Watch Free Cable TV With An Outdoor/Indoor Antenna

Did you know that with an outdoor antenna you can watch Free Cable TV Channels for FREE. Yes, you can watch Cable TV For Free and all you need is a high definition television or an HDTV-ready television and a Antenna.

Now before we go into details, we must mention that you do have a few choices to get Free Cable TV, you can 

• Watch TV online for free 

• Using paid subscription services like Netflix and Hulu 

• You can get free cable TV using an antenna. There's many other choices but watching free cable TV using an antenna is what we are going to focus on today. 

If you would like to know more about watching free TV online, you can visit our Online TV & Movies Section where we put together in detail how you can watch TV online for free and using paid subscription services.
 

How To Watch Free HD Cable TV on Your TV

The first thing you want to do in order to get Free Cable TV is to make sure that you have a modern TV or a standard flat screen TV with a built in TV tuner, which is one of the main components in getting your free digital cable TV. 

If you are looking to upgrade your TV, check out our Recommended TVs Section where you can see our list of new flat screen TVS that we highly recommend either because we've either tested it or seen it in action.

Finding The Best Antenna 

Once you have your TV that has the TV tuner inside, the next thing is finding the best antenna type. 

There is where the question as to which type of antenna you are going to either want or need comes into play. I say need because there are a lot of people who lives in the rural areas who cannot use certain types of antennas. What type of antennas you ask?

Well, when looking for the best type of antenna to buy, you have to consider where you live and are you in range of the broadcast stations that provides the free cable TV channels. For people who live in the urban areas or are close to the city usually has a choice of using an indoor antenna or an outdoor antenna. 

We also must add that if you are living the urban areas and live in an apartment, then your choice may or may not be limited to an indoor antenna depending on the leasing agreements of your apartment and things like living upstairs or downstairs. Living in an actual house, you have the freedom of using either an indoor antenna or an outdoor antenna. 

If you are living in the rural area, hillsides and other areas located outside cities and towns, then the preferred antenna type will be a outdoor amplified antenna. Some indoor antennas have proven to work well in these environments in certain areas.

If you visit our Antenna Section, we gave a little review on picking the best indoor/outdoor antenna and How to Set Up Your Antenna that you purchased. The TV antenna that we gave the review on was actual antennas that we have tested and used indoors. 

The first TV antenna that we reviewed and showed the setup was the RCA Indoor FM and HDTV Antenna that was purchased from Amazon.com for about $10 with free shipping, thanks to using Amazon Prime, which gives you free 2 day shipping on items you purchase once you sign up. 

There is a Free 30 Day Trial Join Amazon Prime - Listen to Over a Million Songs - Start Free Trial Now that is going on that you should take advantage of if you purchase things online from Amazon.com frequently. 

After the 30 days, you can cancel the service or choose to pay the $99 annual fee which is something you should consider to save on shipping costs since if you do most of your shopping on Amazon.

Here is a short case study our editor published a few years ago when he personally reviewed the RCA Indoor Antenna and the AmazonBasics Ultra-Thin Indoor Antenna at his home.

 
The RCA Indoor FM and HDTV Antenna was a great investment to me for the fact that it has paid for itself over 10 times so far. What I mean is that my cable bill when I was paying an arm and a leg with my cable TV provider was around $65 and with the internet service, add on an additional $19 for their lowest plan available. So I was paying around $90 - $95 when you include state and local taxes and all their additional fees. 

After some months went by, I found out about using an TV antenna to get free cable TV channels, some of the same channels I was paying for. So I quickly got on the phone with my cable TV provider and canceled the service which I was able to do very easily without paying some hefty cancellation fee thanks to the fact that I did not signing a contract and instead opting to pay month to month for the cable TV and internet service. 

Since then, I have enjoyed watching cable TV for free and using supplementary online streaming subscription services like Hulu Plus and Netflix for additional shows and movies. 

Once my TV Antenna was setup, I was watching shows like Family Guy, Scandal and many others TV Shows that I was paying for in the past. I had access to major channels like CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, CW, PBS and 21 other channels that like I said, I was paying for in the past. Even when you add the both monthly subscription fees of Hulu Plus and Netflix which are both $7.99 at the time of this review, it doesn't amount to what you would pay yearly for paid cable TV. 

Lets look at the example:

Paid Cable TV & Internet Services

Monthly Cost- $90
Annual Cost- $1,080.00 

Free Cable TV w/ Netflix & Hulu Subscription & Internet Service

Antenna Cost- $10.00 (one time purchase)
Netflix Monthly Cost- $7.99
Hulu Plus Monthly Cost- $7.99
Internet Service Monthly Cost- $19.99

Total Monthly Cost- $35.97
Annual Cost- $431.64

That is an annual savings of $648.36 

Now the only reason I am paying for Netflix and Hulu services is because there are as you may know, some shows that are not available using free cable TV via an antenna. So in all it acts as an supplement to the free cable TV channels that I do pick up using the TV antenna shown above plus me being a movie and documentary junkie, I can watch as many show that time allows me. 

Now the other TV Antenna that I reviewed was the AmazonBasics Ultra-Thin Indoor HDTV Antenna which is another great indoor TV antenna that can pick up a few more channels than the RCA and is a little ore discreet. I also purchased this TV Antenna from Amazon.com for about $25.00. This is actually my favorite TV Antenna and I should note that I do have this in my bedroom. 

Like the RCA Antenna above, I was able to pick up all the same channels including 6 extra channels. The cool thing about this brand is that they make several TV antennas like this one with different signal strengths ranging from 25 miles to 60 miles. 

The one you see in the picture is the 35 Mile Range AmazonBasics Ultra-Thin Indoor HDTV Antenna.  

Now for the folks that live in the rural areas and may not get the best TV antenna signal will need to get something a little more stronger. This is where the Outdoor Antennas come in. 

HDTV Outdoor TV Antenna by SF Cable

This antenna shown above is a Amplified HD Digital Outdoor HDTV Antenna with Motorized 360 Degree Rotation made by SF Cable. Now we have never tested this outdoor TV antenna, but I have done extensive research and found this one to be the most reliable, low cost outdoor TV antenna. 

It has a 4 star rating with over 1,800 reviews at the time of writing this post. You can purchase this outdoor antenna on Amazon.com for just under $35. 

Setting up is relatively easy but may require a few extra items to properly install.  You will need a Mounting Pole which is not included. The Pole required is 1-1 1/8". You will also need a screw driver to tighten up the antenna to the pole. It has a Built-in 360 degree motor rotor that turns both ways to prevent cable from getting tangled. The wireless remote controller is for rotor to change the direction to get the best signal without having to manually move it.

If you are close to the tower that broadcasts high-def signals then you can use indoor antennas also but if you are not, using this type of outdoor TV antenna will be great for picking up the free cable TV channels. 

The HDTV signals are considered as line-of-sight signals and hence you get a better reception of the HDTV signals if your antenna is in line with the tower that broadcasts the HDTV signal. For this purpose, it is better to install your TV antenna on the roof of your house and use the remote that it comes with to move the antenna for better reception. 

SF Cable Outdoor TV Antenna Equipment

Some of the tools and the accessories that you need to install the HDTV antenna in your roof and then to connect it to the HDTV or the high-def tuners are,

• Mounting hardware
• Wrench  
• Drill 
• Screwdriver
• Grounding wire (the length should be sufficient to run from the antenna to the ground)
• Grounding strap
• Coax grounding block
• and a shielded 72 ohm coaxial cable (all weather)

The length of the coaxial cable will depend on the distance from the antenna and the place where you have your HDTV or the high-def tuner. A short cable to connect to the TV and the dwelling where you bring the cable from the antenna is needed. With these tools and accessories you can connect your HDTV to the antenna on the roof top of your house.
 
If you are planning to buy an HDTV antenna there are many models available in the market. You have the choice of choosing the right model according to the budget you have, where you live and what free cable TV channels are available in your area. The distance of the tower plays a role in the choice of the antenna you should purchase.  

Don't forget to visit our section on How to Setup Your Antenna once you have found and purchased one. We posted some pictures from the setup to show you how we have the TV antenna setup to receive Free Cable TV Channels. 

If you are using a computer to watch Free TV online or to stream online TV, visit the Computer to TV Section to find out how to do a basic setup. 

If you still insist on using a old TV, go to our Older TV Section to see what you will need to get a TV antenna hooked up to the TV in order to get your Free Cable TV Channels.

To supplement your Free Channels that you receive once your TV antenna is hooked up, check out the Online TV & Movies Section to see what services we recommend to use in order to get other channels and access to movies and TV shows.