You don’t need to pay a cable provider for access to your local stations. As long as you have an HD TV antenna, you’ll be able to pick up broadcasts from whatever towers are in-proximity. But what if the nearest monolith isn’t beaming PBS into your living room? It sounds like you may want to invest in a long range TV antenna.
Where traditional antennas are designed for indoor use, long range models typically do their best work when mounted outdoors, high up on a structure. You’ll also want to make sure it’s aimed toward the towers you’d like to grab stations from.
We’ve put together this small roundup of the four best long range antennas you can buy right now. Stick around to the end to see exactly how we chose each model.
Note: Due to the shape of the Earth, the longest range you should expect to get from any TV antenna is about 70-80 miles. Estimated ranges further than this are manufacturer supplied theoretical distances based on perfect situations that likely won’t apply to your home.
Antennas Direct Clearstream 4Max
Best for getting started
- Includes 3-way splitter, coax cable, and other essentials
- Has amplifier switch
- Simple bracket mounting
- An expensive kit
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Estimated range: | 70 miles |
| Channel reception: | Hi-VHF, UHF |
| Size: | 17.4 x 31.3 x 4 inches |
| Weight: | 2.7 pounds |
The Antennas Direct ClearStream 4MAX Kit provides the overall best chance for you to get what you want out of a long range TV antenna without putting in untoward effort, either during setup or during usage. Its four coil bi-directional design is powerful and capable of receiving very clear streams, and it has all of the fixings to support it. A compatible 3-way splitter included in the kit will make sure your entire household is covered and an amplifier switch gives you easy amplification access, should you like to try the technology.
We also feel very confident in Antennas Direct’s ability to provide a long range, perhaps even further than 70 miles should you need it and have the real estate that could theoretically support it (i.e. you live atop high mountains). That’s because Antennas Direct is very upfront about the limitations of satellite TV antennas and rates the estimated range of their TV antennas with an upfront policy that emphasizes realistic geographical expectations over unworldly theoretical extrapolations.
It is the combination of completeness, honesty about the limitations of the product and the technology, and consistent customer approval of the end result that places the ClearStream 4MAX kit at the top of the charts. You’re getting a reliable kit with everything you need, after all. Yet, at the same time, this set is going to be more expensive than others and lacks unidirectional support. But, if you can’t stand to search for your own coax cables for a TV antenna and get all of the switchers and make sure it fits together in a compatible manner, this is the product for you.
PBD WA-2608
Best yagi antenna for long range viewing
- Includes remote rotation
- Lightning protected
- Supports two TVS without splitter
- Includes 40-foot coaxial cable
- Rotation requires occasional readjustment
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Estimated range: | 150 miles |
| Channel reception: | VHF, UHF |
| Size: | 17.5 x 13 x 14.5 inches |
| Weight: | 6.4 pounds |
Yagi-style TV antennas are, generally speaking, great for long range TV broadcasts due to their focused, unidirectional approach. If you live in an area with lots of far-distant broadcasts, however, they can often be a pain as many come meant to be installed in a relatively fixed position and aren’t necessarily easy to rotate at a moment’s notice. That requires much more planning than most are willing to do for their entertainment fix.
The humbly-named PBD WA-2608 fixed this issue, however, with its simple remote control that rotates the antenna’s aim at the push of a button. This way you can watch stations to the North of you one hour and to the West the next without breaking a sweat, unlike other unidirectional antennas that might require additional planning or tinkering to do so. There are some reports that you might have to readjust the antenna’s aim periodically, but with practice the control, aiming, and execution of this long range antenna should come easily.
We also like that this long range TV antenna will support up to two TVs without requiring you to purchase a splitter. Most yagi users won’t necessarily want to splurge for a splitter, due to the lack of options in different channels that comes with unidirectional antenna control, but having it built-in is a nicety that we always appreciate.
Winegard Amped Pro
Best indoor
- Ample cable to work with
- Great signal reception
- Smartphone app makes things simple
- Cable could be excessive
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Estimated range: | 60 miles |
| Channel reception: | VHF, UHF |
| Size: | 12 x 13 x 0.6 inches |
| Weight: | >1 pound |
What if you can’t put your antenna outdoors (such as if you live in an apartment or some rental properties) but still want to sample the world of long range TV antenna broadcasts? Your options will be much more limited. Part of this is because a rooftop will give you the clearest path to those far away broadcast towers, which will be a problem no matter which TV antenna you choose to go with. The other part will be that most TV antennas for the interior of your home will have an effective range closer to 30 or 40 miles. This problem the Winegard Amped Pro avoids handily, being rated up to 60 miles, which is nearly as far as a TV antenna can go.
When in use, you’ll want to slap the Winegard Amped Pro on the window that faces the majority of the stations you want to access, then connect it via Bluetooth to the Winegard Connected app. This will give you easy setup options and help you get the best signal possible. You’ll enjoy the Winegard Amped Pro’s Clear Circuit Technology which, as the name suggests, provides for clearer reception.
GE Outdoor Ultra-Pro
Best budget
- Very low cost
- Surprisingly durable
- Lifetime warranty
- Somewhat difficult installation
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Estimated range: | 70 miles |
| Channel reception: | VHF, UHF |
| Size: | 29 x 15 x 20.5 inches |
| Weight: | 3 pounds |
It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that you can get a low-tech TV antenna on the cheap in 2024. And with this model from GE, you can also get one that is able to get long range reception. The GE Outdoor Ultra-Pro can be mounted to your roof or even placed in your attic and gets a an estimated 70 miles of range, the maximum that you can expect to work well in average geographic locations.
If you should put it outside, which is definitely recommended for maximum range, you’ll find that the construction of this GE TV antenna is more solid than you might expect for a product of this price. You may, however, discover that it is somewhat difficult to construct due to the small writing on the included instructions. We recommend doing as much as you can before hauling the GE Outdoor Ultra-Pro to your roof or to find a good video tutorial before attempting the process of installing an antenna.
Frequently Asked Questions
As previously mentioned, for the best long range TV antennas, we’re looking at TV antennas that are able to pick up a good quality stream from further away than you might typically expect for the form factor. It’s why we feature both indoor and outdoor TV antennas on the list — not everyone can pop a TV antenna on their roof, after all — because there are some indoor TV antennas that can really go the extra mile (or 10 miles, as the case may be).
When we zoom in on the issue of getting the best long range TV antennas, however, there is more to the story than just the average range plus 10 miles or so. For an in-depth look at our thinking, as well as what you need to know before you get a TV antenna in 2024, consider the following:
How far can a TV antenna reach?
Realistically speaking, a TV antenna will not pick up signal over 80 miles away. If you live in a low-lying area, such as in a valley, even 60 miles might be “long range” for you.
It’s not a satisfying answer, but a TV antenna’s reach is controlled just as much by the Earth and geography as it is by the power of your antenna. The signal needed to pick up over-the-air broadcasts does not travel through solid materials very well and aren’t known for their capabilities in bouncing off the ozone layer, either. So, if you’re hoping to pick up the TV stations the residents of Osaka are watching from your home in Chicago, you’re entirely out of luck.
When manufacturers list estimated ranges for their antennas, the ones that we’ve reported here, you’ll often see ranges beyond 80 miles. If you live in super idealized situations you could theoretically get some of these long distances. The extremely tall Burj Khalifa is so tall that you can see the sunset twice if you travel from the base to the top if you plan everything right. Surely a TV antenna placed on the top of this tower could reach to far off places! But you almost certainly don’t live on the top of Burj Khalifa or Mount Everest’s peak or other idealized places.
As a result, cynicism becomes easy. However, focusing on established brands with a track record of providing decent broadcast length of 60+ miles to a variety of customers from diverse locations should alleviate a lot of your concerns. The TV antennas above are selected for a combination of their theoretical range and their actually observed range by real customers like you.
Directionality in TV antennas
TV antenna reception tends to be more linear in nature than the signal that we receive to fill up our smartphone bars. Still, though, it is quite common to find TV antennas for sale that don’t focus on a single direction. These common antennas have a relatively flat surface and can be generally considered bi-directional. They can generally be faced in just about any direction and are likely to pick up something, as they possess low (if any true) blind spots.
Still, you may consider a unidirectional, or ‘Yagi’-style, TV antenna for a more focused “shot” at the broadcasting station you want to tune in to. This can give you a more focused chance at getting good reception, especially on far-distant stations. At the same time, they can be a hassle if you like to tune in to multiple stations that face in largely differing directions as you’ll have to turn the antenna each time you want to switch stations.
For convenience, we recommend trying a bi-directional antenna first and switching to a unidirectional yagi-style antenna if you need it. If all of the stations you want are relatively far away or in the same general direction, however, starting with a yagi isn’t a horrible idea. It all depends on your tolerance for tuning.
This article is managed and created separately from the Digital Trends Editorial team.
