The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » Beware Of Ridiculous TV Antenna Claims

RadioActive · October 12, 2026 6:37 am

This story appears to be from a religious-based website in B.C., but it has nothing to do with faith. Unless you're putting that faith in some increasingly outrageous claims about what an HDTV antenna can pull in.

"This brings us to the antennas being sold in the local big box stores, and also often available at negligible cost on the Facebook Marketplace. These smaller antennas are meant to be attached to windows, and they are usually accompanied by outlandish claims about their capabilities. To be sure, they will pull in any reasonably close local stations broadcasting over the air, but to have stickers on them showing cable-only services, such as CNN, TSN, BBC, etc., is simply misleading and wrong."

"...Then there is the claim about distance. Look at the image accompanying this column. It’s for a $20 antenna, second-hand. An outlandish claim of 2200+ mile long range! That really would be amazing if it were indeed possible. Los Angeles is barely a thousand miles from Vancouver. I could be watching those police car chases on KTLA without the need of a cable TV subscription! It’s pure nonsense, of course."

I still prefer a rotor at a decent height on a proper antenna mast, although I'm aware not everyone can have that set-up.

The TV antenna's swan song

darcyh · October 12, 2026 10:05 am

Remember the 'device' that you plugged into an electric outlet that turned your house wiring into a giant TV antenna. Trouble was house wiring is is not anyway near the right length to pick up TV signals. These devices came and went and always performed poorly.

g121 · October 12, 2026 12:54 pm

Why the heck would anyone waste money on a silly little antenna when you could get a Nuclear Sub for $7 !! : )) ..

Capricasix · October 12, 2026 1:01 pm

My husband and I have had a rooftop antenna for 13 years. When he went to Save and Replay in Mississauga to buy it, he was looking at an antenna of a particular height (I can’t remember how big it was). The salesperson said that we would be able to get channels from Algonquin Park with that size antenna 😄 So we went with the one that gets the Toronto channels and several from WNY as well.

RadioActive · October 12, 2026 1:06 pm

g121 wrote:
Why the heck would anyone waste money on a silly little antenna when you could get a Nuclear Sub for $7 !! : )) ..

I'm still waiting for my X-Ray specs and my sea-monkeys. Only decades overdue, but I'm sure they'll be coming eventually.

RadioActive · October 12, 2026 1:08 pm

Capricasix wrote:
My husband and I have had a rooftop antenna for 13 years. When he went to Save and Replay in Mississauga to buy it, he was looking at an antenna of a particular height (I can’t remember how big it was). The salesperson said that we would be able to get channels from Algonquin Park with that size antenna 😄 So we went with the one that gets the Toronto channels and several from WNY as well.

How was that Algonquin Park TV? I hear you can't see the forest for the trees.

I bought some stuff from Save & Replay. Are they still in business?

bmaudioworks · October 12, 2026 2:05 pm

When we moved into our last family home near Peterborough in the early '90s, it included a big VHF-only amplified antenna on a rotor. With the amplifier powered on, nearby CHEX (ch. 12) would overload the TV, so if we wanted to watch that station, we'd need to unplug the amp, but everything else was fine with the amp on. Regulars for us were CKVR 3, CBLT 5, and CFTO 9, and very often Global on channel 7 from the Midland/Muskoka transmitter. Sometimes we could pick up the Rochester VHFs - WROC 8 (CBS), WHEC 10 (NBC), and WOKR 13 (ABC).

As of the mid '90s, there were five "local" OTA TV signals in the Peterborough area, four of which were on UHF, and we'd pick up the UHFs with rabbit ears. The lone VHF was CHEX on 12, and on UHF we had TVO on 18, Global on 27, Radio-Canada on 44, and CFTO on its then-new channel 54 rebroadcaster near Bobcaygeon. TVO and R-C came from the CBC FM tower near the south shore of Rice Lake, and Global from Alnwick Hill, north of Cobourg, shared with CFMX-FM 103.1.

mace · October 12, 2026 7:57 pm

I am a member of a Facebook group that deals with OTA reception and the best type of antenna to invest in. Most of the members are pretty knowledgeable and many are or were antenna installers. Yes the 1000 mile reception claims occasionally surface there too.

Capricasix · October 12, 2026 10:03 pm

RadioActive wrote:
Capricasix wrote:
My husband and I have had a rooftop antenna for 13 years. When he went to Save and Replay in Mississauga to buy it, he was looking at an antenna of a particular height (I can’t remember how big it was). The salesperson said that we would be able to get channels from Algonquin Park with that size antenna 😄 So we went with the one that gets the Toronto channels and several from WNY as well.
How was that Algonquin Park TV? I hear you can't see the forest for the trees.

I bought some stuff from Save & Replay. Are they still in business?

Ba dum tsh!

I haven’t been there in a long time, but they do still appear to be in business. And the antenna we bought (can’t even remember now what kind it is; I think it’s a Channel Master) is still ticking along after 13 years!

RadioActive · October 12, 2026 10:32 pm

Channel Master makes great products in my experience. I still have their yagi and a UHF bowtie on my rotor and it picks up basically everything. Sadly, they stopped making the rotors years ago, although they may have recently revived them.

mace · October 13, 2026 2:59 am

Two antennas I have heard good things about are the Antennas Direct DB8e and the Televes Dat Boss Mix LR. The Dat Boss is designed for ch 7-36, while the DB8e is UHF only. The Televes antenna isn't cheap. It sells for just under $300 on Amazon Canada. The DB8e is in the $130 range.

mace · October 13, 2026 4:25 am

RadioActive wrote:
Channel Master makes great products in my experience. I still have their yagi and a UHF bowtie on my rotor and it picks up basically everything. Sadly, they stopped making the rotors years ago, although they may have recently revived them.

According to the Channel Master website, the CM-9521HD rotor is available for $249 [US I assume] When my parents got their tower in 1984, the rotor was from Crown. They produced rotors from 1949-2001.

darcyh · October 13, 2026 10:03 am

Radio Shack made decent TV and FM antennas.

Over the years I've experimented with various types of antennas and have found that you get what you pay for. Generally:
- more elements improve performance but make the antenna more directional often necessitating the need for a rotor to move to the antenna to the appropriate direction
- the higher you mount the antenna the better
- reliable reception is only possible to about 65 miles from the transmitter site
- the old channels 2 - 6 propagated further than 7 -13 and UHF signals even shorter distances
- today's digital TV channels have even shorter range due to lower power

Before cable, rooftop TV antennas were ubiquitous in most town and are still pretty common in border towns like Windsor.

I always wanted one of those Polaris subs too.

markow202 · October 13, 2026 10:40 am

Ive moved to Barrie from Etobicoke 2 years ago in which Etobicoke had great OTA. There is not one tv antenna to be seen here in Barrie but also when I tried its basically only the one local channel that comes in. So those days for me are over

RadioActive · October 13, 2026 10:47 am

markow202 wrote:
Ive moved to Barrie from Etobicoke 2 years ago in which Etobicoke had great OTA. There is not one tv antenna to be seen here in Barrie but also when I tried its basically only the one local channel that comes in. So those days for me are over

Did you ever try an amplifier? I remember when I moved to my current location in the GTA. I was really disappointed in the reception. Then I installed the amp. The difference, especially for Buffalo, was incredible. Whether that would solve your problem in Barrie, I can't say. But it really helped my reception.

mace · October 13, 2026 11:08 am

RadioActive wrote:
markow202 wrote:
Ive moved to Barrie from Etobicoke 2 years ago in which Etobicoke had great OTA. There is not one tv antenna to be seen here in Barrie but also when I tried its basically only the one local channel that comes in. So those days for me are over
Did you ever try an amplifier? I remember when I moved to my current location in the GTA. I was really disappointed in the reception. Then I installed the amp. The difference, especially for Buffalo, was incredible. Whether that would solve your problem in Barrie, I can't say. But it really helped my reception.

Barrie to Niagara Falls [Grand Island] is about 95 miles. WUTV and WNED might be possible depending on the weather and barriers like buildings and trees. As for WGRZ, WIVB and WKBW you would be looking at 120 miles from Barrie to Colden/South Wales. Tropo reception only.

markow202 · October 13, 2026 11:34 am

RadioActive wrote:
markow202 wrote:
Ive moved to Barrie from Etobicoke 2 years ago in which Etobicoke had great OTA. There is not one tv antenna to be seen here in Barrie but also when I tried its basically only the one local channel that comes in. So those days for me are over
Did you ever try an amplifier? I remember when I moved to my current location in the GTA. I was really disappointed in the reception. Then I installed the amp. The difference, especially for Buffalo, was incredible. Whether that would solve your problem in Barrie, I can't say. But it really helped my reception.

Upstairs I have a really good TERK amplified antenna indoor almost looks like a small roof antenna. Amplifier on it picks up CKVR and Global/CHCH from Muskoka but living in the valley down close to the lake is the issue, being in a bowl. If south of it atop the hill or in the north people reported on reddit to received Toronto no issues and Buffalo at night. This summer on radio, during tropo Buffalo stations came in almost as local here aswell as Sudbury and channels to the north.