
I'm getting rid of my satellite TV service. I've had DirecTV for nearly 10 years now, and I'm tired of paying $64/month for a service I use so infrequently. Now with so many TV shows and movies available on the internet (such as
Hulu and Amazon's
Video on Demand service), there's a lot less need for TV subscriptions.
However, one may want TV for things like local news and breaking news. For that I'm going back to over-the-air service. But gone are the rabbit ears and fuzzy reception from last century. I'm upgrading to the digital age, and the
Winegard MS-2002 is the ideal antenna for the job.
From all of my research, I chose this antenna for several reasons:
- It's omni-directional, making installation easy. There's no need to aim it for best reception.
- It's amplified, so it will pull in weaker signals with ease.
- It's mounted outdoors, which means a bit more work on installation, but a better signal overall.
- It's inexpensive. At only $59 shipped, it's less than a month of my current TV service.
They sell a version of the antenna with 50' of coaxial cable, if you don't already have one. (I simply used one of the cables from the satellite dish on my roof; it works perfectly.) However, the difference in price is over $40, and you can get
50' (or even
100') of cable for a lot less than that.
Coupled with my government-subsidized
digital TV converter box, this makes a fine backup for internet TV. And the beauty is, once I finally get an HDTV, this antenna will work perfectly with it as well.