The RCA Indoor Multi-Directional Digital Flat Antenna model ANT1600R is an indoor antenna specially designed to receive digital television signals in your home.
Ease of Use, Performance: 3/5
Look & Feel: 4/5
Features 3/5
How much I enjoy 4/5
Total: 3.5/5 Stars
The RCA Indoor Digital Flat Antenna is a nicely packaged antenna designed to receive digital television signals for high definition local broadcast reception but the antenna has a flat plastic design. The antenna comes as a black antenna with a mount system on the back for either wall mounting or the additional metal easel that allows the unit to be set on an entertainment centers top.
RCA has a whole line of flat digital antennas with gloss black, gloss white and a paintable white antenna for the style that suits your décor but the main design feature is a flat antenna that has great reception. The RCA ANT1600R measures about 11 by 10 inches and is less than an inch thick with a coax cable attached to one end for connecting to your television.
The back of the 1600R antenna has two screw mounts and the holes for the metal easel bar as well as a slot for the coax cable that can run out the bottom for wall mounting or toward the back for use with the easel. The antenna comes with a couple of screws and wall anchors for installing on drywall but you can just as easily set the antenna on an entertainment center or whatever shelf is handy by your television.
The RCA Antenna has the usual coax connection on a six foot cable for easy hook up to your television and that is about all you need to do to get your new antenna working except for channel setup on your TV. The channels available will of course be dependent on many factors including location of your antenna in the home and your general location between you and the broadcasting antennas.
Digital television is broadcast just like analog was, that is to say that over the air signals are just as easy to receive but with a better antenna to receive the signals designed around the newer digital system reception can be improved. The RCA antenna does a better job of receiving signals than those familiar older rabbit ear antennas that I still have and compared against the ANT1600R which did receive better signal strength.
The RCA antenna does receive about 20 percent better signal strength than a two prong rabbit ear antenna for me with an amplifier connected to the antenna that I use to boost the signal strength. The RCA antenna may need to be positioned for best reception near the TV and I found that placement is a major factor in signal strength so finding the right place is important.
I did give the antenna to my son who does not have any rooftop antenna or in my case attic antennas so he could receive local channels better than the rabbit ears he was using. He receives all the local channels with only one channel sometimes not having decent reception but all the time he does get great reception for the rest of them.
We have the three main television stations of ABC, NBC and CBS along with Fox and the Minnesota Public Broadcasting Service which he gets easily except for the one station that occasionally does not come in clear. The four stations all come in perfectly for him as well as it did when I tried the antenna at my house in my main floor living room that is surrounded by the signal sucking plaster and lathe construction.
The RCA ANT1600R antenna makes a great indoor antenna when you can’t or don’t want to install a rooftop antenna for local stations of digital television reception and you can use an amplifier if needed. A 10Db powered antenna amplifier is also available if your reception is not as good as you wanted which may help some and several antenna models from RCA are available with one.
You can buy the model of RCA antenna, ANT1650 that comes with the antenna amplifier or the model I received for review ANT1600R that costs about $25 and is available at Amazon and local stores like Wal-Mart or Sears.
RCA Website
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