Customer Reviews

RCA ANT200 VHF/UHF/FM Amplified Indoor Antenna

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this unit locally and kept my receipt, thinking I'd end up returning it. But it turns out this thing works pretty well, considering what it is and it's low cost. The existing antenna was a mast-mounted ..., about 5 years old, and the cable was a very long length of decades-old 300 ohm twin lead (which I think was the real culprit causing the bad reception). Running new coax thru the attic and walls to the existing wall plate seemed like an impossible task, so I tried the ANT200. It has an A/B switch and an RF input on the back to hook up your pay cable, satellite, game console, etc. so you can switch between the two. I hooked up the mast antenna to it and did a direct comparison - the ANT200 pulled in more stations, and cleaner too! Be prepared to spend an hour or so fiddling with it for best reception, though. It may sound tedious, but it's a heckuva lot easier than adjusting a mast-mount. Of course, the best results came from having the aerials fully extended and the amplifier gain control turned full up. Amplified antenna makers always put a variable control on the amp (as opposed to an on/off switch) because they say you can reduce the gain on a signal that's too strong, but I've used several amplified antennas over the years, and that's never EVER been a problem - in fact, I think they should double the amp power. Always look for the highest dB numbers on the box. Your location is of primary importance, though. If you live in a valley or have other obstructions, no antenna will work well. Pay cable would be a better option in those cases. The TV now receives a total of 13 channels over VHF & UHF; 5 are near perfect (95% as good as pay cable), 4 are very good and the remaining 4 are viewable with noise-free sound.

All the UHF stations come in clear as a bell, but the VHF reception is quite lousy. No matter where I place the unit (even placed it on my patio to test) I can't get a good picture at all on any VHF station, and the NBC channel hardly comes in at all, despite living less than 15 miles from the station. An ok antenna, but not worth the price tag. I'll probably end up returning it and buying a different brand. I still wont subscribe to cable though!

This antenna is very good, especially in areas where reception is normally poor. You are able to pick up a wide variety of channels that normally can't be recieved. Living in a valley, it is ordinarily hard to pick up channels with decent reception, but this cleared things right up.

In this era of cable and dish offerings with wired, networked homes, I'm glad someone still thought of the occasional lone TV set, stranded in the far reaches of connectivity. My stock rabbit ear antenna was not getting very stable signals so I blew some gift certificate money on this unit. What I thought would probably be a marketing gimmick -- the "power" dial w/ its ac adapter set-up -- turned out to be legit. This (relatively) attractive unit really works and is subtle enough in its flat black finish to blend in. My three local VHF and four UHF stations come in loud and clear.

Money well spent!

Please be aware that this antenna does not work within houses that have stucco walls! My house has stucco walls, therefore I had to return it. I also tried it on a tv in another house w/out stucco walls & it worked quite well.

I am living about 40 miles from the TV towers. Recently, I cancelled my cable and bought this antenna from a local Best Buy for my HD receiver. Once this antenna is set and positioned on my TV, it can picks up all the HD channels. Signal strength is about 50 to 60% measured by the HDTV receiver.

Because I not longer have cable and some channels like PBS are still not in HD, I also use this antenna to pick up the non-HD channels. The result is acceptable with some noise. Like some other reviews say, this antenna is poor at picking up VHF range (channel 2 - 13) and acceptable at picking up UHF range (channel 14 - 69).

I was evaluating several indoor antennas for my Son-In-Law's house in Newport Beach, CA and purchased one of the RCA ANT200 for use with a brand-new Phillips TV. It was marginal in terms of bringing in LA stations just 50 miles north of here. I figured that it should have done better as there are few mountains in between. Since I was not satisfied, I returned it and bought a ANT1250. This one costs a bit more but the reception is 200% better! Of course a roof-mounted would be the ultimate but asthetics are very important to him sooooo!

Bought this antenna from a local best buy hoping to avoid cable. I have Recton rabit ears already, but was hoping for better reception with the amplified antennas. My reception got slightly worse. No matter what position the I put it in I could't get the static to clear up. It never got better than my cheap rabbit ears. I took it back and tried an even more expensive one, Jensen tv930, it also dosn't work. Since some people seeem to like these amplified antennas, just buy it from a retailer with a good return policy.

This will help your tv very much. It improved my television channels and I even recieved new channels I hadnt recieved before. You musnt put it near a computer though or it will make the channels really fuzzy.

I thought I would get more channels than my old rabbit ears with this RCA power antenna, but it isn't true. I live in a valley, and I only get two more channels than I did previously (and the reception is only average).

My advice is to buy from a local retailer like Radio Shack. That way you can easily return the antenna if you don't get good results.

I'm going to try a rooftop antenna now.