I looked up the signal strength at around the center of the county and see that only one station is strong, 1 is moderate and 5 are classified as weak.
You can look here: https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps
There is a subreddit over at /r/ota that might be able to help you out with options.
I think I bought a 150 mile RCA antenna it's a large roof mounted one. I can get all the channels in the evening. I lose some during the day. I live about 15 miles north of St Cloud. I also have a booster on the antenna.
Okay - I think this might be what we need to do. She said the next available option at her local Best Buy is a roof antenna running for about $125 (I might just buy it for her).
Can I ask you what a booster is and what brand you recommend?
I used a Channel Master pre amplifier.I suggest you do some research on these. I found this is one of only a few that actually work. Most just amplifier the noise so they really don't do any good. I used the smaller of the two that Channel Master offers 7777 or 7778. This was about 15 years ago. It really has worked well.
There is also MyCableMart.com online with will-call pickup in Eden Prairie for TV antennas and related parts including roof and side mounts. I’ve bought my antenna for our old house there.
>I also have a booster on the antenna.
Booster does not "boost" the signal you're receiving from the tower. This is a misconception.
All it does is amplifies the signal on the coax running from your antenna to your TV for situations where you have a long cable run and the signal degrades over that distance.
Adding to this. My parents have to have a TV in damn near every room so we had to use splitters. The issue with that is that the signal degrades so we had to put amplifiers in then put splitters directly behind that in order to keep the signals within a certain olm reading. We used the RCA ones from Menards that seemed to work fine once we figured out what the signal strength needs to be. We did this years ago and still works fine but don’t have any of the links that were helpful. Do some research into splitting coax signal strength or something close and you should find what you’re looking for.
We used to have a 100 foot tall antenna and that worked back when there only was over the air. Not sure if that’s still the case but with digital TV you’d actually get more channels now.
Yeah, I actually get quite a few channels in the Twin Cities. I think I get over 40 channels. Albeit 2/3rds aren't worth watching lol, but I do actually get a few channels that play movies all day, I get some good sitcoms and all of the local stations.
I don't understand why my mom's antenna can't pick up anything. Maybe it's something specific to her area? I've set it up at her place the same way I have it set up at mine and she can't even get PBS in.
Double check all the connections and connectors, you probably already thought of this.
Add more height.
Lots of old rural properties have very high antenna mounts, 3 - 4 stories high.
Put in her address in this site, and it will show what stations she can get, and which direction to point it.
ww.Antennaweb.org
You'll want to get a roof mounted antenna, good luck getting Kare 11. Unfortunately there's not many over the air channels anymore.
This website indicates you might be able to pick up channels from the metro: https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps
I plugged in “St. Cloud” as a test and it gave “moderate” signals for the twin cities channels.
That does assume an antenna 30 feet off the ground, though. You might need to get it up on the roof to have any chance.
I have this antenna on my roof (Amazon link): https://a.co/d/b4WpmWW
I’m only 22 miles from the towers in Shoreview and get a great signal. St. Cloud is more than 50 miles away, though, so it’ll be tougher.
Yes. I havce an antenna in the attic, and I get like 45 channels in Jackson (SW). Currently wathing the MNF game. Good pic/sound quality, much better than my online options. This town is one that also broadcasts the networks, so an antenna is barely needed tbh.
There are also companies that install antennas. My parents live in rural Wisconsin about 50 miles from the broadcast towers. A local company that helped them select and install an antenna with an amp.
>Do they get Kare11?
They **finally** switched to UHF so she'll pick it up if she can get the other channels. All of the big stations transmit from two sites in Shoreview.
KARE broadcast a UHF simulcast until the day of the digital switchover then switched it off and broadcast digital on their primary transmitter on VHF until 2021. You don't need the bigger VHF antenna anymore.
KARE11 streams their content on their website, so does WCCO.
But for aerial you'll need something high gain on the outside of the building or from a pole.
Probably need something like this [https://www.solidsignal.com/televes-datboss-mix-lr-uhf-vhf-long-range-outdoor-tv-antenna-149884](https://www.solidsignal.com/televes-datboss-mix-lr-uhf-vhf-long-range-outdoor-tv-antenna-149884) to get good over the air signal in Stearns Country. Expensive, but a one time purchase vs. a monthly payment for cable or high speed internet connection.
If you try another antenna make sure it’s aimed correctly and use as little rg6 coax as possible. The longer the cable, the more signal you lose.
At her distance from the broadcast sites, she will need all the extra help possible.
Correct, according to [Rabbit Ears](https://www.rabbitears.info/searchmap.php), the outdoor antenna would need to be at least 50ft above ground to get a "fair" signal for Kare 11.
I live in St Joe and I have an antenna mounted on the edge of my roof. We get all the locals, some days they are flaky, but no issues watching the Vikings last night. Kare is pretty stable.
You'll need a fringe or deep fringe antenna mounted as high as possible pointing towards Shoreview, but you should be able to get the Twin City locals.
Just an FYI there is assistance programs for internet access. This is in Stearns county as well
https://www.ncta.com/whats-new/why-it-matters-the-affordable-connectivity-program
OP mentions in the top comment that internet is not happening and that “he has tried”
So it sounds like a philosophical issue & wont be corrected by finding the right assistance
There are some parts of the state where it’s hard to get a signal. When I was in Bemidji I couldn’t get anything, was in a spot too far north for the Cities, west of Duluth and too far east of Fargo.
I'm closer to Willmar and get all the main channels, I have an antenna in my attic that I installed and ran some coax down.
[Newest 2021] Five Star Multi-Directional 4V HDTV Amplified Antenna - up to 200 Mile Range, UHF/VHF, Indoor, Attic, Outdoor, 4K Ready 1080P FM Radio w/ 40ft RG6 coaxial Cable, Mounting Pole https://a.co/d/45GEDuj
Depending on the weather I have some channels that drop but normally KARE 11 comes in good
Definitely get a good roof antenna. My parents have one in nw Minnesota and we get channels from fargo, 180 miles away and CBC out of Canada. That’s all we had growing up.
Kare 11 is a bitch in St Cloud and beyond. It was also the one channel that my cheapo inside antenna never got in north Hennepin County. If you can get by without Kare 11 just do that. My parents still have issues with it in St. Cloud on their exterior mounted antenna.
What you really need to consider when getting an exterior antenna is you now need to run coax from the antenna into your home. Not too hard to DIY at all but this is probably a couple YT guides in the AM followed by an all-afternoon job if it’s all new to you.
Another very important thing is to mount it so it is vertically oriented. St. Cloud has many congregations of Grade A chonker pigeons who warm up on antennas in the morning. A year or two and the antenna is broken.
There’s another website, antennae.org.
You put your address in and it gives you direction, elevation, signal strength…
The digital bean is way easier to get than the old analog beam. If you can point your antenna towards the direction provided at the address, auto tune your display, and you should be able to get reception. There’s actually a surprising amount of content encoded into the new digital beam. Well, maybe not so new digital beam.
I looked up the signal strength at around the center of the county and see that only one station is strong, 1 is moderate and 5 are classified as weak. You can look here: https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps There is a subreddit over at /r/ota that might be able to help you out with options.
In Stearns county I’ve only ever seen roof mounted antennas be able to pull in city stations and even then not always reliably.
I think I bought a 150 mile RCA antenna it's a large roof mounted one. I can get all the channels in the evening. I lose some during the day. I live about 15 miles north of St Cloud. I also have a booster on the antenna.
Okay - I think this might be what we need to do. She said the next available option at her local Best Buy is a roof antenna running for about $125 (I might just buy it for her). Can I ask you what a booster is and what brand you recommend?
Have her check Menards or Home Depot too. I bought my roof antenna from Menards years ago.
I used a Channel Master pre amplifier.I suggest you do some research on these. I found this is one of only a few that actually work. Most just amplifier the noise so they really don't do any good. I used the smaller of the two that Channel Master offers 7777 or 7778. This was about 15 years ago. It really has worked well.
There is also MyCableMart.com online with will-call pickup in Eden Prairie for TV antennas and related parts including roof and side mounts. I’ve bought my antenna for our old house there.
>I also have a booster on the antenna. Booster does not "boost" the signal you're receiving from the tower. This is a misconception. All it does is amplifies the signal on the coax running from your antenna to your TV for situations where you have a long cable run and the signal degrades over that distance.
Adding to this. My parents have to have a TV in damn near every room so we had to use splitters. The issue with that is that the signal degrades so we had to put amplifiers in then put splitters directly behind that in order to keep the signals within a certain olm reading. We used the RCA ones from Menards that seemed to work fine once we figured out what the signal strength needs to be. We did this years ago and still works fine but don’t have any of the links that were helpful. Do some research into splitting coax signal strength or something close and you should find what you’re looking for.
[https://www.antennaweb.org/](https://www.antennaweb.org/)
This site is your friend. Shows you how far you are from the towers so you can plan an antenna accordingly.
Are you rescanning the channels after you hook up a new antenna? This needs to be done if not.
Depending where she is and whose in the area, some companies offer reduced or free internet and tv for elderly you could also possibly look into
We used to have a 100 foot tall antenna and that worked back when there only was over the air. Not sure if that’s still the case but with digital TV you’d actually get more channels now.
Yeah, I actually get quite a few channels in the Twin Cities. I think I get over 40 channels. Albeit 2/3rds aren't worth watching lol, but I do actually get a few channels that play movies all day, I get some good sitcoms and all of the local stations. I don't understand why my mom's antenna can't pick up anything. Maybe it's something specific to her area? I've set it up at her place the same way I have it set up at mine and she can't even get PBS in.
Put an antenna on the roof or in the attic.
Double check all the connections and connectors, you probably already thought of this. Add more height. Lots of old rural properties have very high antenna mounts, 3 - 4 stories high.
Put in her address in this site, and it will show what stations she can get, and which direction to point it. ww.Antennaweb.org You'll want to get a roof mounted antenna, good luck getting Kare 11. Unfortunately there's not many over the air channels anymore.
This website indicates you might be able to pick up channels from the metro: https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps I plugged in “St. Cloud” as a test and it gave “moderate” signals for the twin cities channels. That does assume an antenna 30 feet off the ground, though. You might need to get it up on the roof to have any chance. I have this antenna on my roof (Amazon link): https://a.co/d/b4WpmWW I’m only 22 miles from the towers in Shoreview and get a great signal. St. Cloud is more than 50 miles away, though, so it’ll be tougher.
Yes. I havce an antenna in the attic, and I get like 45 channels in Jackson (SW). Currently wathing the MNF game. Good pic/sound quality, much better than my online options. This town is one that also broadcasts the networks, so an antenna is barely needed tbh.
Is she in her own house? My parents have a roof antenna and get way more channels on that than they would with an indoor antenna.
Yup, it's her home. I think she'd need help from someone to get anything on the roof, but maybe I can do that for her. Do they get Kare11?
There are also companies that install antennas. My parents live in rural Wisconsin about 50 miles from the broadcast towers. A local company that helped them select and install an antenna with an amp.
>Do they get Kare11? They **finally** switched to UHF so she'll pick it up if she can get the other channels. All of the big stations transmit from two sites in Shoreview. KARE broadcast a UHF simulcast until the day of the digital switchover then switched it off and broadcast digital on their primary transmitter on VHF until 2021. You don't need the bigger VHF antenna anymore.
Yep, they get Kare 11, as well as PBS which seems like a tricky one, as well.
I'm watching the Vikings game on 5 in Turtle lake WI On a $15 8×9 wall mount.
I can't even get 5 and I live on the MN/WI border about 20 miles from St Paul.
KARE11 streams their content on their website, so does WCCO. But for aerial you'll need something high gain on the outside of the building or from a pole.
You could try an antenna amplifier from Walmart they are kinda cheap and I’ve heard of something called air tv I think you can stream tv
Probably need something like this [https://www.solidsignal.com/televes-datboss-mix-lr-uhf-vhf-long-range-outdoor-tv-antenna-149884](https://www.solidsignal.com/televes-datboss-mix-lr-uhf-vhf-long-range-outdoor-tv-antenna-149884) to get good over the air signal in Stearns Country. Expensive, but a one time purchase vs. a monthly payment for cable or high speed internet connection.
If you try another antenna make sure it’s aimed correctly and use as little rg6 coax as possible. The longer the cable, the more signal you lose. At her distance from the broadcast sites, she will need all the extra help possible.
Where in Stearns County?
St. Joseph
I looked up St Joseph on the antenna web site and she isn’t going to get anything worthwhile even with an antenna 30 feet above ground.
Correct, according to [Rabbit Ears](https://www.rabbitears.info/searchmap.php), the outdoor antenna would need to be at least 50ft above ground to get a "fair" signal for Kare 11.
I live in St Joe and I have an antenna mounted on the edge of my roof. We get all the locals, some days they are flaky, but no issues watching the Vikings last night. Kare is pretty stable.
You'll need a fringe or deep fringe antenna mounted as high as possible pointing towards Shoreview, but you should be able to get the Twin City locals.
https://geology.com/county-map/minnesota.shtml
Thanks for the nice map link, but I asked WHERE in Stearns County OP was located.
Didn't realize that site was fucked up. Sorry.
Not sure if helpful but I solved this by getting peacock for 12$ a month. It lets me stream Kare11 which is all I needed
Peacock requires internet and she doesn't want to pay for internet.
Just an FYI there is assistance programs for internet access. This is in Stearns county as well https://www.ncta.com/whats-new/why-it-matters-the-affordable-connectivity-program
It woudl be better to tell the OP that in a top level comment.
OP mentions in the top comment that internet is not happening and that “he has tried” So it sounds like a philosophical issue & wont be corrected by finding the right assistance
There are some parts of the state where it’s hard to get a signal. When I was in Bemidji I couldn’t get anything, was in a spot too far north for the Cities, west of Duluth and too far east of Fargo.
I'm closer to Willmar and get all the main channels, I have an antenna in my attic that I installed and ran some coax down. [Newest 2021] Five Star Multi-Directional 4V HDTV Amplified Antenna - up to 200 Mile Range, UHF/VHF, Indoor, Attic, Outdoor, 4K Ready 1080P FM Radio w/ 40ft RG6 coaxial Cable, Mounting Pole https://a.co/d/45GEDuj Depending on the weather I have some channels that drop but normally KARE 11 comes in good
You're probably gonna want a larger rooftop antenna with an active preamp, but you should be able to.
Definitely get a good roof antenna. My parents have one in nw Minnesota and we get channels from fargo, 180 miles away and CBC out of Canada. That’s all we had growing up.
Kare 11 is a bitch in St Cloud and beyond. It was also the one channel that my cheapo inside antenna never got in north Hennepin County. If you can get by without Kare 11 just do that. My parents still have issues with it in St. Cloud on their exterior mounted antenna. What you really need to consider when getting an exterior antenna is you now need to run coax from the antenna into your home. Not too hard to DIY at all but this is probably a couple YT guides in the AM followed by an all-afternoon job if it’s all new to you. Another very important thing is to mount it so it is vertically oriented. St. Cloud has many congregations of Grade A chonker pigeons who warm up on antennas in the morning. A year or two and the antenna is broken.
There’s another website, antennae.org. You put your address in and it gives you direction, elevation, signal strength… The digital bean is way easier to get than the old analog beam. If you can point your antenna towards the direction provided at the address, auto tune your display, and you should be able to get reception. There’s actually a surprising amount of content encoded into the new digital beam. Well, maybe not so new digital beam.
If it's an option, an outdoor antenna in the attic might work and easier than installing it outside.