Cutting the cord

[phil69]

I'm getting rid of comcast TV so I'm looking for a good indoor antenna . I live between Chicago and Milwaukee, about 45 miles north of Chicago. Has anyone had good luck  with the new types of indoor antennas? I  can't put anything on the roof.

Thank You, Phil69

[RHKCommander959]

The flat ones won't likely work for what you want. There are attic/outdoor models that can reach that far when paired with a signal amplifier/booster. Our local ardware stores have the same options as Amazon, they all look about the same too so just get one with good reviews.

[Guest_Jim_*]

My brother has to use one of those flat, indoor antennas and aside from his place being on the wrong side of the building it works well enough for him. In his situation nothing can help short of moving or getting the complex to install the roof antenna again. I talked to my dad because this is the kind of thing he knows well (broadcast engineer and general interest in related technologies) and he also mentioned the possibility of an attic antenna, if you have access to that. An indoor antenna can work too, but having an amp might be a good idea, depending. Generally the larger the better. We see adds for an antenna around here that has two extendable rods meant to resemble rabbit ears and that would not be desirable.

He also suggested possibly looking at this: rabbitears.info. You can find out what stations cover your area, as well as the direction to their transmitters. He did point out though that if you are looking just at the compact indoor antennas, those are limited to UHF channels. The highest VHF channel (needing antenna feet wide as opposed to inches) is 13, so anything on that physical channel or lower, will not be detected. On that site it appears the physical channels, if not expressly labelled as such, are in parentheses. The color coding of the rows also indicates this, with red being very low VHF and yellow very high. Blue and white are UHF and what a small antenna would have the potential to pick up.

I hope you get this set up and enjoy. We've been off of cable for years now and are quite happy with the channels we get in the Cleveland area. If you enjoy some classic television, we can recommend MeTV, which is actually based in Chicago.

[phil69]

Thanks for the great replies. I did a little more research and found out that most of Chicago's stations broadcast from antennas on top of what was once called the Sears tower which puts them at around 1600  ft. I ordered Antennas Direct ClearStream 2V TV Antenna, 60+ Mile Range  from Amazon and I'm going to try it indoors first and if it doesn't work next will be in the attic then if it doesn't work back to Amazon.

[phil69]

I just got my antenna and it's sitting next to my TV. I picked up 47 channels crystal clear. At the end of the month good by Xfinity

[ir_cow]

WOW 47 Channels? Last I attempted this in 2008, all I got was 3. FOX, PBS and some Christian channel.

Edit: I just looked it up on RabbitEars. Looks like the only off-air channel is CBS now lol

[Guest_Jim_*]

It looks like RabbitEars does not list the sub-channels with the map search, those on a different stream but transmitted in the same frequency channel. Of course you still need to pick up the main channel to get any of those, so that is pretty disappointing that you may only get the one Isaiah.

[phil69]

I finally edited my channel list and it's down to 31 which is the same number as I paid Xfinity for. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.

I actually paid Xfinity for 140 channels but only a max of 31 were worth watching.

Edited January 20, 2021 by phil69

[Arutb]

Finally I added new flashlight to multiple purpose,

But I know that its only work for the fixing CPU and wiring !

Flashlight is the smallest and brightest so I can add in EDC, It just an smallest equipment to available any time and any situation!