I was in a Rite Aid drugstore recently and I saw they had several small TV antennas for sale. Some promised hundreds of channels. One was about the size of a roll of quarters. Each made the same promise that I make here on this blog when it comes to antennas: buy it once and use it forever without paying any more.
There’s only one problem with these antennas: you really don’t know what you’re getting. I wanted to buy a few and test them but I could tell even from the box that I wouldn’t have to. Here’s what you need to know about drugstore antennas.
A lot of them aren’t even antennas.
There were five “antennas” in the electronics aisle at Rite Aid and two of them didn’t even have a coaxial connection. I dug a little deeper into the fine print on the box and both of them literally had nothing but a link to the Pluto TV web site. Pluto TV, in case you’re not aware, is a site where you can watch quite a few free “channels” of live TV. It’s designed to mimic an old-school cable TV system. It’s totally free and you don’t need to pay for any devices to use it.
What you get with very cheap antennas
The other three devices were clearly antennas, but none of them was very large. Each had a very slender, cheap looking cable that looked like it would break if you looked at it funny.
So, two things you need to know about antennas of any type. The first is that in order to receive signals, the antenna needs to be about half the size of the wave it’s trying to pick up. In most cases that means the antenna will work well if it’s about a foot wide. Anything smaller than that is not going to work well. The fact that it’s inside is going to make it even more of a challenge, since energy-efficient homes also do a great job of blocking antenna signals.
The other thing that’s important to know is that very thin cables have a lot of loss. It may not matter too much in a cable that’s 3 feet long, but when you are pulling in as little signal as you’ll do with these tiny antennas, you won’t want to lose any of it.
If you’re “so close to the towers…”
If you’re a midtown Manhattanite with a great view of the Empire State Building, I’ll be honest with you. You’ll probably get great reception with a coat hanger. The TV signals coming to you are so strong that even a super cheap antenna will serve you, at least for a while.
Folks in urban environments would probably do just fine with an antenna from a drug store. They don’t need anything else. But for the rest of us, it’s a waste of time and money.
There’s cheap, and there’s inexpensive.
At Solid Signal, we sell some inexpensive antennas. They’re some of our best sellers. There’s a difference, though… we don’t sell cheap antennas. We don’t sell antennas when we think they’re going to fall apart after a few days of use, no matter how little they cost.
If you’re looking for an over-the-air TV antenna, you don’t have to throw away your money at a drugstore. There are a lot of great lower-priced antennas available now at Solid Signal, and they’re going to be much higher quality. They’ll perform better too, as my tests showed.
If you’re not sure which TV antenna is for you, why not ask the experts? The folks at Solid Signal can give you a free recommendation with no obligation. Just call us during East Coast business hours. We’re here for you. Call 888-233-7563 and you’ll reach a professional. If it’s after hours, don’t fret! Fill out the form below and we’ll get right back to you!
