I'm in Southlake and am contemplating an HDTV antenna. Anyone in NE Tarrant, SE Denton or north of LBJ have an OTA setup and if so, what's adequate? As I remember, most of the masts are around Cedar Hill so I guess I am at least 30-40 miles away. Thanks and gig'em.

Ag CPA said:

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I'm in Southlake and am contemplating an HDTV antenna. Anyone in NE Tarrant, SE Denton or north of LBJ have an OTA setup and if so, what's adequate? As I remember, most of the masts are around Cedar Hill so I guess I am at least 30-40 miles away. Thanks and gig'em.

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You will be fine. Even ABC finally increased their signal.

I would be ready to move it to the roof rather than inside attic but you won't need to boost it.

I'm in aledo, west of fort worth (about 50 miles from towers) and I get most of the stations with a directional antenna. Fox and ABC are a bit spotty. NBC and CBS are good. That's with the antenna in my attic. Rooftop would probably solve those issues.

Just remember channel 8 is VHF and not all "HD" antennas will pick it up.

There's a website that tells you in compass settings/degrees which way to point your antenna if you put in the address.

Make sure you buy the grade antenna that works out to 15 or 20 or whatever miles. As you say most antennas are SE toward Cedar Hill. I was going to mount in attic and run cables before getting YouTube TV. I hated Frontier in Southlake. Still have their WiFi though.

MGS said:

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Just remember channel 8 is VHF and not all "HD" antennas will pick it up.

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There is another issue with them in their tower isn't in the same spot. The further north you are the less this matters though

culdeus said:

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MGS said:

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Just remember channel 8 is VHF and not all "HD" antennas will pick it up.

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There is another issue with them in their tower isn't in the same spot.

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Pyongyang?

WFAA Channel 8 is making plans to move to UHF:https://www.rbr.com/tegna-dfw-estrella/

And here is the tower locator website:Tower Locator. I am about 50 miles away and can pick up most channels except WFAA, using an attic antenna and signal booster.

siclaro said:

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WFAA Channel 8 is making plans to move to UHF:https://www.rbr.com/tegna-dfw-estrella/

And here is the tower locator website:Tower Locator. I am about 50 miles away and can pick up most channels except WFAA, using an attic antenna and signal booster.

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I'm in a similar boat. I had to get an oldschool yagi antenna and put it in the attic, and can barely get channel 8. Although some days are better than others.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0024R4B5C

I might be able to get it with a roof mount but for now we just live without it. All the other stations are great.

i'm in southlake have a big ole antenna in the attic. i do have issues getting channel 8 at times. hopefully the move to uhf helps this.

80sGeorge said:

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There's a website that tells you in compass settings/degrees which way to point your antenna if you put in the address.

Make sure you buy the grade antenna that works out to 15 or 20 or whatever miles. As you say most antennas are SE toward Cedar Hill. I was going to mount in attic and run cables before getting YouTube TV. I hated Frontier in Southlake. Still have their WiFi though.

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antennaweb.org I believe

Oh one thing that helped... old school baby.

I checked the broadcast frequency for WFAA, and Channel 8 VHF operating at 180-186 MHz. That gives a wavelength of 63.5 - 65.6 inches. For this kind of dipole antenna you want half-wavelength, so an element on the antenna between 31.7 and 32.8 inches.



edit: if it's not clear, my last reflector was a little smaller than 31 inches... so I put some aluminum foil on it. Like I said, old school.

My Mom lives in Keller, and I put up two Ablegrid Indoor antennas. One for each of her HDTVs. She gets all of the channels with no issues.

They are currently $17.24 on Amazon Prime.

proc said:

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My Mom lives in Keller, and I put up two Ablegrid Indoor antennas. One for each of her HDTVs. She gets all of the channels with no issues.

They are currently $17.24 on Amazon Prime.

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Yeah I tried that first, no dice. That's great for her though. Does she live on a hill or something?

No, it seems pretty flat over there, she's near Central High. Sorry it didn't work for you. Hers was so easy I thought they would work most anywhere.

proc said:

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No, it seems pretty flat over there, she's near Central High. Sorry it didn't work for you. Hers was so easy I thought they would work most anywhere.

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Yeah it's a squirrelly deal. I think there's a hill in the way or something for my line of sight to the tower.

80sGeorge said:

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There's a website that tells you in compass settings/degrees which way to point your antenna if you put in the address.

Make sure you buy the grade antenna that works out to 15 or 20 or whatever miles. As you say most antennas are SE toward Cedar Hill. I was going to mount in attic and run cables before getting YouTube TV. I hated Frontier in Southlake. Still have their WiFi though.

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How reliable is Frontier wifi these days? We switched from Fios to Charter after the Verizon sale because of the downtime issues; Spectrum's internet service is pretty solid these days but I could probably save $30-40 a month for a couple of years if I went back.

No complaints

zero issues with frontier in southlake

To update, got the RCA yagi mentioned above on Amazon for around $40 and put it up in the attic pointed towards Cedar Hill, get all of the local channels clearly, including WFAA, without an amp.

Biggest hassle was figuring out the cables tied into the existing amp/splitter, want to keep Spectrum internet so I couldn't just pull out the Spectrum feed and plug in the antenna.

Ag CPA said:

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To update, got the RCA yagi mentioned above on Amazon for around $40 and put it up in the attic pointed towards Cedar Hill, get all of the local channels clearly, including WFAA, without an amp.

Biggest hassle was figuring out the cables tied into the existing amp/splitter, want to keep Spectrum internet so I couldn't just pull out the Spectrum feed and plug in the antenna.

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Very nice! I spent an hour or two running between my attic, my back closet where the On-Q box is, and my TV to find which ports and splitters went where.

I'd recommend writing everything down while it's fresh in case you gotta move things later!