Selecting the right antenna for your location is the most important part of getting over-the-air broadcast TV.
NOTE: an antenna advertised as 250 miles, 500 miles, 1000 miles, 1500 miles is making a false claim. No TV antenna can work at beyond-the-horizon distances due to the curvature of the Earth blocking the TV signal.
IMPORTANT: do not buy an antenna that claims to be omnidirectional or claims to have 360 degree performance. This indicates it has poor directional gain and will under-perform other antennas.
IMPORTANT: do not buy an indoor antenna with a built-in amplifier or one that requires power to operate (this indicates a built-in amplifier). The HDHomeRun has a built-in amplifier – using an antenna that also has a built-in amplifier can make reception worse and may result in fewer channels.
Amplifiers are generally only useful with a rooftop antenna where you need to split the signal to many devices or you have significant cable lengths. A typical install with a good rooftop antenna at 45 miles split 2 ways will generally not require an amplifier.
Use the Signal Search Map from www.rabbitears.info to estimate the distance to the TV transmission towers.
The channel column on the www.rabbitears.info website has a number in parenthesis, for example “(27)”. Numbers “(13)” and below are VHF channels. If any channels that are important to you have a number “(13)” or lower you need an antenna with VHF support. Numbers “(14)” and above are UHF channels. If all the channels that are important to you have a number “(14)” or higher you do not need an antenna with VHF support.