Alrighty then! I know enough now to post some findings. As I said , I got my RCA compact Yagi antenna mounted up on my roof yesterday.
It's a very nice antenna that comes fully assembled, which is not always the case. The only thing that you have to attach is the mounting pole and base, which is included with the antenna. Most antennas that I looked at required purchasing the mounting pole separately.
So I got it mounted up and prepared to aim it. I was all set with compass coordinates and printed out maps that had directional lines overlayed on it. Then I looked in the general direction that I wanted to point it and started laughing. I'm only 17 miles in a straight line from the towers and I could clearly see them from my position on the roof. I was able to sight down the antenna like I was sighting down a rifle and aim it exactly towards the towers.
I got my coax cable attached and routed and secured with mounting clips, then routed into the house and hooked up to my TV. Time to do a channel scan. I was very surprised. I was expecting around 40.
95 channels! Most of them CRAP! Haha! But, I went through them all and I came up with 28 channels that I thought I actually would watch. Some of them show up in a couple of places.
All of the network channels are HDTV, most of the channels that feature older content, obviously aren't.
I have ordered and am still awaiting delivery of, a coax grounding block and a 100 foot roll of solid core 10 guage grounding wire.
As soon as it gets here I will wire it up just like this, which is code. It will run from the back of my house to the front electrical panel riser.
For right now, in place of the grounding block, I have a coax splicer, which I can easily unscrew and insert the grounding block.
Also, this isn't really part of the antenna installation, but just to give me more viewing choices. I ran to Target and bought a ROKU express, at $30 it's the lowest price ROKU unit available. If you are not familiar with them, they connect to your wifi and plug into an HDMI plug on your set and allows you to watch TV through your internet. If you want to have NETFLIX or HULU or one of the other streaming services, you must have a device like this to make the connection. Initially I had planned to get basic HULU ($8 per mo.) but I was surprised how much free content is available through the ROKU unit it's self! Tons of channels, scores of mostly older movies and TV shows, amazing really!
So here's where I'm at. Prior to doing this my combined high speed internet/cable TV bill was $150 per mo.
Today we called our cable company and dropped the TV portion. Our new bill for Internet only will be $55 per mo.
RCA compact Yagi antenna. $45 on eBay
50' RG6 sheilded coax cable. $13 on eBay
100' solid core 10 guage
Copper ground wire $25 on eBay
Coax ground block. $6 on eBay
Total. $89
Optional ROKU. $30. At Target
Note: this feeds just one TV in our living room, we only have one other TV in the house, a small one hanging on the wall above a treadmill in a bedroom. I intend to just hang a flat panel antenna in that room for that one TV.
$95 bucks a month back in my pocket baby!
"I can see by your eyes friend you're just about gone
Fifty-seven channels and nothin' on"