightweight construction - much plastic with a thin metal overlay on the flip-up plastic parabolic reflectors. Stout plastic, though. Assembly was straightforward. Use ten small screws to attach the five vibrating elements to the boom, attach the boom to the body with one screw. Flip out one parabolic reflector and then use four screws to attach the plastic-housed electric rotor to the plastic mast mount and then attach the rotor/mount to the body with four more screws. Five minutes. Got some v-mounts for up near the eaves and a four-foot wooden dowel to use as a mast. Mounted the antenna to the mast and then scabbed out the satellite tv coax to use for the antenna. (The satellite company won't want the cable back and the satellite antenna's location was conveniently right next to where I was mounting this antenna.) Used a compass to aim the boom at 277°. Cleaned up and went back into the house. Made a cup of coffee. Ruminated about: The narrative history of poor-to-nil receptivity here; The surrounding mountain ranges and lack of direct sight line to Albany; TV fool's estimate of poor receptivity here; The cheesy, lightweight plastic-y construction of this unit. Oh. Well. Re-connected the basement coax through to the ground floor telly, plugged in the preamp and attached the antenna and tv coax, then turned on the telly. NOTHING! Thought. Thought again. Oh, NO! I had the tv looking at "cable" channels. I don't HAVE cable. Looking fast at the tv owner's manual (a Samsung flat screen, fully hdtv-ready) I found the section on "Air" as a source. Air? Huh. Whatever. So. tv-menued over to "Air" and did a scan. 3-5 minutes later the scan was complete and I was looking at a menu of 15+ CHANNELS! O.K., so not all of them came in 100% with the antenna pointed out to 277°. But WOW. Several stations are coming in crystal-clear and others are acceptable with some rotation of the antenna. Watching hockey right now! I. Am. SOOO. Happy! Goodbye satellite company. With some DSL for internet and an internet box for streaming, if I want to watch something it's available. Downsides: Well, this antenna will underwhelm you with its lightweight construction. (Although, antenna-mast-weight-load wise that may be a good thing.) Aiming is not as precise as I'd like (a bit of slop in the aiming motor). One cannot see where the antenna's "pointing" while in the house - there's no indication on the pre-amp/rotor-sending unit. And one final downside: Makes me think about what might happen with a nice Yagi, a preamp and a good antenna mast rotator with an indoor degree-of-compass indicator. If you've been looking at outdoor antennae for hdtv, thinking about cutting the cable or sinking the satellite, go ahead and buy this nifty, lightweight, powerful little unit. It's pretty cheap. It works. It's very unlikely that you'll be disappointed. 'Nuf said.