Hello. I just joined this site. I have had Dish or DIrect for many years, but like others I am researching a way to cut the cable. I have been researching OTA antennas. My problem is locating someone who knows what they are doing to install one! Even Homeadvisor / Angi’s is recommending installers who are > 100 miles away, demonstrating that there aren’t too many people interested in doing this (antenna installation) in my area.
Channel Master and Antenna web have both told me that it appears that receving any kind of decent OTA broadcast in my area would be “challenging”. I live in a deeply wooded area, locals are broadcast from 32 mies away thru mountainous terrain.
Because of this, I was advised to try to find someone who could do an antenna scan / probe and see if it is even possible to receive signals.
I had a rooftop antenna 35 years ago. The reception was frustratingly poor. I realize that digitalization may have improved things drastically over those many years, but still don’t want to spend well over $300 and find out it was a failure.
So - how can I find someone who knows how to check to see if I can receive signals?
It sounds liike you are in a location where an OTA antenna may never provide a satisfactory experience. You may need to accept the expense of satellite TV. IMO I would not spend much money to determine what it sounds like you already know. I had a similar situation in rural MD years ago and the previous owner installed an antenna on a tall tower. I sold it and used a dish.
You can do a quick test - BestBuy has a great return policy. They should stock the Antennas Direct ClearStream 4MAX at the store. If you carefully remove it from the box, and without mounting it, run a cable to a TV and run a channel scan. The “higher the better” when testing this, and make sure it is pointing at the broadcast towers. You may have to reposition the antenna a few times to get results.
Basically, it is either going to work, or it won’t. The mountain terrain is going to be the biggest challenge. If it doesn’t work, carefully repackage the antenna and return it to Best Buy. Alternatively, Amazon sells the antenna as well.
If it does work, it should work better when mounted to the roof top. The “J Pole” that comes with the antenna is easy to attach to the eave of the house (make sure it is solid wood). You will also need to ground the antenna (the mounting for your current dish and grounding for the cabling may work for the antenna).
@nittfan Tyler the Antenna Man offers custom antenna recommendations for $40. He should be able to tell you whether it’s worth trying or not, but as mentioned it sounds like you may be in a particularly difficult location for OTA reception.
Thanks so much for your input so far! The Dish is actually still on my house - mounted high up on the roof. Seems like the actual mounting bracket is pretty sturdy and may be able to be used to attach an OTA antenna. I may try to find one locally and give it a try. Not sure I want to go up on my roof tho…!
Alternatively, by mid-July I qualify as a “new” customer according to Dish, and I would then qualify for the new promotions.