STELLAR LABS 30-2431 HDTV 80 Mile Deep Fringe Bowtie Television Antenna

The antenna works well and is well made. You may wish to seek the digital instructions as the print version has low-resolution photos.

After using a regular 8 - 12 db yagi antenna this thing worked great. I hadn't done any cable management yet when I took the photo, but the antenna seems to be well constructed. There are a few thing's that where different from what I got and what was printed in the direction's but nothing I couldn't easily figure out. Mainly the item I received was a mirror of the one pictured in the direction's think they pivot opposite each other. But over all really nice, I used a VHF Di-pole, , eclipse vhf - uhf signal combiner, winegard lna-200 pre-amp, a skywalker 25 db amplifier and we are getting 57 clear free tv channels in our house :) Just a small bonus they day we received this antenna was the same exact day they closed the doors on OrbyTV. We are upset to see OrbyTV to go for the price OrbyTV was great, $50 a month for 4 rooms for a somewhat basic cable package. But the timing couldn't have been better for the antenna to show up.

I went to tvfool.com to find out where my sources (directions and frequencies of broadcast) for TV broadcasting in my area. You need to start there because there may be a weaker signal that is broadcasting purely vhf ranges that requires a band specific beam antenna. Here is an example. In San Diego CBS transmits from Mt. Soledad via VHF. Since that station is my problem child for reception, I'm better offer getting stellar labs vhf beam antenna specifically for that direction. Set it and forget it once up. Note: a band specific antenna will outperform a multi-band antenna. So knowing what frequency your "hard to get" tower is broadcasting is clutch information. Whereas there are several close multi band (vhf/uhf) towers in other directions that allow for this particular antenna to work well. This particular antenna works well for three separate towers that are close by(Tijuana and 2 near Mt. Miguel). Look at the pics to appreciate how cheap the coax cable connectors are that come with the antenna. I used quad shield rg6 cable connectors instead, also pictured . A trip to the hardware store was required as another reviewer has mentioned , no fender washers and no lock washers. Paid around $15 in hardware. I will be using a three way splitter once the VHF beam arrives tomorrow. Not all splitters are made the same. I'm using a holland splitter (ghpna-3) that will allows for multiple sources to combine into one rg6 coax to the amp before going to tv. I haven't tried it yet, but I also orders a philips 5g filter (allows frequencies between 5- 608 and blocks out the LTE 4g/5g cellular bands in the UHF upper ranges that uhf antenna may pick up as noise). Haven't test drove the filter and the amp to know which combination will work best for me. I also have a 40 telescoping antenna mast but will also experiment with that as there is no reason to go higher than necessary(to get the problem child -CBS broadcasts 8.1, 8.2,8.3). This particular antenna already received its intended stations 5 feet of the rooftop on preliminary tests. My ego would love to order 2 DATBOSS antennas instead of this antenna as it makes the home look like a military communications building, but this gets the job done and receives the 3 signal in between the 2 antenna directions that a beam may exclude out. BTW: the vhf beam is from the same manufacturer, stellar labs. build quality isn't so hot with the butterfly nuts instead of nuts that allow a socket wrench to torque down(this item will be blowing in the wind up there...), once its up the only factor I don't know about it the plastic. Are there plastics that don't substantially weaken in the UV enriched sunlight? My HAM radio antennas (10meter) that were made in the 80's are all aluminum and look fairly new. Those are holding up but they have no plastic in their construction. If it fails, then I think I'll pull the trigger on the two DATBOSS multiband beams and rename the house, the Millennium Albatross. This house will become a beacon for interstellar communication. Until then, hoping the Chinese wouldn't engineer an outdoor item with a lifespan less than 5 years.

I purchased this antenna last August after researching and discussing with neighbors that had already cut the cord. I am on the central coast of California and towers in San Luis Obispo are only 20 miles away. I used TV Fool to get transmitter information and there are about 40 channels available, but many were 30 miles in the opposite direction. My neighbor was on his second antenna and paid just a little less for one that you tack in a window, but he has the advantage of a 2-story house with a window facing the optimum direction. He gets over 20 channels and that works for him. With transmitters in opposing directions, I picked this one for optimum coverage and I am getting 50 channels without a booster. About 10 channels are duplicates and a few do not have good reception, but I am happy with the results. The antenna is mounted at the peak of my single-story home on a 4-foot mast, so less than 20 feet high. To my surprise when I reprogrammed my Samsung smart TV it added all the channels and about half of them transmit TV guide info, so we know what is on all the major networks. After almost a year it has worked as advertised and we only had one huge windstorm that effected reception and that was momentary. Although we lost our streaming service when the cable was out, we were still able to watch TV so long as we have power to turn it on. I have recommended this product.

TV stations in my area are all about 12 miles from me, over hilly terrain. There are two groups of them, about 180 degrees apart from each other. I installed this antenna in my attic, with each antenna pointing at a different group of stations. It didn't work very well, so I added an amplifier to the antenna. Which was better, but still not awesome. Then when I was fiddling with it, I discovered it worked much better for all the channels when I unplugged one of the antennas. So I probably could have done better just getting a single antenna, with a cheap amplifier and saving the extra $40 that this one cost. Oh well.