Design: It’s all in the name (basic)
It doesn’t come with a stand, but it does include 3M double-sided adhesives you can use to attach the antenna to walls or other surfaces. It also comes with a 10-foot long coax cable, which is removable. The 10-foot coaxial cable is long enough for you to mount your antenna in high places.
Setup: Relatively easy
Setting up the antenna is pretty straightforward. You start by plugging one end of the coaxial cable into the antenna, and then the other end to the coaxial/antenna-in connector to your TV. Finding the best placement for the antenna is perhaps the most difficult part, as a few inches can make a difference in your available channel selection. My test home is under a canopy of trees in a pretty rural area, and I found the best placement was on the window. Ideally, you’ll want to direct the antenna towards tower transmitters, while also doing your best to reduce obstacles (think trees, electrical interference, and walls). You’ll want to place the antenna high up as well. Next, you change your TV to the correct input (usually TV, antenna, or Coax). Then, go to your TV’s menus and start the auto-programming process, which scans for available channels. The process takes a few minutes, and sometimes your TV won’t start to locate channels until about halfway through the auto-programming process.
Performance: Almost two dozen channels (in a rural area)
So many things affect an antenna’s performance—location, household electronics, tree cover, tower location, and more. The antenna displays channels of high quality. However, sometimes the channels would take a few seconds to load, and other times, I’d see a pixelated effect when I first changed the channel that would clear up after a few seconds. Once the picture was fully loaded, it was in clear high definition. The antenna is capable of displaying a clear HD picture, so I couldn’t tell the difference between the antenna’s picture and the picture from streaming services like Hulu or Netflix.
Range: 35 miles
Even with the short-range, I was able to pick up 16 channels on my first attempt, including The CW, PBS, and more. In a different room in my test home, I was able to get 23 channels, but this is probably because there’s less tree cover outside of the house on that side of the property. Considering the location of my test home, 23 channels is pretty good.
