Customer Reviews

RCA ANT301 VHF/UHF/FM Amplified Indoor Antenna

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I was putting this together when the antenna just broke off. They have the antennas swivel heads on so tight that they easily just snap off. This also has a huge clumsy AC plug which is unnecessary and a waste of precious plug space. When I returned this to the store, I saw another person retuning this exact same model also. GE has a much better model that I bought instead that doesn't break and doesn't have any AC plug which works wonderfully. Don't waste your money on this RCA antenna. I give it ZERO stars.

Reading the negative reviews here I have to wonder how many people realize that you MUST go through a new CHANNEL SEARCH each and every time you attach a different antenna or move your antenna to a new location. Of course, with a powered antenna, you must do this with the power on. That said, different antennas can yield different results in different signal areas. I'm in Los Angeles, about 24 miles from the broadcast antennas. Since all the broadcasters transmit from about the same location, I'm better off with a very DIRECTIONAL antenna, which this seems to be. However, no antenna can work well in my location UNLESS I LINE IT UP WITH A WINDOW FACING THE BROADCAST ANTENNA DIRECTION. If I just put the antenna on top of the TV, I will get about 4 to 7 stations. In the ideal location, up high near the window, I get over 80 channels. Because the antenna is about 20 feet from the TV now, I had to use a 20 ft. coax cable to connect it. It worked fine, but switching to the old-fashioned twinlead (with coax connectors mounted on each end for compatibility) improved the signal gain a bit and brought in a few more stations. (It is known to have even less signal loss than coax as long as you give it a twist every 3 feet and it remains dry, which it will indoors!)

Purely, all-around, awful performance. This RCA antenna looks like it is supposed to do something -- metal poles, ring that goes around in circles, wire jack, electric plug & little dial on the back.... But any spare piece of wire stuck into your TV's antenna jack will do a significantly better job than this horrible rip-off. I'm embarrassed to say that I bought it in good faith from a Big Box store. It shouldn't be for sale anywhere. Boo hoo, my poor dollars went pay for this swiveling piece of crapolla. What's the point of plugging it in and turning some little "gain" knob when all it does is makes the picture WORSE than if you had no antenna at all. I can't say enough about how terrible this is, and how ashamed I think RCA should feel for pushing this on distributors. I will not buy anything made by RCA in good faith again because of this stupid product.

This antenna is a huge waste of money. I live in a strong signal area (<5 miles to the towers). On an analog tv this antenna produced an extremely noisy picture due to the poor amplifier. Without the amplifier, this antenna did not produce a picture. On a digital tv this antenna did ok. However, a cheap pair of rabbit ears with a UHF loop greatly outperformed this antenna both on digital and analog tvs. I would not recommend the RCA ANT301 to anyone, even if were free.

I bought 4 amplified antennas to test which one worked the best for my home. This was the least expensive. It had some shadows, but it also had up to 2 channels as good as cable. I had to changing it to get a good picture, but not bad. Audio was good, but so were all the others. I almost kept this one. It would be a good buy.

It actually made my reception worse. The amplifier in the back distorted my picture to the point where I saw nothing but snow. Who actually wants to put 39 inch antentta's in their house? I know I don't want to look at them. Espeicially since they didn't even make my signal come in any better. This is funny though...having the co-axel cable just hanging out by the window not only was more attactive than the 39inch flag poles, but gave me much better reception. I wouldn't recommend this product.

I have had this antenna for a couple years. It does a perfect job bringing in all the local channels for my HDTV. I undoubtedly benefit from living within 3-5 miles of all local broadcasts. If you live any farther away, I suppose you'll need to rely on other reviewers. It's a little bit of an eyesore (like almost any indoor antenna), but I've managed to discretely stash it near a window. The low price is also an obvious plus. Given my experience, I would definitely recommend the antenna to anyone living near local broadcasts who is looking for an alternative to cable.

I got this antenna when I bought the digital box converter thing. At first I thought I lived in an area of bad reception. I could only get 2 watchable channels and 2 with really bad reception. So for 4 months I had my antenna connected directly to my tv, getting regular analog signal. After reading the reviews (which are better) of the passive rca antenna that's basically this one but withouth the amplifier, I decided to connect it back to the digital converter without plugging the antenna into the power. To my surprise I am know getting 20 perfectly clear channels. Cannot believe but it is true. Go for the unamplified rca antenna which is cheaper.

I decided to get rid of cable (too expensive). Living in downtown Milwaukee, I should probably get many channels with an antenna )(one would think). Unfortunately, I didn' have one. So, at first, I hooked up a two three foot coax cables to a splitter (to create a dipole type thing) and I hooked this up to the TV. I got okay reception from this. Time to pick up an antenna.

I just bought the 301 from best buy. The sales dude said it was the best on the market and he had no complaints or returns. Hooked it up in place of my coax cable contraption. It faired just as well, if not worse.

I am returning the antenna and getting the 25 channel cable plan for $13.00 (the one they don't tell you about).

I'm addicted to tv, so while I'm at work, I like to listen to my favorite re-runs during the day. My office doesn't have a window, so it's really hard to get reception with the converter box and an antenna. I've tried 3 other antennaes, that only provided partial channels. For some reason, this is the only antenna that brings in all channels for me. This is the second time I've purchased this one. I used the first one for so long that it burnt out. For my situation, it's the best.