Finding The Right TV Antenna
July 24th, 2009. Published under Technology. No Comments.
Finding the right TV antenna can unfortunately be a little like clothes shopping. You have to try out several articles of clothing before you find the must-have piece that you want to add to your wardrobe. You rarely ever get lucky with everything that you pick off the shelf. Rarely does anyone pick out 10 items off a rack and leave the store with those same exact 10 items. It simply doesn’t work that way.
Antennas are no different. Except in the antenna’s case, you can’t really try them out as quickly as you would with clothing. You buy the antenna, you hook it up, configure it to your TV, and you see if it works. If it does, then great. But if it does not, then you have to return or exchange the item. Unfortunately, this process of returning, exchanging, and configuring can be very time-consuming, and most everyone these days is busy with priorities and would rather be investing that time in other things.
So how do you pick out the right antenna for your television? You’ve gotta do a little research, but you also have to keep in mind to keep room for error. Sometimes, regardless of how much research or product review comparisons you read through, you will find an antenna that does not work for you. Just take it as a loss and move on to the next one until you do find the right one.
There is one single most important factor to aid you in your decision, and that is your location. Your location has everything to do with your antenna purchase because it tells you how far your property is to transmission towers and what type of antenna you need. There is a simple formula to this: if the property is between 0 and 40 miles from the towers whose channels you want, you can choose between indoor or outdoor; if the property is 40 miles or greater, then definitely do outdoor.
A visit to Antenna Web will list all of the nearby transmission towers. If the property is located in a major city or in one of its many suburbs, then an indoor antenna will more than likely do the job for you. Since most major cities emit all local channels from a single tower, a uni-directional, meaning one direction, will pick up the signal the best from that single tower. If you find, however, that the channels that you want to obtain are from transmission towers that are scattered and not from one central location, you will need to look into a multi-directional antenna, which has the ability to pick up signals from all around it.
If you have tried and failed numerous times, then consider a professional installation company or seek advice from a knowledgeable antenna technician.
Visit Aydan Corkern’s sites:
http://www.indoorhdantenna.com/categories/Antennas/
http://www.indoorhdantenna.com/categories/Antennas/Cellular-antennas/Cell-Phone-Signal-Boosters/