I been trying to get TV hooked up with dish network. They make the appointment to when they can come and install the dish etc.. Yesterday was the 4 time they haven't showed on the day they said they would, afternoon or morning.

We have talked to ~8 different people since February and they reschedule, and no one shows up. It is like working with a business from a 3-world country. No one has a clue what or how to fix the issue. I know it is hard to believe but not any of the people are on the same page. Bad information, lied too and very poor communication flow and have spent close to 8 hours with calls and np results.

If I had any other choice in a reasonable price, I would tell dish to, well I can't say that here.

So, does anyone use an antenna in a rural area and can get a few stations. I see they have them for inside and outside. Any help or direction would be appreciated.

We had antenna tv for years. I think it was like 18 local channels.

Mounted on a 20ft pole. The purple martins enjoy it too.

You must be in an area not far from tower and good signal high population areas. I think if I could get 2 or 3 channels, I would be a lucky man. We are talking remote one way in and one way out.

how good is your internet ?

you obviously have internet

see where your local stations are , if someone stuck a mountain between you and your 700 feet below peak and the station is also 700 feet lower , your not going to get much.
with the digital tv your looking at about 50 miles range on most stations without getting extra special.

they might have a repeater on top of a mountain and that will do better.

here is a list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_stations_in_Montana

with that and a map you should get some idea of what you might get

then an antenna how far out you are from the station you want decides what you need for an antenna or if you will get much at all
https://www.solidsignal.com/tv-antennas-and-parts/tv-antennas-outdoor
something in a directional High gain Yagi will get you the most signal to work with
if your closer to the station then an omni directional can work for you.

all that work and you might get nothing but NBC or CBS

makes the radio , a book and a stack of DVDs look better and better

the whole state of Maryland is full of cities and surrounded by other states full of cities , your sitting at see level so if they out a 1000 foot tower up they can get 70 miles you could get the near the whole state with one tower while at the same time getting stations from other states

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_stations_in_Maryland

Guess that’s why I can’t walk around in the backyard without phone calls dropping. lol

Thanks for your time, Sir. I will study that info you posted and may have to talk to a shop to see what type of antenna to buy. We do have internet but the provider doesn't have an unlimited package so data buying is a very costly thing if I would go that way and to have to stream. I would need to have 3 or 4 jobs to just to have TV. That isn't going to happen.

Thank you very much.

apple and orange , cell towers have a few mile range and your tiny little phone antenna doesn't even stick out of the case any more and is at a high enough frq that leaves block it at a 1/4 watt

if you put your head next to a broadcast tv antenna it would cook your eyes

your rural in one sense that there is a body of water between you and the most densely populated areas in the country and only minimal roads , but only around 60 miles as the crow flies to DC

you likely got over the air stations from Virginia Maryland Delaware

If you have the internet then Stream. Then you can also use your outside antenna to get your local news. That is what we do. Streaming for a lot of Channels is free and the others are really cheap and you can watch never ending shows.

True!! But, our internet supplier does not have unlimited internet package. Read post above^. Streaming can be free all day long, but you still have to use data from supplier and that is very costly with my internet supplier. So, not free here just sounds like it is free.

if you get places with good internet free you might still be able to save several streamed shows for watching offline

so say if you make a weekly trip to town and visit the library get some DVD and download the streamed shows and you can watch them later.

Line of sight was what we had back in Illinois. There may well be available to you as well.

On YouTube, there’s a guy called Antenna man or something like that. He has a lot of good information on antennas, co-ax, tv amps and best tv for antennas. He is a young man but he knows his stuff. You have to build it right to get the most channels! Like a cb or ham radio.

"had" antenna TV til recently. Bad cable or thats all we would have. Can't get anyone to climb our 40' tower and fix it. Got t mobile and like it but we can't get all the local channels we got with antenna. No local news weather etc. At 78 I really don't want to climb that tower anymore. lol
just

I made up a simple antenna that pulls in 18 stations using just cable wire..I found out how to do it on YouTube.

I'm 40 miles from where they broadcast and get 55 channels everyday and 67 on a good day. 6 to 8 of these are Canadian.
Bought a outside antenna from Walmart years ago. Looks like a figure eight. Put it on the peak of my two story home and faced it towards the origin of broadcast. The antenna said on the box "60 mile radius"
Altogether I don't have a $100 into it. Antenna, coax cable, lag bolts and silicone

There’s been a rotary antenna at my camp since the 80s. The old style with a little motor that you can rotate it different directions. We got about a dozen channels with it before they did away with analog and switched to digital. I had to get a converter box then and I still get 12 or 14 channels. Some are from Clearfield, Pennsylvania, most are from Buffalo, New York which is about 60 miles as the crow flies.

If ur close enough

snowy, for yrs we have used this figure 8 thing on back of sofa for about 35 channels.... Im in farm country 35- 60 miles from a tower... Last fri i bought this onn tv device for my kids viewing pleasure and logged on internet we get hundreds and hundreds of channels. Best 21.00 i ever spent. Even documentarys fishing in mekong river catching huge catfish.