Ana Weaver
If you are the type of person who enjoys watching TV in your spare time, there is nothing more frustrating than having bad reception at that exact moment. When that happens, the quality of your watching experience drops down considerably.
Many people are switching over to different types of TV services simply because cable is becoming more and more expensive while losing out on channels. This is probably why you can notice everyone around you with an antenna on the roof of their home. With OTA (over-the-air programming) you can get more channels, better quality for a much better price.
However, that OTA has one major drawback, and that is getting the antenna placed in the proper place to catch the signals well. This can be a problem, especially if you don’t have the option to place on your roof. This means that you’ll have to place it inside which can result in a bad TV reception.
To avoid these types of problems, we have made this article to give you some tips and tricks to optimize your TV reception.
Find the source of the signal
This is the first thing that you should do to understand where the signals come from, so you can catch them well. It is also important to know the distance so you know the type of aerial you have to purchase. When you have gotten the antenna with a proper distance, and you know what is the direction of the emitter, you can aim better to get better reception.
Place the antenna high
To get the best signal possible, you should position your antenna on the highest point possible. The best situation is if you are living in an apartment building where you can place the aerial on the roof. Alternatively, you can place the aerial near a window if you are living on upper floors.
For those living in a house, the best option would be to put it on the roof. However, getting it up there and installing it can be a bit tricky, so maybe you should consider hiring professionals to do it for you as suggested by this website.
Get rid of any interfering objects
If you have placed the aerial near an object that may interfere with the signal, no matter how high you have placed it, or how much you have paid for the antenna, you will still have a bad reception. That is why you should be careful with the positioning. Materials that have metal in them, or home appliances with motors inside can ruin the signal, so make sure they are not close to the aerial that you have aimed at the emitters.
Find a new position for the antenna
If you are still having a bad reception, you should play around with the positioning of the antenna. Even though you have placed it as high as you can, you should play with the direction of it. When you open up the menu of the tuner, on the side you can see the strength of the signal. That way, you can notice whether the signal is becoming stronger or not after changing the direction of the aerial.
If changing the direction doesn’t work, you will have to find a better place for it. That does not have to mean that you are far from the perfect spot. However, you will have to try harder to get to the place where you get the best spot while watching on the menu how the signal is.
Turn your device off and on
Sometimes, the interference can be solved pretty easily, without having to move the antennas or do similar things. Maybe the first thing that you should do is to turn the tuner off, wait a little bit, then turn it on again. This might work because of things that happen when there is a short interruption, so doing this should fix the problem.
Get yourself a rotating device
To ease the process of moving or changing the direction of the aerial, to get the strongest signal, you should get yourself a rotating mount for it. That way, when you notice worsening of the image, or you open up the menu and see that the signal is bad, you can act right away.
Previously, you should’ve gone outside, and sometimes on the roof to move the aerial slightly, and then go down to check if it is good. Using a rotating mount, you can use a remote to move it in any direction. That will help you to ease the whole process of solving the bad tv reception by moving the antenna from the place that you are. When you notice a change in the menu, you will know that you have to stop moving it and you can enjoy your favorite channels.
Place a secondary aerial
There are some situations where having a single antenna does not get the job done, especially if you are living far from the emitter. That is when you should think about getting a secondary aerial that can help you to get a better signal. They can pull signals from a single emitter, or they can get signals from different emitters. When you have a bad signal from the first one, you can change to the second one.
There is one thing that you should know when installing a secondary option. That means that the cables running from both antennas have to be the same length so there is not a delay in the picture.
Conclusion
This might seem like there is too much work for an OTA tv option, however, you don’t need to do this often. It is basically done once until you reach the point where the signal is the best, and you don’t touch it after that. Having the antenna set up right, you will be able to enjoy many channels with a quality picture that the other options might not offer.