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Hello Best Buy customer Pat! It is really great that you are asking this question as there are a lot of people out there these days who want to cut the cable or just want to experience over-the-air TV program viewing. I live in a rural area with lots of tall trees, etc. and I am able to receive over forty-five (45!) channels with the "non-amplified" version of this same antenna. This antenna is modeled after military "mud flap" technology which, they say, the armed forces have used to successfully bring in signals. This antenna has received top ratings by a lot of trusted sources--for good reasons! That being said, everyone's experiences (successes "&" failures!) in being able to pull in stations depends on a lot of variables. First, I would advise you to go on the website TVFool.com which is just one of the many websites which people can use to identify the location and distance of the over-the-air TV stations which they should be able to receive with an HDTV antenna in their locale. If you go on TVFool.com and then click onto "If you'd like to check your location click here" and then enter your zip code you will see "loading terrain & transmitter bases" and then the chart will populate. You will also be able to see the location of your broadcast towers and the distance that they are from you. The TV channels in the "green" area are the ones that one can probably receive with an indoor HDTV antenna and the channels in the yellow and red areas require an attic or rooftop antenna respectively. Please remember that there are "little" things one can do to increase their chances for success with this and other indoor HDTV antennas. I replaced my "aluminum" mini blinds in the window that this antenna was positioned in with "VINYL" ones as the aluminum blinds caused major TV broadcast reception problems. This occurs particularly if the aluminum blinds are resting "between" the antenna and where the TV broadcast towers are located! Try placing the antenna in a window as high up as you can and limit the length of any Coaxial extension cable which you may choose to employ. Also, please be aware that the type of Coaxial cable incorporated into this Winegard FL5500A antenna is "RG-59" and not RG-6! I, mistakenly, used an RG-6 Coax cable as an extension and that even had a negative impact on the consistent reception performance of my stronger TV stations. Don't assume that you need the most expensive (many times, amplified) antenna if your TV broadcast towers are close to you--say, within 20 miles or so. Also, if you can easily get the major network stations in your area with little or no reception problems and you want to pull in your weaker TV stations with an "amplified" HDTV antenna, your ability to receive the stronger stations may be impaired. Websites like TVFool.com will tell you the "direction" of your broadcast towers, the distance they are located from you, and other facts such as indoor antenna, attic or rooftop mounted antenna capabilities. This Winegard FL5500A indoor HDTV antenna is supposed to have a range of 50 miles I believe.
I would recommend:
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.We are in rural WI. We have 2 main stations 20 miles to our East, and one 80 miles to our West. We purchased the Winegard-FlatWave Amped version and it picks up all 3 major networks and 25 other stations. We do not mount it to the wall because to get the station 80 miles to the west we have to drape it over a wall hanging on our west wall, but it was worth it to pick up the Olympics! It does not pixelate by just walking near the TV as the cheaper antenna we used prior.
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