VHF and UHF TV Antennas Explained

This video explains the three different type of TV antennas designed to pick up certain frequencies. UHF tends to be a bow-tie or 8 figure while VHF is a long solid line. There is NO SUCH THING as an HD antenna. Do not use that term as a keyword to search for the right TV antenna for your area. For best reception antennas should be mounted outside with a preamp.

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[AntennaMan]

📡 Click below for a list of recommended antennas 👇
📡 Do you have reception problems? You may need a better antenna. Consider an antenna recommendation from me below:

[martindurkin]

Very concise no long winded explanations. Thanks very much Tyler!

[dalebertdurando]

Annoying that antenna ads tout ranges in miles, some as high as 990 miles. They also claim HD as you mentioned, and 1080i or possibly 4K, that have nothing to do with the antenna itself. Its still a radio signal at the antenna. In the olden days they advertised 'made for color TV'. It seems the antenna industry is pretty corrupt. I wish there was a way get them to show beamwidth, dB gain vs frequency, and such. Glad you folks are educating the public.

[genesky]

Truth and Quality.
Practical and Useful Information.

The current UHF channels are, 14 thru 51. Will be reduce to 14 thru 36.

VHF High Band channels are, 7 thru 13.

VHF Low Band channels are, 2 thru 6.

[BDWFilms]

Wow, thank you so much for making this video. This was extremely helpful and informative, I know exactly what antenna I need now!

[robertogalvez]

Hey Tyler, another good video thanks.

There are more types of TV antennas than those mentioned in your video. You also have the omnidirectional antenna that allows you to pick up signals 360 degrees around. These are mix VHF/UHF, low gain antennas. Most have an internal amplifier included.


You also have passive and active TV antennas. The difference is that active antennas have a dipole that receives DC power to amplify the signals received. An example of this type of antenna is the Televes DATBOSS Mix UHF VHF Amplified Outdoor antenna.


Cheers,

[ronedwards]

Our market has 1 high VHF channel and the rest are UHF. I tried everything at my fringe location.
Surprisingly the RCA 751 (now 752) on the box. Worked far better than anything! Adding the preamp gained 14 more channels. I’m glad there are no low VHF channels here. RCA makes a few monster antenna’s with low VHF.

[DrGreenThumb]

Wow this really helps a lot, I actually thought it was the other way around! Thanks!

[tbkulavik]

I live in Northwest Indiana right between the Chicago and South Bend Market. I put up a Wineguard 360 degree omnidirectional amplified antenna and picked up 75 channels, everything that I would expect to receive I got in. In December WBBM (CBS2 Chicago) which is channel 2.1 and broadcasts off real channel 12, a high VHF signal and I quit picking it up no matter how many times I scanned. I bought a VHF retrofit antenna om Amazon from Antenna Direct and all I did was zip tie it to the mast beneath the Wineguard antenna and did not even hook up any coaxial to the VHF retrofit antenna and went in and scanned the TV and I started picking up CBS2 Chicago and it's two sub channels again, it really blew my mind that it came in without hooking up any coaxial. So you are right if your antenna is only setup to receive UHF stations you won't pick up the lower band stations unless you have that long element present on your antenna. You also right that you will never pick anything up from over 80 miles away unless your antenna is up on a high tower. Thanks for the information.

[victoryfirst]

Job well done Tyler, simple and to the point. A plus plus rating.

[nothingknitting]

THANK YOU!
I am in real IA about 90 miles from Des Moines and 80 miles from Omaha. I would live some help with this. My husband's favorite thing is his tv.

[Redheadedwizard]

I had a question about antanas and you have answered them so well thank you

[jacklabloom]

I have a VHF/UHF antenna in my attic. It has two baluns and a pre-amp VHF/UHF combiner with separate gains for VHF and UHF. I found I needed no extra gain for VHF but needed maximum gain for the UHF. I paid $46.00 the antenna a year ago, but the same antenna is now priced at $99.00.

I get 42 channels on my new antenna. The original large triangle shaped roof mounted antenna only picked up 14 channels. It was an old Channel Master installed on a tall pole at the peak of my roof back in 1983. It had guy wires tied off on four corners to support it in high winds. I am surprised it was never struck by lightning. I imagine being exposed to weather for that many years caused some losses in continuity on some of the elements.

The roofers removed the old antenna two years ago to put a new roof on the house. They wanted a hundred dollars to put it back up. I sold it for the aluminum at the recycling center.

My house is 1200 feet above sea level, and I have clear line of site to the stations, even from my attic. Going up on the roof would give me another five feet. There are no taller mountains between my house and the television station towers. The towers are around 14 up to 60 miles away from me, in opposing directions.

How much distance am I giving up by leaving the antenna inside the attic? Is that amplifier making up for the loss? If I run RG-6 instead of using the original RG-59 installed back in 1983, would I see any substantial benefit?

My new antenna is a lot smaller. I could easily attach it to roof mounted pole where my satellite dish is, by removing the dish. I quit using the dish a year ago. DirectTV was charging me $127.00 per month. So I have saved quite a bit. I already had internet. We stream TV as well as watch over the air broadcasts channels. Some of broadcast channels are HD and look better than streamed channels. Streaming is compressed and decompressed I think. The problem with doing that is the pre-amp? I can't use the pre-amp outdoors. It requires 120 volts and is not waterproof. It is supposed to be mounted close to the antenna.

If I use a passive VHF/UHF combiner like the Channel Master at the antenna and then use an inline amplifier behind the TV set, the loss in the cable will be substantial. That Satellite RG-6 cable run is sixty feet. It is on the highest point of the roof on the north end of the house. My one TV is on the south end of the house.

I know this is long and probably detailed too much, but other people might have a similar situation. Trying to decide whether or not moving the antenna to the roof would be worth it. I don't want to have to make too many trips up onto that roof peak. It is thirty feet from the ground. I have a fear of heights so when I am up there, it gets pretty tense. I can do it, but taking all the right gear up the first time would be ideal. Coming down is harder than going up for me.

Any advice would be appreciated, if you have the time. If not, I understand. You can't take time to answer everyone's questions. Thank you for your YouTube channel. You explain things really well. I'll keep watching either way.

[mikevesely]

hello my name is mike, i just started in the outdoor antenna world, lol .i started with the 1by1 360 antenna witch it worked good for awhile till all the time signal would go in and out the amount of channels would be from 35 to 45 this one cam with an amp witch was crap, i broke one and bought 2 other waste of money 80 dollars for this .so i went to lows to buy a real nive one which is an GE Pro Attic Mount TV Antenna, Outdoor, Attic, Long Range Antenna, Digital, HDTV Antenna, 4K 1080P VHF UHF, Compact Design, 29884 this works better then the one with an amp i get 65 to 75 with this and they all come in .i live in dunedin florida 34698 580 and us 19 very close to that .im learning alot just by watching your videos lots of help and i found another antenna im going to by and try which is a Winegard YA7000C TV Antenna with Mount, VHF-Low and High VHF/UHF ive been reading alot on this sounds like i would get more channels with it the what i get now, i have cb radios which bigger is better and taller the better but im doing better with an antenna with out an amp then with one .please help me and let me know it the winegard is a good one it will be about 9 feet off the roof i live in a trailer mobile home .i like the ge antenna but i also like the winegard good made antennas i like .ok get back to me thanks

[robertcuthill]

I'm about 30 miles from phila, (335 deg. to the towers). Just to test the OTA waters and to hopefully cut the cord I set up Clear Stream single "8" on a 25' pole at the gazebo in my back yard. I'm getting about 77 channels out there. I watched the Eagles game on Fox29.1 on Sunday -Yea Go Eagles! and I had a perfect HD picture the whole game. But it can't get the illusive ABC-6 vhf low. So today I ordered a Wingard 7000c with the low ban element extenders.
. Glad to see Antenna Man using a similar antenna as an example for a decent low vhf antenna. Wish me luck. I'll let you know how it goes.

[victoryfirst]

Hello Tyler, Hope I got you name right. Sorry if I messed up. Why do UHF signals cover such a large number of channels and VHF is split into two, low and high ??? Any help will greatly be appreciated Sir. Good day to you.

[iainsimo]

I'm from Australia. Surprised to hear there are still VHF Low frequencies in the all digital TV era in the US. Back in the day we had Analogue channels broadcasting on VHF low Channels 0-5 which saw some massive antennas in Fringe reception areas. It was really only channels 0-2 that required the really long elements, though. As FM radio expanded, channels 3, 4 & 5 were dropped as their sound frequency crossed the FM Band. Now, with all digital, there are no UHF stations below channel 6 and most regional areas are all UHF.

[rockyroller]

If low VHF needs longer rods why wont it pick up High band VHF ?

Can you recommend a Indoor / Attic Antenna for low and high Band VHF and UHF Thank you Rocky

[jamesm]

I'm so happy that my market only has one VHF station while all the other stations are UHF. I actually have my GE Pro Outdoor/Attic(29884) antenna aimed at that VHF tower as I am able to pick up all available channels in my area(39581) with no preamp unlike the false information Antenna Web provides.

[TalosValheru]

Tyler, I tried the link for Recommended VHF Low/High/UHF Antennas (HD7000R) and it appears to be discontinued. Can you recommend another model?