Okay, so here’s how I discovered this “impressive” indoor / outdoor Over-the-air (OTA for short) TV antenna advertised above. Someone once told me the straight-line distance from coast to coast in the U.S. was about 2800 miles.  Sooo, I imagined with a silly grin that with a long-range antenna, I should be able to capture every TV signal in the United States. During a moment of accidental brilliance, I ‘Googled’ the following: “3000-mile range Over-the-air TV antenna” and to my surprise, the above image is only a small part of the feedback! Hell, one website was promoting a 6,000-mile indoor Antenna for just beyond $15.00. That’s when I strongly suspected I had mistakenly entered the “Fantasy Land of OTA Antennas” 🙂

It just happens that during my youth, I learned a little something about capturing “analog” TV signals of the era as I spent weeks helping “string” track-wire up and down the mountains of Southeast KY in preparation of that goal. Back then, maximum success was capturing a strong enough signal from the three existing commercial networks (ABC, CBS or NBC) sufficient to actually watch all of three TV Channels.

On-the-other-hand, it was an Amazon.com website with a rating of 4.8 stars out of five; Customer Reviews totaled 119 and site data note that 400 were sold last month!  I was hoping this was a twist to the old Paradox: “You have to spend money to make money” － the revised version: “You have to spend money to save money”.

But then as implied a paragraph earlier, I was aware of the many, many disabling factors the somewhat “weaker” Digital TV Signal face in route to your home which all U.S. Broadcasters have been using, as I recall, since early June or July of 2009.

Sorry, further on-line research shows that OTA TV Antenna Gadgets like WaveMax, ReWave, Fusion4Home, and others who place such ads have received terrible Reviews overall. Yep, most are negative, most complain about poor reception quality, inconsistent channel pickup, and claims of exaggerated range capabilities.

In fact, users often report that the antennas struggle to receive even local channels which is especially troubling when compared to the advertised coverage area—most often described as a far bit more than 100 air miles.

Many customers consider such devices to be low-quality products. And yes, such conclusions are based upon actual user experiences!

Perhaps at least part of the problem with the previously described Over-the-Air Antennae include the attempt to capture ‘far away signals.  Such is not suggested with two Over-the-Air Antennas that have received positive reviews!  However, the targeted signal capture range is considerably less.  Thereby eliminating many TV watchers as potential customers! In-other-words, “local” TV channels only—is what to expect and yes, they are free aside from the purchase price of the device.