Best outside OTA antenna for Boston Ma.
March 16, 2016 11:59 AM   Subscribe

Looking to become a "cord cutter" and drop satellite TV from my monthly bills. I live in Boston and am looking for the best outdoor OTA I can mount on my house.
posted by BillyAnne to Technology (7 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Unless you are dealing with crazy interference from tall buildings, I wouldn't bother spending too much money. I just did the same thing, and I picked up a $5 indoor antenna from Amazon and picked up great reception of every station that broadcasts in my general area, including ones that are supposedly too far for this antenna to pick up, despite the fact that I live in a relatively distant suburb from where most of the broadcasts originate.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:06 PM on March 16, 2016


I live in Cambridge and got this RCA model from Best Buy. It works great.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 12:09 PM on March 16, 2016


Yes, definitely try a cheaper indoor antenna first. My boyfriend lives in Needham, and he just uses a piece of wire and pulls in about 30 channels.
posted by JanetLand at 12:15 PM on March 16, 2016


Best answer: I have a cheapo from Amazon (less than $30) and it gets all the local channels, though occasionally there is interference. You might want to try one of those first.

You also might want to consider Tivo's $15/mo. OTA DVR service, which allows you to extract a lot more viewing from being OTA, unless you're really just planning on streaming everything and the antenna is just a random inexpensive backup.
posted by praemunire at 12:19 PM on March 16, 2016


Best answer: Have you been to AntennaWeb and TV Fool yet? Plug in your address to one (or both) of them and you'll get a good idea of the type of antenna that will work well and possibly how you want to position it. If you're in a very strong signal area you might do very well with the ClearStream2, which I have in the past seen at Best Buy. If you need something stronger (and consequently more directional) you could go for the ClearStream4. Also note that neither of these is going to be great at VHF reception, but from a quick glance at TVFool's list for Boston it doesn't look like that would really be a problem.
posted by fedward at 1:33 PM on March 16, 2016


Response by poster: Thanks for all the information! I did try a Mohu small indoor antenna but some of the stations faded in and out every few minutes. I definitely need a DVR to record shows. More research necessary.
posted by BillyAnne at 5:26 AM on March 17, 2016


I'm sure you've heard about NBC moving off channel 7 next year. You'll want to check your reception on channel 60, which doesn't have a good signal over most of metro Boston.
posted by Gridlock Joe at 3:49 PM on March 17, 2016


« Older Contemplating doing an M.A. Communication &...   |   What are some interesting plants I can grow in my... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.