This has been a reluctant goal in our house for several months. We were tired of paying over $200 per month for internet and cable, but we were reluctant to give up our shows. Let’s be honest, I was reluctant, while the Hubs was more than ready. I like my shows. and I really like my DVR. Commercials are such a waste of time. But when he told me we could save about $160 A MONTH, or nearly $2,000 a year, I was convinced to at least try it. Now I’m convinced to never go back.
Confession: When the hubs and I first started dating in 2006, he did not have cable. He still had the rabbit ears antenna and approximately five channels. One played exclusively hispanic programming and another played only 70’s B-list movies. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with those types of programming. They just usually aren’t on our “must watch” list. We watched a lot of DVDs or went out.
A year later I convinced him to get cable. The next year, all local stations switched from analog to digital programming, so a basic cable box was pretty much required to watch any television. I think he has secretly been trying to figure out how to game the system ever since. Turns out, other enterprising individuals out there felt the same way. The secret is a Digital Air Antenna. We bought the ClearStream Long Range DTV Antenna
It looks a little strange, but it sure does work! We get 25 channels and 8 of them are high definition channels! We get ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS and various other local networks. My favorite unexpected channel is one called the Live Well Network and it’s like a combination of HGTV, Food Network and the Travel Channel. It seems to have shows that didn’t make the final cut for those networks, but very similar content.
You’re probably thinking “Enough convincing- tell me how you did it!” Well for that, I needed to consult the Expert and his helpful assistants. The explanation was slightly technical, but I think most people can do it.
Steps to setting up a Digital Air Antenna
- Choose your antenna range. Consult the website antennapoint.com to figure out how close the local air broadcast towers are to your residence. Type in your zipcode and it will show you the distance local channels are to where you live. This will dictate the size of the antenna you want to purchase. While most of the towers we watch are between 10 and 22 miles from our house, we bought a 50 mile range antenna to increase the quality of the signal. If the tower is 22 miles from your house and you buy a 25 mile range antenna, don’t expect stellar crystal clear HD. Buying a 50 mile range antenna means we not only get channels from the Nashville towers, but also Bowling Green towers. Live in an apartment and can’t mount a mini spaceship off your balcony? No problem, consider this Ultra Thin Indoor HDTV Antenna & Amplifier Combo
(affiliate link). The signal may not be as good since brick and other building materials interfere with signals.
- Choose your antenna location. While you’re on that website, also note the direction those towers lie in relation to your house. We live north east of Nashville, so we mounted our antenna on the south side of our house, pointing towards the towers. Mount the antenna according to local codes and construction regulations. For us, that meant the hubs got a masonry hammer drill to properly anchor it into our brick house.
- Modify cable feed junctions. Locate where your cable is coming in from the service provider. If you have wireless internet, find your router and work backwards towards the power lines. For us, the feed comes in at the same location as our electricity with a coaxial cable splitter. I am assuming you have wireless internet and plan to keep it, which is what we did. Below is a graphic of our set up before with cable and after with the digital antenna replacing our cable feed but KEEPING the internet feed.
- Unplug existing cable boxes. Plug the cable line originally going directly into your cable box in to your Television. Make a note of what input you plugged the cable in to.
- Reconfigure your channel set up. This sounds hard, but it’s probably the easiest part. Try to find your television manual from back whenever you bought it and follow the directions to rescan for channels. If you can’t find your manual, press menu on your remote and look for “set up” or “settings”. Then look for channel set up or channel scan. Reconfigure your input source. The choices may include “analog”, “air”, “antenna”, “broadcast”, or even “cable off”. It really just depends on your television. Once your input source is correct, then rescan your channels. Again, it will depend on your television and I highly recommend consulting your manual if you have issues with it. Having said that, I’m a rebel and was too lazy to get our manual. Got it on the second scan. Boom!
- Now the hardest part: Call your service provider and cancel your service. It really is the hardest part. The moment you say you want to cancel your cable service, your provider suddenly becomes the most helpful call center you’ve ever encountered. They offered to cut our bill by 30%, which was really tempting to me. Good thing I had the former Army Captain call. He just chuckled and said “Dude, I’m watching the big game on 1080i for free right now, I’m good.”
Don’t worry ladies, it isn’t all football. You can still watch Matthew McConaughey too! ;)
In the spirit of full disclosure, we still have a Netflix and Hulu plus subscription, which we access through our Roku 3500R Streaming Stick (HDMI)
So are you ready to quit cable? Have you already done it and have some more tips? Let me know in the comments below!
Your description of meeting your husband when he had a “rabbit ears” antenna and five channels to substitute for cable is an amusing one. The graphic is very informative.
It’s good that you warn readers about local regulations. Paying attention to these before you actually mount the antenna is a wise thing to do.
This is so awesome. I am always looking to make and save some extra cash and I definitely think this will help! Thanks so much for sharing, I am so tempted to just go ahead and cut my cable!
So happy to find this on Pinterest!
We have never had any kind of up-to-date tv arrangements and have always just had the 4 or 5 local channels. (We live in a pretty rural area on a dirt road, so no cable has come through and since we are in the woods we don’t have a clear view of the southern sky for satellite). Thankfully, the one and only program I love is one we do get and that happens to be LIVE WELL NETWORK! It is as vital as air and water, lol! But the rest of the family would like to have more channels, so we are going to try this. But my question is, where do we buy this from?
Hi MaryJane, you can purchase it through amazon at the link in my post. Thanks for reading!
I am so tempted! I have to check to see if we can do this where we live, I would love to get rid of our $150 Satellite TV bill. Fingers crossed!
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Exciting! I hope it works for you!
Oh boy, I feel you on the whole DVR thing! Thanks for the great money-saving tutorial and happy SITS day!
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Thanks Jean!
I’m so glad you wrote this post. We’ve been “without cable” for over 2 years now (but we do have Netflix streaming, Hulu, and Amazon Prime), and I’ve looked into an antenna before. It’s good to hear that it works from someone who has tried it!
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Hi Nikki, It was super easy. And now we can watch tons of local television like the news and primetime programming. We will NEVER go back to Cable!
Wow, thanks for the helpful advice. However, we live in the beautiful mountains of WV and I wonder if this would work for us. At one time I tried the box for the over the air HD channels, when they first switched over and it did not work. I realize the system you describe is more complex and probably would work better but still…the mountains are in the way. What do you think?
Hi Joyce! Well, I would think as long as you have a clear site line of the sky, you should be able to access the reception towers. You can always try it and return it if it doesnt work!
You just won an ongoing argument for me between myself and my husband. I HATE paying for cable when we hardly watch it but his old school mentality is like “but how will we watch tv!?” and he’s a sucker for HD. I’m totally doing this. Gonna save my $200/mo to come visit you for a girls weekend in Nashville lol
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YAY! It is so freaking easy! I haven’t missed it a single day because we watch everything on Netflix. Can;t wait for you to come to Nashville :) Woop!
I made the decision to cut cable over the summer. I guess it was easier for me that most because I only had basic cable in the first place. My antenna isn’t as fancy as yours but I live in an apartment so my little RCA antenna is perfect. I love my ROKU and I just upgraded to Hulu Plus. Netflix was already in my arsenal. I hadn’t heard of Vudu, so I’ll be looking into that. The only thing I miss about having cable is the on screen channel guide and having a DVR. But now that I have Hulu Plus I won’t miss the DVR,,,,, as much. This is a great post. People really need to know that they have options. Now if I can just figure out an effective home internet option. I’ll be GREAT!!! LOL
Exactly Angie! Glad we’re on the same page. Check out Vudu for the cable shows you just can’t miss or wait for. For me, that will be AMC’s The Walking Dead. Thanks for visiting and taking the time to comment!
Interesting! I’ve never seen an antenna like that before. We don’t have cable at our house either- and we don’t miss it!
It’s a very powerful antenna Brenda! I am loving having less channels to mindlessly flip through. Thanks for stopping by!
My mom would love to do this but there is no way my dad would ever go for this.
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Well, maybe if he knew what kind of money they could save! Thanks for visiting and commenting!
I think our family could exist entirely on Netflix, Hulu Plus, and DVDs after they adjusted but no one cares enough to save that cash but me. I’m going to keep trying though! I wonder if telling them, look we can save x number of dollars a month and x number of dollars a year if we cut cable. Worth a try anyway :)
Meaghan from DIYfaerie
Definitely worth a try. My husband sold me on it by saying “Hey we can take a vacation with those dollars saved”. Done!
I so wish we could do this! Hubs would never go for it he loves all his TV channels way to much. We have the best Direct TV package you can get. Thanks for linking up at Mommy needs a time out!
Goofball Mommy
http://www.goofballmommy.com
We cut the cord 4 months ago, but I wouldn’t call our setup ideal exactly. We have been far too busy to really look into it but my brother-in-law lent us his antenna contraption that is sitting in our living room. We get about 25-30 channels but they change throughout the day and many of them are non-english speaking channels. We have a “Create TV” channel which sounds just like your Live Well Network. I think it might be local since the picture is always clear. Do your channels change during the day as well? My husband is not happy about the loss of his ESPN.
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No, the channels dont change. Maybe if you got an outdoor antenna, the signal would be stronger and you might get better channels. Or, you can set the indoor antenna closer to a window. That might help too. Thanks for stopping by!
Very cool! I am going to show this link to my hubby and see if we can do this!
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Awesome! I really don’t miss it at all. And side bonus, more time for blogging ;) Thanks for visiting and taking the time to comment!
We have been looking for a way to cut our costs lately and this seems perfect! Thanks for sharing this info! I am definitely talking with the hubs tonight.
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That’s great Tammie! I hope you can do it and come back to tell me about how many more channels you have. Thanks for stopping by and especially for commenting!
We live in a rural area I wonder if it’d work for us. Seems super cool and cutting costs are always a good thing!!
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It would be a snap for you to check at the antenna point link above. As long add the antenna is pointed at the sky without interference and you’re in range you’re golden! Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
This is awesome! My husband would never be able to figure it out though, haha!
Well if he can’t, you certainly can! Boiled down, its hang, plug, scan, call. BOOM! Go Ana! Lol. Well I hope that encourages you. Maybe ya’ll could call the genius teenager down the street to hook it up for you. Thanks for visiting and commenting!
I went to the antenna site and it shows 8 satellite locations within 50 miles. Dumb question, does that mean we would only get 8 channels?
That’s a great question! There are only about 15 transmitters near us. But we get nearly 30 channels. Most stations broadcast 2-3 channels. The three big affiliates (ABC, NBC & CBS) carry three different channels each. My favorite, The Live Well Network is carried by our ABC affiliate. Another great place to check is http://www.tv.com/listings/ then edit your settings to choose over-the-air broadcast. That will give you an idea of what channels you’d get if your antenna is situated to catch all the signals in range.
What a cool device! We don’t have cable in our house either… I just think it’s such a waste of money for the most part!
I totally feel that way now! I can’t believe how long we were throwing away so much money. It hurts my heart. Thanks for commenting!
How neat! I am showing this to my husband. I have to admit I have no clue how anything with plugs and wires works. I love the white dresser TV stand, too. Very vintage/retro.
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Thanks Jill! It really is just as easy as the graphic I drew in the post. I’m sure you can figure it out, but if not your Hubby can. I’m not joking when I say the toughest part is cncelling your service- LOL!
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