Ensure optimal antenna reception by locating broadcast towers, elevating the antenna to 30 feet, and regularly scanning for channels to capture new signals.
Table of Contents
Find Broadcast Towers
For ensuring your antenna is directed in the correct orientation and position, it is critical to determine where the nearest broadcast towers are located. The websites like AntennaWeb or TVFool offer a range of tools allowing one to enter their address and get a comprehensive list of broadcast towers in your vicinity. Additionally, you will usually receive some kind of map labeled with the distance and direction to any tower from your place, which is an essential piece of information in regards to pointing your antenna.
For instance, if you live in the suburban area of New Jersey and use AntennaWeb, you are likely to find out that the nearest broadcast tower is located approximately 15 miles east of your home. Therefore, you will clearly know that you need to adjust your antenna to the east for the best signal reception. A user in rural Montana may find that the closest tower is roughly 40 miles away. This will mean that he has to either get a more powerful antenna set or use a signal amplifier.
It is also important to note that minimal adjustments may bring a range of improvements. For instance, if you need to turn your antenna by as many as 5 degrees, you may find that this improves overall reception. You will also notice that various channels may appear, and more may have become accessible to you. This is a trial and error and test and re-test process, that is why you should conduct a new channel scan after every adjustment of your antenna. The websites and tools can also help you realize whether you require an outdoor or indoor antenna; the stronger signals imply that you may purchase a small indoor antenna for all local channels. Meanwhile, signals farther from one usually necessitate a standard roof-mount outdoor antenna.
Position the Antenna
Positioning your antenna properly is one of the most efficient methods to ensure the best reception. Primarily, you should consider its direction, height, and obstacles avoidance. First, using such tools and applications as TVFool or AntennaWeb, you can identify where the broadcast towers are located. If, for example, you are living in Chicago, which is a large urban area, local broadcast towers may be located primarily to the north of your house. In this case, it will be reasonable to point your antenna north.
Thus, you will target the source of the signal directly, which will ensure the best reception available for your location. Second, raising your antenna will also contribute to improving the quality of the received signal. The increase in the device’s height will mitigate the path loss of the signal, increasing its clarity and stability. Roughly, raising your outdoor antenna from 15 to 25 feet above the ground instead of placing it in your attic or at the lower level will help to avoid several obstacles and may result in a 10-15% increase in signal strength.
This improvement will allow you to enjoy clearer pictures and receive more channels without interruptions. Finally, you should also avoid any obstacles, including buildings, trees, and hills, in order to ensure that your antenna can capture a strong signal. If it is positioned on the roof, most of the above-mentioned interferences can be directly bypassed, giving a direct line of sight to the broadcast tower.
Avoid Obstructions
Reducing obstructions between your antenna and the broadcast towers is the simplest way to improve reception. Buildings, trees, and hills can all block or degrade a signal, leading to pixelation or signal dropout. Here are some strategies to increase reception.
Urban Environments
Buildings are the biggest obstruction in an urban setting. Downtown New York City residents can reduce the signal blockage that the surrounding high-rises cause by using their antennae out their window, facing them out and towards the nearest broadcast towers. If the towers are directly south of your apartment, using a south-facing window would get the indoor antenna out of the obstructions’ line-of-sight.
Natural Obstructions
In rural or suburban settings, natural obstructions block and hinder signal strength. Raising the antenna would be the best way to address this issue. A height adjustment from 20 feet to 35ft about an initial post increases your line of sight over smaller obstructions, which amounts to a 20% increase in reception. Adjusting the height is especially relevant during foliage seasons.
Repositioning
Additional housing or tree growth during and around your residence may mean having to adjust constantly. If a new construction obstructs your view to the broadcast tower, move the antenna to another side of the house, and if need be, get it out with a longer pole or the rooftop.
Experiment with Positioning
The positioning of your antenna can have a substantial impact on reception, and use of different locations from within your home or property can have differing effects on reception based on distance and obstruction. Using Indoor Antennas: If your best reception device currently involves the use of an indoor antenna, then position change is relatively straightforward. Most indoor antennas will provide better reception when positioned closer to or farther from a window. Certain locations of your indoor antenna that may yield improved reception include moving the antenna from a north-facing window to an east-facing one.
This could potentially pick up more channels or vastly improve the reception of channels that might have previously been unstable. People living in environments where some towers are in multiple directions from their location might find this especially true. Using an Outdoor Antenna: If your device of best reception uses an outdoor antenna, use of varying height and direction might be a huge benefit.
An additional 15 feet on height can boost your signal by 15-20%, depending on the local terrain, whether or not your home has obstructions such as trees or other houses, and the distance of the home to the proper transmission tower. Tilt angle can also play a huge role and a slight upward or downward tilt can yield significant improvements, too. Use of Arrangement: One tip is to track your changes in reception. You can do this by recording which position served as the best overall position following each channel scan. This way, you can position your antenna in the most optimal place without having to redo old positions that did not work for reception.
Check and Secure Connections
To ensure the best possible reception, it is imperative that all the connections between the antenna and the television are secure. Loose or corroded connections can seriously worsen the quality of a signal. They are probably the most low-maintenance of all TV signals but still require upkeep:
Inspect: the very first line of defense against bad connection quality is a regular check of the integrity of the device’s cables. For instance, if the signal is unstable, a quick peek behind the TV may reveal that a coaxial cable connection is not properly tightened; if this is the case, simply tightening the bolt may immediately increase the duration and quality of the signal. This is especially true after particular weather conditions – the wind and the rain may have weakened a connection that was secure previously. Moreover, cables get old and can get damaged or corroded; in this case, one should not wait for it to break completely, as even slight fraying or bending can damage the signal, as well as exposure to water.
Replacing a whole 10-foot-long coaxial cable can significantly improve the strength of the signal and reduce the signal transmission losses. However, the quality of the cable matters, too; an RG6 coaxial cable is much thicker and shields the signal much better than the older RG59, resulting in a substantial improvement in the strength and the quality of the message. Finally, it is essential to secure them tightly – for example, an outdoor connection can be sealed with weatherproofing tape to prevent moisture getting in that commonly causes problems with the signal. Grounding the outdoor antenna properly will ensure safety during the lightning storm and reduce interference.
Scan for Channels
Channel scan is the primary step you take in order to see what broadcasts are available after installing or adjusting the position of your antenna. A channel scan is the automatic walk through all the frequencies that your TV is capable of receiving, which allows your television to make the whole list of channels you can watch on your set. Once you’ve installed your antenna, consider pointing it in the Western direction to catch the maximum number of available broadcasts. As you are moving it to the South and start getting fewer channels on the divide, you can carry out a comprehensive list of channels your new antenna wire is now capable of receiving by running the channel scan.
How to run a channel scan: the Instructions that come with your TV set or the device will generally include these steps as well. Go to ‘Setup’ menu which should have an option called ‘Scan for channels’, or ‘Channel search’. After hitting it, you TV will start scanning all channels that the given antenna can catch. If you have mounted your antenna on the South side of your house instead of the Western one, pulling out a new channel scan will allow you to see what new channels you haven’t had before you can now watch or listen to, as well as see the ones there are, but with better quality.
When to run a channel scan: in order to see what broadcasts are available, you will need to run a new scan after pointing it in a different direction or after making sure the connections have been made. For instance, different directions on an antenna can pick up different signals or strengthen the quality of the signal. Also, making your antenna a couple of meters higher might allow it to get better reception and bypass the obstructions that were causing failure to receive the signal from that particular frequency, which might give a couple of extra channels in new scan you couldn’t get before.
You will never know unless you take an attempt. There could be some new channel the stations broadcast but have not found before. Finally, the signals of the broadcast stations for TV they can be always changing, they invent new technology and improve the old one. Running a scan a couple of times a year will let you know what there is in terms of how many broadcasts and how good picture is.
Use an Amplifier (if necessary)
If you live far from broadcast towers or your signal needs to pass many obstacles before reaching your TV, an amplifier could become a beneficial addition to your antenna setup. Amplifiers work by increasing the signal strength, which allows maintaining quality over long distances and potential interferences. However, some factors should be considered to understand whether your setup needs an amplifier and what kind to buy, as well as to ensure that this addition serves its purpose effectively.
Assessing the Need for an Amplifier
The first consideration when looking to add an amplifier is the need for one. You can estimate whether your setup could benefit from one by evaluating the distance from the nearest broadcast station or the local terrain. For example, if you live in an unconditional rural area and are 40 miles away from the nearest broadcast tower, your setup could likely use an amplifier to increase the signal strength and improve the picture quality of your TV, as well as the number of channels you receive. However, if you are only ten miles from the towers and still notice poor picture quality and reduced reception, other factors like abundant interference or issues with the antenna or cables are at play, and an amplifier is not likely to help solve the problem.
Types of Amplifiers
Two major types of amplifiers are used in antenna setups – pre-amplifiers and distribution amplifiers. Pre-amplifiers, as the name suggests, are installed very close to the antenna and boost the signal as it flows through the cable to your TV. This type is particularly useful for longer cable runs by reducing the signal loss that occurs over distance. For instance, a pre-amplifier could increase the signal strength by 10-20 dB, or decrease the normal signal loss over a 50-foot cable to about 50%. On the other hand, distribution amplifiers work to maintain the signal strength when it is distributed to multiple TVs. If your antenna feeds three TVs in the different corners of the house, the distribution amplifier ensures that the picture on each device is bright and clear, solving the usual issue with signal splitters.
Installation and Further Thoughts
When installing an amplifier, make sure to follow the manufacturer’s recommendations closely to avoid over-amplification, which could decrease the picture quality of your TV. A good pre-amplifier will cost $50 to $100, which is not cheap; however, considering that it significantly improves the quality of reception in areas with weak signals, it could be a reasonable investment. If you are experiencing problems with weak reception in your area, consider whether they happen frequently and whether they are worth improving, relative to the cost of your setup.
