Channel Master - SMARTenna Indoor/Outdoor HDTV Antenna

First of all, this item does not come with a coaxial cable. Because of a previous review, I knew this before my purchase. I had a small indoor antenna which came with my digital receiver. It wasn't really very good, and most channels scrambled intermittently when trying to watch shows (FYI, I'm using this in the cellar while working out). I bought the SMARTenna to mount outside with the hope that it would bring in more TV channels and with better reception. I haven't had the time to install this outside yet, but can tell you that even hooked up in the cellar, this pulls in more channels than the smaller antenna that I was using, and with much stronger reception. I can't wait to hook this up outside, and feel confident that it will give me excellent reception when I do.

I really wanted this antenna to work. I tried it in various places outside as well as in the attic. I was able to get all five of the main channels in my area only for a brief time, but it was not consistent. Usually I could get only two or three of them. Installation location was outside about 12 feet off the ground, which was as high as I could go without putting up a pole. The signal in the attic was poor even though I was able to get it higher. This was probably due to the reflective sheathing used in the new houses. I returned it and bought a Clear Stream 4. It cost quite a bit more but it is doing the job so far.

While it is better than our old indoor antenna, but it does not work as well for us like the other reviews. We are in the middle of a hill, surrounded by forest and the reception isn't as good as we had hoped. We are so remote that fios isn't offered, and comcast wants $3800 to run cables from our nearest neighbor. It is still better than what we had .

If you live in any metro area and have the know-how to install an antenna on the exterior of your home, the CM-3000HD is an awesome choice. It is simple to install and comes with everything you need except the coax cable. You will need to tap into existing rewired coax or run new coax to your installation location. It was easy for me because I use to have satellite and I used the satellite mount that was on my house to clamp the antenna to and used the existing satellite cable. I live about 32 miles from the stations and was able to pull in 62 channels with this antenna. It is omnidirectional design so I did not have to worry about pointing the antenna but I did try it in a few different directions and the results were just about the same. This antenna will also work indoors, but as expected I got better results outdoors than when installed indoors because of the signal loss caused by the walls and the roof. I replaced a indoor leaf antenna and the combination of this antenna and being outdoors my signal went from being in and out to 100% solid all of the time.

I buy this antenna and it doesn't come with a cable. At the very least you could have put that in the product overview or description. That is just poor!