Tv antenna stations available?

[Calisport]

I gave up on cable tv long ago so when I watch tv I switched to an antenna where I live outside of Florida. I get something like 200 stations here in my city. When I am in TV, are there multiple stations you can receive?
Otherwise I’ll just watch tv from the web…Roku/appletv.

[villagetinker]

If you are lucky, there are about 65 channels out of Orlando, several are spanish, several are religious. You will need a long range (80 miles minimum) antenna pointed in the correct location and you may need an amplifier if the antenna is not an amplified type. In my location I can get stations out of Ocala (less than 10), but cannot get Orlando with any reliability.

[biker1]

I don’t know where you are in The Villages but I receive about 50 channels from Orlando. I am between 466a and 44a.


I gave up on cable tv long ago so when I watch tv I switched to an antenna where I live outside of Florida. I get something like 200 stations here in my city. When I am in TV, are there multiple stations you can receive?
Otherwise I’ll just watch tv from the web…Roku/appletv.

[NeilV1]

Locast.org gets you all the Orlando stations for $5.50 a month

[Calisport]

I’m in the new home area. I like the Locast.org suggestion. Thanks for the antenna notes also.

[tophcfa]

The channels you get over the air change both over time and with the weather. We recently had our signal amplifier fried by a nearby lighting strike. When I replaced the amplifier, I ran the auto setup function on our TV to recalibrate the channel tuning. To my surprise we got several stations we never got before and other channels that had a weak signal were dropped.

[Vikingjunior]

Locast.org is being sued by the big networks so enjoy it while you can.

[Northerner52]

Where is your antenna mounted?


If you are lucky, there are about 65 channels out of Orlando, several are spanish, several are religious. You will need a long range (80 miles minimum) antenna pointed in the correct location and you may need an amplifier if the antenna is not an amplified type. In my location I can get stations out of Ocala (less than 10), but cannot get Orlando with any reliability.

[MandoMan]

I gave up on cable tv long ago so when I watch tv I switched to an antenna where I live outside of Florida. I get something like 200 stations here in my city. When I am in TV, are there multiple stations you can receive?
Otherwise I’ll just watch tv from the web…Roku/appletv.

I live in the center of The Villages. I bought on Amazon last year one of those supposedly amazing things that you attach to a window and they pick up lots of local stations. I don’t watch TV news at all, but I was having a guest who wanted to. On a window facing due East, it let me pick up several dozen stations, but they were religious stations, shopping channels, or Spanish channels. No ABC, NBC, CBS, or PBS. I tried a North window and. West window and got no clear channels at all. I tried a different brand. Same result. Just in case you wondered about those gadgets.

[banjobob]

Not with outside antenna , cable or dish ,or streaming.

[aallbrand]

Locast.org is being sued by the big networks so enjoy it while you can.

Locast is supported by some large cable providers . Cable companies are fed up with the broadcasters crazy price increases and quietly are rooting for the success of Locast .

[Shutterbug]

I gave up on cable tv long ago so when I watch tv I switched to an antenna where I live outside of Florida. I get something like 200 stations here in my city. When I am in TV, are there multiple stations you can receive?
Otherwise I’ll just watch tv from the web…Roku/appletv.

Outside digital antenna on a pole 20 feet high. Antenna from Amazon: <$50; 2 poles from Lowes: <$25. Aim the antenna between 112 and 115 degrees on the compass.

[UpNorth]

Outside digital antenna on a pole 20 feet high. Antenna from Amazon: <$50; 2 poles from Lowes: <$25. Aim the antenna between 112 and 115 degrees on the compass.

Just make sure you ground your antenna. You can fry your TV tuner from static electricity buildup if you don't.

[OhioBuckeye]

I gave up on cable tv long ago so when I watch tv I switched to an antenna where I live outside of Florida. I get something like 200 stations here in my city. When I am in TV, are there multiple stations you can receive?
Otherwise I’ll just watch tv from the web…Roku/appletv.

The first yr. I lived in TV I put a regular antenna in my attic & got 50 channels, enough that I always found something to watch. I also don’t live in TV anymore but my cable service is FREE also internet service, but that’s not my point. An antenna in your attic pointed toward Orlando will get you some TV stations. But some people put antenna’s on the outside of their house even though TV says your not aloud to!

[sallyg]

The first yr. I lived in TV I put a regular antenna in my attic & got 50 channels, enough that I always found something to watch. I also don’t live in TV anymore but my cable service is FREE also internet service, but that’s not my point. An antenna in your attic pointed toward Orlando will get you some TV stations. But some people put antenna’s on the outside of their house even though TV says your not aloud to!

You are allowed. FCC overrules the Villages.

[Rzepecki]

I stream tv using YouTube TV; local Orlando stations are included.

[sparky4840]

I use an Omni mounted on the roof at the highest peak. It is the round type that looks like a flying saucer. Orlando and Tampa are no problem. Ocala and Gainesville are spotty due to weather conditions. Cost was around $80.

[Bilyclub]

The changing of WESH to a UHF signal has caused a little havoc with my reception of a few other Orlando stations like WKMG and WOFL. I'm hoping a signal booster or some fiddling on the antenna direction will fix the problem,

[TheWatcher]

Search for these tools online for help:

FCC - DTV Reception Maps
AntennaWeb - Antenna Prediction Results

The tools generate Maps with directional and strength predictions. Click on the stations to expand the details. Have fun.

[Driller703]

You are allowed. FCC overrules the Villages.
Slightly off the subject, but what is the policy on outside ham radio antennas in TV?

[villagetinker]

Where is your antenna mounted?

On the side of our house, about 5-6 feet above the gutter.

[villagetinker]

Slightly off the subject, but what is the policy on outside ham radio antennas in TV?

I think this depends a LOT on which CDD you are in, I have seen 1 or 2 in the historic area that almost look like flag poles, but you can see the loading coils. I have not seen any horizontal wire types, yagi or beam antennas. Please contact ARC (community standards) and ask them for your specific location.

[Calisport]

Where is your antenna mounted?

Currently on my second story deck facing mount wilson in southern cal and out of public view.

[DONS999]

Is there a reason (now that we are city with a lot of people) TV doesn't put up a repeater tower to grab Orlando signals ??

[TNLAKEPANDA]

Locast.org gets you all the Orlando stations for $5.50 a month

Can you get that on your TV or just on a computer?

[Regor]

Some smart TV's have the app.

[OhioBuckeye]

You are allowed. FCC overrules the Villages.

Thank you, that’s good to hear!

[laboutj]

Can you get that on your TV or just on a computer?

If you have a smart tv you can download the locast app. It's also available on Roku and Firestick. Locast is free but there are ads. You can pay $5.50/month to remove the ads and help support them.

The ads don't run when it's usually a commercial during a show or sporting event. They can pop up any time, like during sudden death overtime in a stanley cup playoff game. I watch the locals using Youtube TV to avoid that scenario.

[nn0wheremann]

I gave up on cable tv long ago so when I watch tv I switched to an antenna where I live outside of Florida. I get something like 200 stations here in my city. When I am in TV, are there multiple stations you can receive?
Otherwise I’ll just watch tv from the web…Roku/appletv.
I get 70 stations. Some are Spanish, some religious, many duplicate the cheap cable movie channels. I use a $25 yogi which came with an amplifier. I found the antenna worked much better when raised to 25 feet than it did at 20 feet. 30 feet would probably be even better. The broadcast antenna farm is in Bithlo Florida, 65 miles from the Village of Springdale. The network broadcasters upgraded their signals to UHD a couple of months ago, and signal quality for my old HD TV improved a lot.

[Stephen13]

I'm late to the party but I have a RCA yagi mounted in my attic with a ChannelMaster amp and receive 74 channels. Ed Sullivan never looked better!

[FenneyFanatic]

I’ve got a Lava 8008 mounted five feet above my rear roof peak in Fenney. 76 clear channels, mostly from Orlando and Tampa..

[duhbear]

We live next to Savannah Rec Center in Santiago. In attic antenna we get 60+ (only about 20 are of interest) out of Orlando including NBC since they moved their antenna. Great picture.

[Tom52]

Now able to stream Locast without paying the $5 monthly donation. Locast advised yesterday that the court ruled they can not maintain their non profit status if they continually interrupt the broadcast to beg for donations. So as of now Locast is no longer badgering for donations.

[Mleeja]

Locast.org gets you all the Orlando stations for $5.50 a month

Locast.org has been shut down.

[Bilyclub]

It was inevitable.

[geofitz13]

Locast is supported by some large cable providers . Cable companies are fed up with the broadcasters crazy price increases and quietly are rooting for the success of Locast .

Sad to say, Locast is no more. They have ceased operations effective immediately. They lost the court case, and say they are going to fight it, but I doubt very much that their pockets are deep enough for that kind of fight.

See locast dot org for their statement,

[SeaCros]

Locast.org is being sued by the big networks so enjoy it while you can.
They just suspended their services.... it looks like they got sued big time.

[SeaCros]

If anyone became a subscriber to their service, you may want to make sure that you cancel it or else I am sure they will keep billing you.

[wlasowicz]

problem with putting your antenna in the attic depending on the age of your home in the villages after a certain point they installed on the inside face of roof in the attic a foil membrane to help with energy efficiency. if that's the case you will not be getting a good signal from in the attic

[Sonny2024]

I don’t know where you are in The Villages but I receive about 50 channels from Orlando. I am between 466a and 44a.

What kind of Antenna do you have? LOCAST has now been shut down, and am looking for a solution.

[Bill14564]

If anyone became a subscriber to their service, you may want to make sure that you cancel it or else I am sure they will keep billing you.

How can you be sure of that?

[biker1]

I have a DB4E, with an amplifier, mounted in my attic.

What kind of Antenna do you have? LOCAST has now been shut down, and am looking for a solution.

[UpNorth]

They just suspended their services.... it looks like they got sued big time.

Their flaw was breaking into programming every 15 minutes or so and asking for a "donation". Give them that donation and they would stop interrupting. The court considered that a "fee", rather than a donation.They claimed to be a non-profit service. They stopped the interruptions for one day, only to throw in the towel and shut down the next day. Too bad - it was a nice way to get local stations without an antenna. I think something like this will re-appear in the future and get around the flaws pointed out by the court. The Locast developers got burned once before with Aero, a service that let you link to your own private little antenna to get local channels via the internet.

[inda50]

Locast.org gets you all the Orlando stations for $5.50 a month

We are suspending operations, effective immediately
As a non-profit, Locast was designed from the very beginning to operate in accordance with the strict letter of the law, but in response to the court’s recent rulings, with which we respectfully disagree, we are hereby suspending operations, effective immediately.

[Bilyclub]

I have a DB4E, with an amplifier, mounted in my attic.



Me too, same general area. Going to add an amp. Pic from the seller, though I have the same mounting pole.

[Boilerman]

Me too, same general area. Going to add an amp. Pic from the seller, though I have the same mounting pole.

We have the same setup in the attic, installed by Tom of Villages AV. We live just south of 466A and get all the major networks. NBC now works with their recent move from VHF to UHF. Picture is HD and crystal clear.

[Tom52]

We have the same setup in the attic, installed by Tom of Villages AV. We live just south of 466A and get all the major networks. NBC now works with their recent move from VHF to UHF. Picture is HD and crystal clear.

Do you have a phone number for Tom of Villages AV?

Thanks

[charlieo1126@gmail.com]

The lawsuit started in 2019 , it was handled like any other lawsuit in the courts , but if you want to wrongfully pick someone to blame , I wonder who was around in 2019

[Battlebasset]

Is anyone using an indoor TV antenna in Fenny area? If you are and you get a decent signal, what type/model do you have? Thanks!

[Driller703]

Tom no longer does attic antennas. He also prefers text messages.
352-388-1677

[John_W]

Putting a TV antenna in your attic is one of the easiest do-it-yourself projects I found. I have 3 cable leads coming from the 2 BRs and LR. They are outside the garage and I have Direct TV so they are connected to the box. One BR I don't have Directv and wanted to connect to an antenna. I took that coax out of the box and pulled it up back up into the attic and extended it with coax I got with the antenna from Amazon.

I bought this antenna on Amazon for $27 with free shipping, that was 3 years ago, it's gone up slightly.

Amazon.com (https://www.amazon.com/McDuory-Amplified-Digital-Outdoor-Antenna/dp/B074CGF6ZN/ref=sr_1_18?dchild=1&keywords=tv+antennas&qid=1632065623&sr=8-18)

I also bought the mounting pole/stand for $17 from Amazon, it's short, about 2' long. I mounted the antenna on one of the rafters at the front of the garage near the access hole, it's best if you had pull down steps installed, I had Tom "the Toolman" Miller install metal ones ten years ago for $295 along with 100 sf of plywood flooring.

I connected the coax that I pulled in from the outside to the antenna. I went to the guest BR and mounted a 42" TV on a wall rack, I bought the rack on Amazon for $30. I bought a cable wall kit at Home Depot for $50, it came with a drill bit that I could cut two holes in the wall, one low behind a dresser and one high behind the TV. Fished the coax from the wall outlet behind the dresser into the newly made concealed cavity in the wall up to the TV and then out. Also a power cable from outlet up through the wall. Here's the kit from HD.

Home Depot wall conceal kit (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-In-Wall-Power-Cord-and-Cable-Kit-A32-KW/304502792)

I had guessed what direction to aim the antenna, locked it in place, turned on the TV and no picture. I called Tom (Villager AV) he's mentioned above several times, and he lives in St. James (one village away from me), he answered and said he would stop by later on his way home.

He checked the wiring and found the 30' of coax that came with the antenna from Amazon was defective. I had used some coax in the attic to extend the length from outside the garage. He replaced the coax and aimed the antenna better to 117 degrees using a phone app, we checked everything and the TV works. He charged $70 for about an hour's labor and cable.

I get all the major networks and sub-channels and many others, probably at least 60 channels, although between Spanish language and religious, that eliminates about 25 of them. It's simply a backup since I still have Directv on my other two larger sets. It's a guest BR so I wanted something, but not to have a Directv box all the time, so is a great solution. I live in the area of Buena Vista and 466A, probably ten miles NW of Fenney as a bird flies.

[Bilyclub]

Putting a TV antenna in your attic is one of the easiest do-it-yourself projects I found. I have 3 cable leads coming from the 2 BRs and LR. They are outside the garage and I have Direct TV so they are connected to the box. One BR I don't have Directv and wanted to connect to an antenna. I took that coax out of the box and pulled it up back up into the attic and extended it with coax I got with the antenna from Amazon.

I bought this antenna on Amazon for $27 with free shipping, that was 3 years ago, it's gone up slightly.

Amazon.com (https://www.amazon.com/McDuory-Amplified-Digital-Outdoor-Antenna/dp/B074CGF6ZN/ref=sr_1_18?dchild=1&keywords=tv+antennas&qid=1632065623&sr=8-18)

I also bought the mounting pole/stand for $17 from Amazon, it's short, about 2' long. I mounted the antenna on one of the rafters at the front of the garage near the access hole, it's best if you had pull down steps installed, I had Tom "the Toolman" Miller install metal ones ten years ago for $295 along with 100 sf of plywood flooring.

I connected the coax that I pulled in from the outside to the antenna. I went to the guest BR and mounted a 42" TV on a wall rack, I bought the rack on Amazon for $30. I bought a cable wall kit at Home Depot for $50, it came with a drill bit that I could cut two holes in the wall, one low behind a dresser and one high behind the TV. Fished the coax from the wall outlet behind the dresser into the newly made concealed cavity in the wall up to the TV and then out. Also a power cable from outlet up through the wall. Here's the kit from HD.

Home Depot wall conceal kit (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-In-Wall-Power-Cord-and-Cable-Kit-A32-KW/304502792)

I had guessed what direction to aim the antenna, locked it in place, turned on the TV and no picture. I called Tom (Villager AV) he's mentioned above several times, and he lives in St. James (one village away from me), he answered and said he would stop by later on his way home.

He checked the wiring and found the 30' of coax that came with the antenna from Amazon was defective. I had used some coax in the attic to extend the length from outside the garage. He replaced the coax and aimed the antenna better to 117 degrees using a phone app, we checked everything and the TV works. He charged $70 for about an hour's labor and cable.

I get all the major networks and sub-channels and many others, probably at least 60 channels, although between Spanish language and religious, that eliminates about 25 of them. It's simply a backup since I still have Directv on my other two larger sets. It's a guest BR so I wanted something, but not to have a Directv box all the time, so is a great solution. I live in the area of Buena Vista and 466A, probably ten miles NW of Fenney as a bird flies.



Good to see you back.

[Battlebasset]

Live down in Fenny. Bought a cheap indoor antenna just to see what would happen. Had to put it out the window just to get one channel of stuff I don't want to watch. I get enough from free apps, Netflix, Amazon, etc. ESPN3 and Peacock give me enough sports, I buy ESPN+ during college basketball season to watch my team. Think I'll skip the OTA antenna.

IMO, the networks are in the wrong if they say their OTA covers 60+ miles, but unless you put together huge ensembles, you have to buy cable or satellite, or pay for their streaming app. You can have your paid app for all of your extras, but the basic network TV stream on that app should be free. Doesn't even have to be local. Just the network programming. Seems the FCC could do something about that if they don't live such services as Locast.