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Review on Winegard FreeVision FV-30BB - Indoor/Outdoor Digital HDTV Antenna (4K Ultra-HD & ATSC 3.0 Ready) - 30 Mile Range High Performance HD TV Antenna by David Dugas

Revainrating 4 out of 5

- Generally a good antenna - installation could be a bit easier.

- Firstly, I install several outdoor TV antennas every year, so I have a lot of experience with antennas and cables. I wanted to try this model as I'm always looking for small, powerful antennas to install and recommend. This one costs under $40 with free shipping, great deal. It was pretty easy to put together. It comes with 1 U-bolt for attachment, I would recommend using 2. The antenna is very light, but it is better to stabilize it with top and bottom clamps. Speaking of the U-bolt and mounting design, it's difficult to get access to the two screws to tighten everything up. The screws fit snugly into the antenna so a correct size open end or ratchet wrench is required to smooth it out a bit. It is almost impossible to tighten with standard pliers. I installed this antenna on top of my radio tower at my house, about 20 feet off the ground. I had a 40ft mini RG59 from another project so I used it to connect to the antenna and go down to the basement. I quickly scanned the channels and ALL of our locals were clean. Some of our stations are nearby, others are over 80 miles away. I'm very impressed with the reception characteristics of this little antenna and for the price it's hard to beat. I docked 1 star because the screws are positioned when tightened, but that's not a deal breaker. I would more than recommend this antenna to a friend of mine. I would also recommend using good quality coax to feed the line. RG6 is the standard today, but RG59 is fine for shorter runs as long as it's a good quality cable. The location of the antenna is one of the most important points for reception. Using this indoors will reduce your range significantly, typically by half. This antenna is so compact and lightweight that it fits in almost any type of outdoor mount. Install it on the front of the house, cornice, etc. A panel mount is good for this too. If you have an old bowl in your house that is no longer used, remove the bowl and mount it on a stand. If the old cable is still there, you can use it to feed the cable and it's probably already routed to where you want it on your TV. It is also recommended to use a grounding block outdoors to ground the antenna in the event of a lightning strike. This is a great antenna for the money. Unless you're on the fringes, I think this will work fine for most applications.

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