@craftywoman : A friend has one. You'll get a lot of channels. Funny, my husband and I just decided tonight that we were going to cut our cable, get Hulu, and buy one of those antennas.No one in my house watches TV during the weekdays. Thus I've been feeling our cable has been a waste of money.

@TheRealQuisp : Do you know what brand they have? A friend just bought one and then got Hulu and Netflex..I'm such a cable girl that I am sure when we move there full time..I will still hook up to cable..lol

@craftywoman : Are you living near Peoria or another large city?

@craftywoman : No. But I think he got it at Walmart. I'm not sure that the brand matters.

@Tazewell : Right now I live across the river..but I will be moving next year to a smaller town..about 3 hours away..

@craftywoman : How near will you be to the antennas for the nearest tv stations?www.fcc.gov/media/en gineering/dtvmaps

@Tazewell : I have local stations about a 20 miles away...

@craftywoman : You might be able to get by with a cheap non-powered antenna. I would probably get a basic Wal-Mart unit and see if it picks up all of the local channels. If not, then you will probably need to spend a bit more and get an amplified antenna.

Tazewell's link is great reference and in the Peoria market you only need a UHF antennae (HD antennas are a marketing ploy). If you mount it outdoors or in the attic, the classic DB4 should work for you, but I have seen some use a DB8 that rotates one side versus the other. I think FOX43's tower is out towards Goodfield, whereas the other ones are in East Peoria. Depending on your location, you might sacrifice one for the others. I have a DB4 and have it facing towards Goodfield since 19, 25 and 31 are close enough I probably don't even need the outside mount. That being said, I also get WAND 17 out of Decatur. I have my drop amplified to an x8 splitter for all of the bedrooms, living room, … but probably only use 3 or 4 of them.You can play around with those "drop behind the TV", inside units to see if they work for your situation. At a point though, one central unit may be cheaper than 3 or 4 individual units. I'll try and dig up the link on antenna amplifiers. I had found a site that helped calculate the amount of dB's versus footage of wire and number of splitters, … You can over amplify the signal too.

I live in Pekin and just put one up, It picks up 16 stations, All the WEEK Channels plus 47, 59 and all of their respective sub-channels all with 100% Signal Strength. Living on the East Side of the River, you may have problems with Fox, since WEEK's antennas are in Peoria and Fox is near Morton, if you use a uni-directional antenna, so I'd look for an Omni-directional one. I pointed mine, splitting the difference, at about 110°This is the one I'm using: www.amazon.com/Telev es-DigiNova-Boss-UHF -Antenna/dp/B01BYIUY HA

You can make one out of coat hangers, if you are handy.www.youtube.com/watc h?v=EWQhlmJTMzw
My brother in law did that and it works just fine.

I'm not putting mine in the area...the new house is 3 hours from this area...I have been checking them out on line..but some of them don't have very good reviews..I'm gonna need it for about 5 mths..so do want to buy a good one..

@craftywoman : If you don't feel comfortable doing so, no problem, but what town are you moving to? What elevation is the area you are living in compared to where the nearby towers are? You said you will be 20 miles from the nearest city, but the towers maybe outside of town like they are around here (Peoria station towers are in East Peoria). There are a lot of factors that will determine if you can get a simple, cheap antenna or a more advanced unit. Do you want to pick up every channel possible from surrounding areas, or is the local stations enough?

Make sure your TV is capable of getting over the air signals if not then you will need the tuner box as well as the antenna. If it can do over the air hook cable wire to it and stick it by a window. It may pick up what you need and be that simple.

For any hardcore self-installers: otadtv.com/cables/in dex.htmlGreat stuff on signal loss vs coax cable footage, splitters, ...