Full description not available
R**M
This Antenna works pretty good....
First, here are some facts. I've been using an outside antenna for almost 5 years now. I live in a mobile home with lots of tall trees & can't get any reception in the house itself. I had to put my antenna 15' above my mobile home roof to get what I do get.NEXT: If you're going to use an antenna, whether inside or outside, you must have patience & be willing to try different antennas if needed & move them around. You will also need to RESCAN CHANNELS every time you move where antenna is pointing (unless you have an expensive Smart TV that automatically scans for channels on its own).ALSO - it's a good idea to do a channel rescan every several weeks if you don't have a Smart TV, as new channels are coming out because more people are going to antennas & if TV hasn't scanned it in, it won't just come in). My fav Dallas channels are ME TV, Antenna TV, Heroes & Icons TV, ION TV. Mainly reruns, but lots of my fav old western series & movies, ION has NCIS & CSI reruns, among others. Lots of reruns from my younger years not necessarily on Directv or Cable....I live in a mobile home on 5 acres & tall trees line the entire east & south side of my property, where the Dallas channels come from. The local channels come from the north approx 7-12 miles.I live approx 60 miles from the Dallas, TX tower & 45 miles from the Ada, OK tower. My 1st antenna was a Lava 2605 antenna (also sold on Amazon), which lasted 4-1/2 years. However, because of reception interference between me & Dallas area & my location (lots of trees along the edge of my property, very close municipal airport & major highway construction midway to Dallas), I usually couldn't get most or all of Dallas channels until after 7 or 9 pm. The Lava got all 7 local channels ALL the time unless a helicopter flew close by. A few months before it died it also started picking up channels from the Ada tower now & then & I hadn't moved the antenna. (I later wondered how much more it might have picked up if I'd changed out the coax cable to the Solid Copper Wire Coax Cable, but since it was dead when I got the Solid Copper Coax, I won't know that answer until if/when I have to buy a new antenna, as I may go back to the Lava).In doing research to see what "new" antennas may have come out, I found this one. It seemed just a little more sturdy than the Lava. So I decided to try it. I did read many reviews of this Mesqool & several other antennas & saw advice about using SOLID COPPER WIRE COAX CABLE, so I bought that too. Reasoning is regular Coax Cable is just wiring sprayed with Copper paint. Made sense to me. I found "Phat Satellite" on Amazon sold the Solid Copper Wire Coax Cable used by Directv & Satellite companies for just a couple dollars more, so I bought that too. It's also a good idea to buy the Surge Protection piece (if it doesn't come with the antenna). It hooks directly to the Antenna & the Coax Cable to the Surge Protection piece (the Lava antenna includes it in their antenna).I tried this antenna using the old coax cable & it worked about the same as the Lava. Then I hooked the Mesqool up to the new Copper Coax Cable & could immediately see an improvement in reception. Not only that, but it was the middle of the afternoon & I was getting some channels from the Dallas area, which I usually didn't in mid-afternoon. The Lava was able to get ALL 7 local channels w/out a problem, even tho it was pointed straight south towards Dallas & the local channels are straight north. However, even tho this one has a larger mesh wire piece that faces the north, getting 3 of the local channels has been more sketchy. BUT, I'm getting better reception from the Dallas area which is where my more fav channels are from.Both the Lava & Mesqool are similar in that there is an indoor remote box used for turning the antenna around - near the TV & you use a remote control pointed at that box to turn the antenna. The power to turn the antenna runs thru the Coax Cable. It's made so it can go 180 deg. (I left an extra 2 ft near the top when zip-tying the cable along the pipe to keep it from flying around.) The Mesqool never seemed to do that like the Lava did. The rotator quit working after about 15 minutes trying to get it to point south.Issue #1: The instructions don't tell you that the Coax Cable coming out of the remote box is the one that actually hooks to the TV (I tried hooking it to the antenna to see if the rotator worked - a call to Amazon to get the right way to hook it up - the instructions are sketchy at best). There is a port on either side of the permanent cable. One is for Antenna Input cable & other is for 2nd Coax Cable to a 2nd TV. There is NOTHING in the instructions to tell you this OR ON the REMOTE BOX. So you have to try to find which is which on your own.Issue #2: The Rotator quit immediately. When I called to get just a Rotator replacement (Lava antennas sells separate parts so you can just replace a part that quits or breaks for very reasonable prices) I found out Mesqool does NOT do this. They had to send a whole NEW antenna. So when it arrived, I just traded out the Rotator piece, was even more careful with it & got it pointed south asap & left it alone, then got label printed & had to go to UPS ofc to send it back.The biggest complaint (by me & most everyone else) about the inside remote box is it does NOT tell you what way the antenna is pointed. I had to run in & out to see where it was pointing. I finally dragged the remote box to near a window & used the remote control thru the window & stood outside to see how it was turning. I finally got it to the "sweet spot" of straight south. Rescanned TV channels & got all my channels.HOWEVER, ADDITIONAL NOTE: Because I moved the remote box near the window, I immediately noticed a difference in my reception. So I had an "aha" & put the remote box RIGHT UNDER the TV, instead of near it & found that HELPED THE RECEPTION also.For the most part I'm happy with this antenna & will continue to use it. I have no idea how long it will last, but hopefully at least a couple of years, maybe longer.Now, as a last note. I have my antenna up on a pole 15' ABOVE the roof of my mobile home. It's set up so I can walk the pole & bring the pole & antenna down to me. I found the Rotator didn't like this movement, so once I got it up & working, I've left it alone & won't be bringing it down anytime soon.One last note - If you buy an Antenna that states it's "amplified" you DO NOT want to add an amplifier to it in any capacity. You can & probably will fry your antenna/antenna amplifier. Read this after trying to do it. Had to replace my Lava Remote box (where I think the amplifier is) as it seemed to quit working, not to mention NO channels came thru.Since other people did lengthy reviews of good/bad issues they had & I found alot of this info helpful, I'm passing it on to others. Hope this helps someone.
S**T
No better than an indoor antenna
This was given to me by the seller for an unbiased review.I have been attempting to "cut the cord" for awhile. A year and a half ago I wired my house with CAT 5e cable and bought a TiVo that was compatible with an OTA antenna with this expectation. I have tried a couple of other antennas with mixed results. One of them still sits in my attic. The problem with the two that I have tried previously is that neither one of them picked up the local ABC affiliate station. I was excited to get an outdoor antenna since I assumed that an outdoor antenna would be able to pick up more stations - especially if I mounted it up above the roof line. I was building a shed when the free antenna was offered to me and my goal was to attach the antenna to it. Well I finally finished the shed added the antenna today. The instructions are essentially non existent and was slightly confusing. There is a note in the instruction to check their YOUTUBE video for more information - I couldn't find it. Before running the cable through the attic I ran the cable straight though the house to see how well it worked. I was floored and ecstatic at the picture quality, included the ABC station. I disassembled everything, ran the cable through the soffitt and down the wall into the media closet and re-hooked up everything and unfortunately, I lost many of the stations that I previously had. I re-positioned the antenna and even raised the pole a couple of feet higher but all to no avail. No ABC station. So, in the end, I ended up with reception that is no better than I had with the antenna that sticks on the window or the one that was in my attic. The one positive that I can say is that the stations that do come in, look amazing. It works good enough to cut the cord but, I will be looking around for another antenna that will pull in all of the stations that I need.UPDATE: Several days later I did more research regarding the poor reception of the local ABC affiliate in my area. Several persons / companies were recommending a "preamplifier" as opposed to one that comes with this contraption and ended up being 50' away from the antenna. So, I ordered a new antenna and the Winegard LNA-200 Boost XT HDTV Preamplifier. The preamplifier arrived before the antenna so I thought I would give it a try without the new antenna. I added the preamp to the pole and removed the amplifier that comes with this antenna and Wah Lah! The ABC affiliates come in crystal clear and all of the other stations look even better. So, the antenna works but the included amplifier doesn't appear to be up to the task. I am raising the rating by one star to 4. I don't believe that it is worthy of 5 stars since someone who buys this antenna will (most likely) still need to add their own amplifier.
Trustpilot
4 days ago
1 month ago
