Five Star 200 mile Indoor/Outdoor Yagi HD TV Antenna Review

hey everyone it's tyler the antenna man and today i'm going to review this five-star outdoor yagi antenna it runs about 50 on amazon comes with a mounting pole and claims a 200 mile range how well does it actually work stay tuned to find out if you're seeing me for the first time make sure to subscribe to my youtube channel and hit that little bell icon to receive a notification whenever i post a new video my channel is dedicated to the cord cutting antenna community and i'm constantly posting new videos on reception tips antenna reviews and atsc 3.0 the new over-the-air tv stand that's launching in the united states one of the first things i want to bring up about the san antonio is a 200-mile range claim it's obviously an exaggeration and in my opinion false advertising tv signals are very hard to receive beyond 80 miles from the broadcast towers due to the curvature of the earth under normal conditions it's simply not possible to receive a tv station from 200 miles away if you see any antenna climbing beyond a 100 mile range it's probably junk i also need to mention there's no such thing as an hd antenna the whole hd digital thing came from the digital transition of 2009. there's a lot of misinformation about tv signals including the myth that you need a special antenna to pick up hd frequencies the reality is an antenna is an antenna it doesn't matter if the signal is analog or digital the hd and digital thing are just keywords antenna companies use to improve their search results of their antennas it also confuses people into thinking they're getting a special hd antenna when reality the keyword means nothing what does matter is the frequencies the antenna is designed to pick up there are two main bands that tv stations broadcast on vhf and uhf vhf tv stations broadcast on channels 2-13 and typically require a longer antenna element to pick up while uhf tv stations broadcast on channels 14 through 36 and are better picked up with smaller antenna elements so if you look at this antenna these longer elements here are designed for high vhf channels 7-13 note the longer elements and then these shorter elements up here are designed for uhf channels 14 through 36. it's also important to understand that most tv stations do not broadcast in the channel number you may know them as for example in philadelphia there's an nbc 10 and the average person would say oh they're on channel 10. so need to make sure i have a good antenna for vhf they're actually on the uhf band they broadcast on channel 28. same can be said for most tv stations across the united states the current digital standard allows them to broadcast on a different rf channel than what is shown on your tv set to find out what channels your local tv stations are broadcasting on go to antennaweb.org type in your address and click that little check mark that says antenna will be installed 30 feet above ground level even if it's not and it will provide you a list of stations you can likely pick up at your location look at the rf channel on each station that's the channel the stations are broadcasting on so for example wbre 28 actually broadcasts on vhf channel 11. if you don't see any channels listed on antennaweb.org don't freak out and assume you won't get any stations the website tends to underestimate how many channels a person can receive with an antenna you can also use the fccdtv reception maps or rabbiteers.info i attached links to both in the description of this video so now that i got all the antenna mist out of the way i can start to talk about this antenna to my surprise the build quality is actually pretty solid not what i would expect from a generic company like 5 star the design is very comparable to the wineguard hd 7694p which i previously reviewed on my youtube channel like the wine guard antenna ripped off this antenna is what i'd consider a medium-sized directional antenna it's larger than the average small directional antenna with multiple vhf and uhf elements in theory it should bring in channels better than the small antennas but you never know what these generic antenna companies the coax cable that came with the antenna is definitely junk it's not as thick as a quality rg6 dual or quad shield cable and will probably have a decent amount of signal loss the type of cable you use can have a huge impact on how reliable your reception is from an antenna i have a video on this topic attached in the description of this video for fair comparison i did not use this cable to test out the antenna it's a new era in antenna testing on my youtube channel i've moved to a new location and will now be testing out new tv stations at 30 feet above ground i'm also using the telavis h30 to show very technical data for those of you who are very tech minded that data is available in a separate video attached in the description here are the signal results of the new channels on two popular antenna models the large channel master cm5020 and the small ge compact yagi from left to right you'll see the tv station the call letters rf channel the station broadcasts on and the results on the last two antennas i tested out all tv stations are about 42 miles away the signal on cbs3 which broadcasts on uhf channel 30 was a bit lower on this antenna compared to the last two antennas i tested out the signal on nbc10 which broadcasts on uhf channel 28 was also lower on this antenna compared to the last two antennas i tested out the signal on wphl 17 which broadcasts on uhf channel 17 was also lower on this antenna compared to the last two antennas i tested out i'm starting to see a trend here the signal on fox 29 which broadcasts on uhf channel 31 was as you guessed it lower than the last two antennas i tested out however the signal on w-h-y-y which broadcasts on vhf channel 13 was actually higher on this antenna compared to small ge yagi and about the same as the channel master cm5020 i was surprised to see this antenna perform so poorly for uhf compared to smaller antennas the only advantage was it performed very well for high vhf the san antonio may work for you if you already have a small antenna and have good reception on uhf channels with bad reception on vhf channels i think there is something off with the design of this antenna resulting in poor uhf performance i'm not sure if it has to do with the spacing of the elements the size of the elements or the 75 ohm connection something is off unless you already own an antenna and can verify that you receive uhf stations fine but have trouble with vhf stations i would not recommend this antenna it did a very poor job on uhf which is where most tv stations broadcast in the united states if you're a first time cord cutter looking for an antenna i'd recommend a different model feel free to use my youtube channel as a resource to research antennas i also offer antenna recommendations on my website at antennaman pa.com i go through your unique reception situation take a look at the signal strength on the frequencies in your area and make a specific recommendation on what antenna and amplifier would work best for your location based on my experience testing out over 50 antenna models and installing them in four tv markets antennas are not a one-size-fits-all model and investing in an antenna recommendation for me can prevent you from wasting hundreds of dollars on antennas and other equipment not sued for your area whether you decide to purchase a santana don't do it or another outdoor antenna make sure it's properly grounded to prevent static buildup which can attract a lightning strike i attached a video on how to ground an antenna in the description of my video thanks for watching this youtube video a huge thanks to everyone who supports me on patreon or is a member of my youtube channel if my videos have helped you cut the cord and you'd like to support the channel while gaining exclusive perks such as behind the scenes content access to my videos ad free one day early and direct contact with me visit patreon.com forward slash antennaman or click the join button in this video if you're on facebook you can like my facebook page at facebook.com forward slash antennaman pa if you're not on facebook and would like to receive email updates when i post new videos including when i just posted this one you sign up to my email list by following the link in the description of the video stay tuned to my youtube channel for more antenna reviews and cord cutting information and have an awesome day

Channel: Antenna Man

Views: 305,964

Rating: 4.9296594 out of 5

Keywords: Five Star Antenna, Five Star Antenna Review, Five Star Yagi Review, 200 Mile Antenna, Outdoor Antenna Review, Attic Antenna Review, HD Antenna, Rotor Antenna, Amplified Antenna, Cord Cutting, Digital Antenna, HD Digital Antenna, hdtv antenna, best outdoor tv antenna 200 mile range, 200 mile range, hdtv antenna 200 mile range, 200 mile antenna, outdoor tv antenna 200 mile range, outdoor antenna, antenna review, Amazon Antenna, Amazon HD Antenna, Cheap HD Antenna

Id: Df9DxFyqxco

Length: 10min 2sec (602 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 01 2021