Save Cable TV Costs With Indoor TV Antenna
So I finally ‘cut the cord’ by cancelling my cable TV service. When I reviewed my TV viewing habits, I realized that I watch TV channels mainly only for local news, weather reports and some sports like NHL hockey games. I can watch these for free without paying for expensive cable TV service. Like many people out there, I have moved towards watching shows that I like and movies online.
After researching my options, I decided to buy an indoor TV antenna made by 1ByOne available on Amazon for about $21 US or $28 Canadian. This is a 50 mile range model with an amplifier as shown on the photo. I shot a quick video to show how I set it up.
Results Of Indoor TV Antenna Placement
As recommended, I placed it to my living room window which is on the second floor of my townhouse facing south. I found that reception was best here. At first, I placed the antenna beside my TV which is in the middle of the second floor and the auto tune indicated only one single channel. Then I tried it on the wall closer to the back of the house and got about 5 or 6 channels. When I finally tested the window location, I got 14 channels.
As expected, I got all the Toronto channels which are broadcast from the CN Tower about 32 kilometres or 20 miles away. I don’t have a direct sightline to the CN Tower as it’s southeast of my house and my back window faces south and towards another row of townhouses.
To my surprise, I also got a few American channels from Buffalo which is about 130 kilometres or 80 miles away also southeast, beyond the 50 mile range of the antenna. Now these US channels seem to be very weather dependent. In good clear weather days, these US channels come in crystal clear like the Canadian ones. But when it’s not so clear outside, I don’t see the Buffalo channels at all even though the auto tune still indicate that the antenna is picking them up. That’s not a huge problem for me as these American channels are just a bonus for me as I still watch the Canadian channels much more.
Here’s the actual list of TV channels I get when the weather is clear and my location is in Mississauga with the CN Tower broadcasting the Toronto channels 20 miles southeast of here and Buffalo 80 miles in the same approximate direction;
WIVB (CBS)
LAFF
CBLT (CBC)
CFTO (CTV)
CHCH
TVO
WNCO (CW)
Bounce
CBLFT (CBC French)
CITS (Yes)
CJMT (OMNI)
CIII (Global)
CFMT (OMNI)
CITY
This 1ByOne indoor antenna is connected with its own 20 foot coaxial cable which I connected to another existing 20 foot coaxial cable that runs along the living room wall to my TV. This was the same cable that my cable TV service was connected to. So the total distance from the antenna to my TV is about 40 feet with the amplifier in the middle rather than right near the TV but these have not proven to be issues at all. The picture and sound are still great quality.
The picture looks even better than when cable TV was previously connected and it seems to fill in more of the screen as the people on the news broadcasts actually look bigger than before.
Other Cut The Cord Options
Before deciding on this 1ByOne indoor TV antenna, I did consider other options including an outdoor antenna installed both outside as well as up in my attic. These two options would likely have gotten me even more channels but they are both more expensive and would require extensive wiring which I did not want to bother with.
I could have saved about $10 to buy a non-amplified indoor TV antenna model that has about a 20 mile range which still would have worked for the Toronto TV channels but definitely not the US ones. I decided at spending another $10 for a longer 50 mile range one with an amplifier would get me better results.
So now that I cut the cord, I pretty well have all my TV programs still available either via the local channels received by the indoor TV antenna or online without paying for cable TV service anymore. Depending on your location, you could probably do the same as well.
If an indoor TV antenna like the 1ByOne model I bought is the one you would like to try out, check it out at Amazon which is where I bought mine by clicking on the link below.
