Winegard FL5500A FlatWave Amped Digital HD Indoor TV Antenna – Amplified, 4K & ATSC 3.0 Ready, High-VHF/UHF, 60 Mile Range, Dual Color, 6 ft Cable

Like many people, I've been doing some reading about ditching cable and being able to solely subsist on over the air channels and get rid of the cable bill. I watch very little TV - mostly I'm into documentaries and what little TV I do watch is news. Obviously, turning off cable and going it alone with just an antenna I realize I'd lose all the cable TV news channels. But I wanted to at least do some testing to see what I'd be able to pull in.Also, being that I live in Florida on the coast, one of the other goals I had for this series of tests was to find a decent antenna to see exactly what channels I'd have access to in the event of a hurricane.Before I post results and conclusions of the tests, here is some information on what I've tested and with what devices:Antennas:I tested four:Mohu Sky HDTV AntennaThe SKYHDT is designed to be mounted although it can easily be hung in a corner of a room or in an attic. My tests using it, to be fair to the antenna and to Mohu, were not done with the antenna mounted and no doubt better results will be obtained if that's the case. Other reviews here on Amazon can attest to that. My goal was to see how well it performed compared to the others and under similar conditions and from similar locations in my apartment.Winegard Company FL-5000 FlatWave HDTV Indoor Digital Flat Antenna - Made in USAMohu Leaf Paper-Thin Indoor HDTV Antenna - Made in USAThe Wineguard and Mohu Leaf are very similar in design in that they are both flat and thin and can easily be hung from a wall or window.RCA Basic Indoor AntennaThe RCA Indoor Antenna is your basic set of what we used to call "rabbit ears" as it has protruding dipoles.I tested these antennas using two TVs:LG 42LD450 42-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LCD HDTVViore PLC7V96 (not purchased from Amazon)TELEVISIONThe LG is a standard 42 inch LCD TV and the Viore is a small portable - exactly the kind of TV you'd use if power goes out and your limited to battery operated devices.During testing, I didn't notice any difference in the ability of one TV to pull in more stations than the other which indicates I have functioning tuners in both for UHF and VHF. That's why you'll see only one set of results.When indicated during testing, I used the following coax cable to connect the TV to the antenna(s):Mediabridge Coaxial Digital Audio Video Cable - (50 Feet) - Triple Shielded, F-Pin to F-Pin with Easy Grip Connector CapsThis is an excellent cable with solid connectors. It's a bit stiff which is to be expected. Any Mediabridge product I've purchased from Amazon has always been of high quality (HDMI cables, etc.).Note that the Wineguard antenna has a 15 foot cable that cannot be detached. In my testing I added the 50 foot Mediabridge as ultimately it had to perform using the 50 foot cable as the 15 foot cable simply wouldn't be long enough to reach my TV(s). The Mohu Leaf comes with a 6 foot antenna but again, I tested with the Mediabridge 50 foot cable for the same reason. The RCA antenna comes with a 6 foot cable as well (non detachable).Here are some somewhat surprising results.Although these tests only show 3 physical locations I experimented with various locations to find these three which yielded the best results overall. Like others I found that moving the antenna even just a foot or so could mean a big difference. Weather also influenced the results. One day I did some testing during a huge rainstorm and the number of channels dropped considerably.SkyHDTV:Outside - in front of my apartment: 30 channels (tested with included 30 foot cable)Inside - hung from south facing window: 25 channels (tested with included 30 foot cable)Inside - hung from the center of south wall: 25 channels (tested with included 30 foot cable)The SkyHDTV brought in more channels than the others, but I was surprised to find out that it didn't outperform the others by much and in fact, in some cases, depending on location it didn't outperform the other antennas at all. It's important to note as I've mentioned elsewhere that this antenna, by design should be mounted on a mast which I did not do - I merely wanted to test it against the others in the same exact conditions where I'd be using it. One other item to mention: the rubber gasket that is used to join the two of the halves of this antenna was not installed properly on the antenna I received. In fact, I consider it a defect on the unit I received. While I don't think it affected the antenna performance, I returned it solely because I realized that if indeed I ever did want to mount this antenna outside, the gasket wouldn't protect the insides of the unit. I don't see this as a reflection on the device, but simply as a problem with the unit I received. All in all I gave this antenna 5 stars as it did ultimately pull in more channels than the others and I suspect mounted on an mast would do even better.Winegard Company FL-5000 FlatWave HDTV Indoor Digital Flat Antenna:Outside - in front of my apartment: 25 channels (tested with included 15 foot cable)Inside - hung from south facing window: 25 channels (tested with Mediabridge 50 foot cable and included 15 foot cable and connector)Inside - hung from the center of south wall: 25 channels (tested with Mediabridge 50 foot cable and included 15 foot cable and connector)Mohu Leaf Paper-Thin Indoor HDTV Antenna:Outside - in front of my apartment: 25 channels (tested with Mediabridge 50 foot cable)Inside - hung from south facing window: 27 channels (tested with Mediabridge 50 foot cable)Inside - hung from the center of south wall: 25 channels (tested with Mediabridge 50 foot cable)The Wineguard and the Mohu Leaf performed almost identically. I would say any difference in how many channels they pulled in is probably an anomaly. I would consider both of these pretty good antennas and it would be a draw as to which one is better. The one advantage of the Mohu over the Wineguard is that the Wineguard's 15 foot antenna cannot be detached - 15 feet is either a long enough for your purpose or - like what I had to resort to, you'll have to add a connector and more cable.RCA Basic Indoor Antenna:Outside - in front of my apartment: 24 channelsInside - placed in south facing window: 28 channels (tested with Mediabridge 50 foot cable)Inside - hung from the center of the south wall: 25 channels (tested with Mediabridge 50 foot cable)The big surprise: The cheap, inexpensive "rabbit ears" performed as well as the Wineguard and the Mohu Leaf. I was nothing less than astonished to see these results. Of course, the aesthetics of the Mohu Leaf and the Wineguard are somewhat better as you can hang either of them on a wall or in a window and they are mostly unobtrusive. Since these "rabbit ears" sit very well behind a curtain on my south facing window and can't be seen, that's where it sits right now - and where I'll probably leave it.If you're looking for a cheap, simple solution to give you an antenna for a portable TV for a hurricane? You can't go wrong with the RCA Passive Indoor Antenna. I fully expected this antenna to be subpar, but in retrospect I'm glad I got one to test. I'll be keeping it. I also wound up keeping the Mohu Leaf and sent back the Wineguard and that could have been a coin toss as to which one I was going to keep - they are both very good. I'll also probably get another set of RCA "rabbit ears" and keep those for a backup as well or to use on another TV.Other notes:1. Reading the results of what other people have discovered and the number of channels they pulled in, I expected better results based on my location and other factors. While not unhappy with the results, it seems I'm not located close enough to the source transmissions or my location in an apartment on the ground floor doesn't allow for the kind of reception I need to pull in distant stations. By the way, I'm located about 30 miles north of West Palm Beach in Stuart, Florida just in case anyone is from my area. They may be able to have at least some findings to test against or use as a comparison. Note that 95 percent of the broadcasts I was trying to pull in are located almost due south of me or due south west. You can find the stations that broadcast in your area by going to TV Fool DOT com or Antenna Web DOT org and several other sites easily found online.2. I did do limited testing from a second floor outdoor staircase just to see if my results would change substantially but they did not. I didn't include those results simply because they were almost the same as the testing I did outside from the front of my apartment.In the end I don't think I'll cancel cable just yet, but I'm pretty happy knowing I can get at least 25 or so channels in the event of a hurricane. How many of those will remain up during and after a storm?Those tests I hope I don't get a chance to report back on!

This antenna is like Evander Holyfield. It's the Real Deal. I've purchased 3 other antennas; one was cheaper, one about the same price, and one almost twice the price. I won't call those others out by name; I'll just happily say that this one beat 'em all, EASILY. The best of 'em (the pricier one) received 88 channels, and 10 of those had shoddy reception. Winegard FL5500A received 98 channels, with B+ reception or better. Side note: I live in Santa Clara, CA and the channels I mostly watch are MeTV, MeTV+, MeToons, Catchy, Heroes, Cozi, and AntennaTV. Thank you, Winegard!

Was able to pick-up local channels and get a pretty good picture most of the time but weather was an issue, didn't look all that pretty stuck to a window and the stick tabs keep wearing out due to the sun's rays but, did for the most part, what it was intended to do

This is my 2nd purchase. I purchased the first antenna in the fall of 2014 for $40 mainly to see the state of “Over the Air” broadcasting. At the time of the purchase we had an analog cable TV subscription that cost more each year and had fewer channels.I placed the antenna over a chair in a room of the house that just happened to be located the furthest away from the major broadcast towers. I was pleasantly surprised to be able to pick up about 30 channels. Depending on how I jiggled the antenna I could add a few channels and lose a few. After 2 months of testing, I decided to move the antenna into another room of the house.Our house has a coaxial connection in every room of the house. All the coax connections home-run from a closet in the room that is closest to all the broadcast towers. This is the room of the house that I moved the antenna to and placed it in a window that just happened to be dual-pane and low-E. I was pleasantly surprised to pick up about 40 channels. For grins I tried it without the preamp and was down to 1 channel. I later confirmed this with other brands that were not amplified, and at best was able to get 1-3 channels but not without issues. The amplifier was definitely required in our location. I tried the antenna flat against the wall and even flat against the window, but it seemed to pick up more channels when I wedged it in-between the two shades on the window (see photo). I've seen "curved" antenna's and now I had a "curve" antenna and signal reception was even better than flush on the window or wall. Because it was wedged in between the two shades, it was easy to take down for cleaning.I connected it to the main distribution network in the house which has a 1:8 HDTV drop amp with 4.5dB of amplification. In each room of the house that has a cable jack I ended up running the signal through a 2nd 1:4 HDTV drop amp with 7.5dB of amplification and was able to get from 40-50 channels depending on the TV or DTV converter box that we were using, so even though the antenna was in a fixed location there was enough of a difference between coaxial runs and different hardware to account for up to 10 channels.For grins, I opened the window and moved the antenna outdoors and was able to get 55 local channels and all the other tuners in the house varied by 3-5 channels, but obviously this was not an outdoor antenna - just wanted to know how much the “house” was actually causing us to lose in signal strength and channel availability.I ran this setup for another 3 months after I had cut the proverbial cable and would eventually decided to purchase a bigger outdoor antenna which in reality was not that much bigger but I also purchased the outdoor version of the same Winegard amplifier used on the FL5500A product. The outdoor antenna with mast mounted preamp got us 96 total channels while mounted on the side of the house at a height between 9 and 10 feet. Of those channels we paired those down to 42 that we like and can receive the same channels on all the hardware in the house. The bigger antenna lets us pull signals as far away as 120 miles even though it’s only rated for 60+ miles.So this antenna with its amplifier worked very well for us. We gave one to our daughter and picked up a 2nd unit. It’s our backup antenna in case something should happen to the outdoor antenna.The number of channels that you can pick up will vary by geographic location, home orientation, building materials used within a home, and location within a room. If you live very close to broadcast towers, the amplifier may actually hurt as it would overdrive signals - you’ll have to play with it to find what works best for your installation. For us, the amplifier was absolutely essential for both this indoor and our current outdoor antenna. Both use the Winegard amplifier.