If you’re considering doing the cord-cutter thing where you cancel your cable or satellite subscription in favor of DTV or DTV+Internet television, it helps to know what type of reception you’re going to get so you know what type of outdoor antenna to buy. In most instances if you need a DTV antenna, chances are you probably don’t need some super-ritzy $300 setup – or then again maybe you do.
DTV.gov is the web site for all things DTV, and arguably the most useful part of the web site is the DTV Reception Map.
When you go there, punch in your City/State or just your ZIP code, and all channels available will be shown in the sidebar on the left. It’s color coded so you can easily figure out what you’ll get. Green is strong, yellow is moderate, brown is weak and red means not available (in that area).
Here are two example locations:
Tampa, FL: You can see from the results on this link that there are plenty of channels in the green, meaning a basic indoor antenna should get the job done with no problem.
Webster, MA: This location has only one channel in the green, one channel in yellow and the rest in brown. If you lived in this location, it would be more or less mandatory to use a roof-mounted outdoor antenna.
If you want to cut the cord, use the DTV map to see what’s available for free and how much antenna you actually need to buy to receive stations.
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http://www.tvfool.com and rabbitears.com does a heck of a better job of presenting this information in a useful format.
I think you meant http://www.rabbitears.info/ with that second link
Your link goes to a children’s book site. I honestly prefer the link Rich used in the article. It’s simpler and gives me the basics I need faster.