Stellar Labs 30-2475 - Fringe Directional Antenna VHF-Hi HDTV 174-230MHz

I live in the mountains surrounded by mature trees, i.e., trees much taller than my house which is built on the side of a mountain. My goal was to get ABC, CBS and NBC OTA with an attic mounted antenna. After going to the antenna websites, I learned the three major networks were transmitted from three different directions with the transmitters located 9, 24 and 14 miles away respectively. However, two of the transmitters are located on the other side of a mountain. I started out with Channel Master due to the name and reviews. They recommended their Pro-Model antenna with their adjustable gain preamp and gave very little guidance. One channel had a good picture, unfortunately the other two pixilated to the point of not being viewable. After exchanging emails with the Channel Master tech support, they said I was in a location where I could not achieve what I wanted with an attic mount antenna. So, I returned the Channel Master antenna/preamp and began my quest for a replacement attic mount antenna setup. I happened upon a promising attic mount antenna while surfing around reading reviews, so I went ahead and ordered the antenna from Amazon. After the order was placed, I stumbled upon the Antenna Man on YouTube. I decided to take a chance and pay the Antenna Man for his antenna recommendation and guidance. I provided the Antenna Man with all my info. The trusses in my attic are designed such that an antenna either needs to be compact or oriented in a NS or EW direction so my antenna choices were limited. The antenna I ordered would not have been the Antenna Man’s first choice, however the truss design limited my antenna choices. The Antenna Man told me exactly which direction to aim my antenna, in my case to a closer repeater rather the main transmitter (who knew?) and use a meter to find the best signal location. Since I am using an HDHomerun tuner, I purchased the Signal GH app, which was recommended by the Antenna Man, to find the ideal location in the attic. The antenna pulled in NBC and CBS with no problems, but I could not find a location which would satisfactorily pull in all three major networks. Back to the Antenna Man. He advised me on installing the Stellar Labs 30-2475 to pull in ABC and a combiner to bring the signals from each antenna to a signal coax cable to my HDHomerun tuner. Following his instructions and purchasing the equipment through his Amazon links, I am happy to say I now have the ability to watch all three major networks plus several other channels. For my situation, I can’t say enough of the performance of the Stellar Labs 30-2475. However, it would not have been possible to achieve the outcome I did without the Antenna Man’s guidance. It was worth every penny to pay for his service, and I spent less money for the two antennas and combiner than I did for the original Channel Master which did not work for me.

Wow! Received earlier than expected. Got me my TV channels 7&11 (177 MHz & 201 MHz) in like gang busters without a pre amp. Even have the ant resting on wood supports in attic most likely compromising some gain but getting 75-80% signal quality!! This is a quality built antenna. I am a happy camper again. Only needed for these two high VHF stations, I have other antennas for UHF channels, different markets. I was using a ClearStream but it didn’t have the antenna elements for much VHF high gain at 177&201 MHz. Using a Televes Avant-X to manage 4 antennas. This VHF only antenna is my 4th. I am rural with good/ fair distance as reported by Rabbitears but signal degrades with spring/ summer tree leaves. Also have antennas in attic crawl space. Would do better mounted on roof but not putting holes in newer roof. For a data sheet check out Newark Electronics.

We cut the cord, but are fairly committed to Jeopardy on ABC channel 7. This channel is at the low end of VHF-high. We are in Orange County (40+ miles from Mt Wilson) and the antenna is in the attic. None of the small flat antenna's worked really well. I tried a Clearstream 4, it struggled with ABC 7 (but was otherwise fantastic at pulling in UHF channels). So I thought I would try this antenna ... which is designed for VHF. Well it works absolutely fantastic. It brings in channel 7 with high signal strength and quality. This is despite at least 3 other not inexpensive options not working great. This antenna is the answer to problems with ABC 7 ... in my mind anyway. What is remarkable is that there is very little room in my attic. So I left off the front two dipoles (?) ... and that did not seem to be a problem. What is interesting. And perhaps I should have done more experiments. Is that I only get this really good performance if I place a Silicon Dust LTE filter in-line. Maybe there is interference up in my attic. Furthermore this antenna is not so great for UHF channels more generally. So for me this antenna is specializing in ABC 7, which is the main channel we watch due to Jeopardy. I am going to try and split the signal from this antenna and the clearstream UHF, to get the best of both worlds. But have not done these experiments yet.

I accidentally bought a UHF-only antenna and had a couple channels that wouldn't come in. So, I broke down and bought this antenna and a combiner. This combo works and is pulling in the missing channels. I live within the Detroit metro area and am surprised that I struggle to get a local channel at all. This antenna definitely improved my situation but one of the channels still hangs for a bit before the screen loads. This could be on my DVR so I can't blame the antenna. The antenna is quite large once assembled so keep that in mind if you're placing it in an attic, through a standard 24x24 in opening.

I have DISH TV. I am at the lower end of there service area by my zip code. With DISH I receive the "locals channels" from 50 miles away. I'm only 20 miles away from local stations. I purchased this antenna when the local station went from channel 69 UHF to channel 9 VHF. I live in a RF black hole. I contacted the station about this. They could not believe that I was receiving there broadcast. They even asked me to turn if around to see if I was getting there signal from "bounce back". I did that. They were amazed as I was. It's a direct signal. I have the emails. This antenna is perfect for anyone that lives in a RF "hole". Receive 10 channels, all local to me. Took 15 mins. to put it together. Pointed it correctly. Perfect picture that I should not even be able to receive. No pre amp. Nothing. Direct to the TV's. Purchased ClearStream antenna to the tune of $160.00. Best rated. No reception. Nothing. Don't read reviews. Trust me. This is $40.00. It works.

Moved my TV antenna system to my attic and could not get all my local channels due to stations being spread too much to be receive on one UHF/VHF antenna. Cut off and used the UHF portion of my old outside antenna and used this fine VHF antenna to bring in the VHF channel. It worked great and I will use a combiner to collect signals from both antennas and expect things will work out nicely. Very good build quality and easy assembly was the frosting on the cake... also liked the ability to adjust the mounting clamp back and forth which made mounting in my attic easy. Update: I have picked up 2 stations fro over 80 miles under ideal conditions. Amazing performance from a attic location.

The GOOD: Almost any antenna situation is different so I am always prepared to do a little work on my system to get it to work. In my location all the UHF channels are on one direction and all the VHF stations (2) are in another which happen to be about 40deg. apart both about 30 mi. away so having a VHF-only antenna should be the way to go without using a rotator. I like the size, and the frequency range should match the two VHF stations I was trying to get and it seems like it will be robust with solid aluminum tubing instead of the rolled tubing seen in many antennas so it should last. The Neutral: Technically the antenna is a pretty straightforward Yagi design. Although I have a little insight about antennas being involved professionally and as a ham radio operator for a couple decades I think the design is a little questionable but all in all it seems to work OK at my location fortunately the signal strength is pretty good so I think this is helping despite the issues I see are of little consequences in my case. For example, the matching network is a circuit board that allows direct coax connection that seems a little more hopeful on the designer's part than a proven design so it may behave differently depending on the channels you are trying to get. The other potential technical issue is the fact they seem to ground the center of the folded dipole. Theoretically it should work, and the aluminum tube supporting the dipole definitely makes the assembly more robust, but I suspect that point may cause some reception issues in some locations. I may replace these with a plastic rod and a proper BALUN for at some point to see if the signal improves any. The BAD: I took off one star for this product, not really because of the product, it is what it is, but the way an issue with the product was handled by this seller... The package arrived on time but was missing the mounting hardware! I contacted the seller and asked for replacement parts but they insisted I send the antenna back and then they would refund. But I found a bracket at Home Depot that worked for far less time and $$ than shipping this whole thing back so really they got away with me keeping an incomplete shipment. I thought my solution of them sending me the missing parts was fair, but I guess the customer's opinion does not count with some sellers?

These do pull in stations that were farther away, in a different direction, and I could not get with my other antennas. These are directional antennas, and farther away or weaker stations require more precise pointing. I have my main antenna pointing in one direction to capture the major networks and two of these pointing in different directions to capture different alternate channels. I have a Televes SmartKom 531981 Antenna Combiner to pull everything together. You have to realistic expectations though. I live in southwest PA with plenty of hill, trees, and bad weather. The stations I am pulling in with these are weak but are within 30 miles of me. I can get them most of time, but severe weather can still cause some pixelation/loss of signal.

Excellent antenna - I now successfully receive a weak VHF -high station from 83 miles away. Local VHF stations are also coming in stronger now. The antenna assembles into a surprisingly solid and rather large shape - great addition to my chimney-mounted array.

Quality build at a good price.

Easy to assemble. Works as described, I even receive a lowband channel (ch.6) that the antenna isn’t even designed for. Some days the signal isn’t strong enough on fringe channels and they cut out.

It’s a direct line of sight type of antenna. If you try to catch two antennas that are split apart too wide, it will deceive you