By Russ and Tiña De Maris
If you’re like us, you probably aren’t a satellite antenna user. Too much junk for too much money. But when you’re traveling and you still want to catch the news, or put your feet up for a little down-time, having the boob-tube is still something we call “a necessary evil.” But at the same time, it’s not always easy to find a TV signal to home in on.
Here’s a nifty app we use that will help you locate free “over the air” digital and high definition TV broadcasts wherever you go in the U.S. TV Antenna Helper Free is, by nature, advertiser supported. If you can’t stand adverts, then for $1.99 you can get TV Antenna Helper and skip all the ads.
How does it work? On location, step outside your rig and orient your compass by strolling around a bit. One user suggests walking around in a “figure-8” sort of way. When your Android device has you located, the app provides several displays to help you “see” and point your antenna to TV stations in your area.
Those lists are:
1) A scrollable list displaying all nearby TV signals ordered from strongest to weakest.
2) A compass that displays the stations at their correct heading from the current location.
3) A map displaying the current location and the location of all nearby TV signal towers.
TV Antenna Helper Free tells you channel numbers, station call signs, signal strengths, compass bearings to the transmitting antennas, distance, and more. Free TV Antenna Helper here.
Another great free app is DTV Antenna. We use this as it’s actually compass based.
https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps is free and looks like the source of the info the apps are using. There’s a similar one for Canada.
Thanks, Bill. For clarification, this is the link to the Reception Maps for DTV on the FCC website, which indicate the DTV signals at a specified location. —Diane at RVtravel.com.