Till end of summer, I’m staying off-campus with a roommate. We don’t have cable. Installation will cost $35 alongwith the cost for a month which is between 13-50. And we aren’t ready to spend that just for a month’s reception. Now, I was thinking about getting an indoor/outdoor antenna to pick up on-the-air channels. These range from $6-$15, pretty reasonable.
Now, I stay in West Lafayette, that’s in Tippecanoe County (West-Central Indiana). It’s 65 miles away from Indianapolis. The call-signs for most of the public channels indicate Indianapolis as the origin. What I’d like to know is whether a typical UHF/VHF antenna can pick up these signals?
Generally, what’s the range for these signals and how do they vary from Channel 2 - 69?
I think at that range you’ll find the typical set-top rabbit ear type of antenna to perform disapointingly poorly. You’ll have better luck with a rooftop Yagi antenna–the more elements, the better. All things being equal, VHF-low signals (ch. 2 - 7) will propagate farther than VHF-high (ch. 9 - 13) or UHF (ch. 14 +). The higher up you can get your antenna, the more likely you are to pull in a good signal, since TV signals are mainly line-of-sight, especially VHF-high and UHF. An RF signal booster might provide some performance increase as well. Good luck.
A basic amplified indoor set-top antenna will go for $35 or more at Radio Shack. (Just using them because of their near-universal availability.)
If you do buy an antenna, be sure you can return it if it doesn’t work for you. You can get a fair estimate of how well a set-top antenna will work without even asking questions - if the store has none on display, there’s probably a reason.