How to aim a TV antenna for the best signal

1. Get the bearing to each tower

Search your address in the tower finder or open your city's channel guide. Each station shows a bearing such as 247° WSW. That is the direction from you toward the transmitter, measured clockwise from true north: 0° is north, 90° east, 180° south and 270° west.

Note the bearing of the farthest station you want. Closer stations are stronger and usually come in even when the antenna is pointed a little away from them; the farthest one needs the antenna's full gain.

2. True north vs magnetic north

The bearings on this site are measured from true (geographic) north. A magnetic compass points to magnetic north, which in the continental US is anywhere from about 15° east of true north in the Pacific Northwest to about 15° west in Maine. Most phone compass apps can show true north in their settings; turn that on. With a magnetic compass, look up your local declination and correct for it, or a long-range antenna can end up noticeably off target.

The live finder's Point my antenna button and the RCA Signal Finder app use your phone's compass to show which way to turn. Hold the phone flat, away from metal, and stand clear of cars and steel railings, which deflect phone compasses.

3. Aim, scan, adjust

1. Point the antenna at the bearing of your farthest wanted station. For a directional (Yagi) antenna, the short elements point toward the tower and the longest element is at the back.
2. Run a full channel scan on the TV (often under Settings → Channels → Auto program; the menu name varies by brand).
3. Open the signal strength or signal quality screen on the weakest channel you want. Many TVs hide it under a diagnostics or channel menu.
4. Turn the antenna 5° at a time, pausing a few seconds after each move: TV meters lag. Note where the reading peaks.
5. Lock the antenna at the best position and run one more full scan so the TV picks up every channel available there.

Using a signal meter

Your TV's built-in meter is free and good enough for most installs. Watch quality (sometimes called SNR) rather than strength: a strong but noisy or reflected signal still breaks up. Handheld antenna signal meters give faster, more precise readings, which helps on a roof. A phone cannot measure TV signals because it has no TV tuner. What phone apps can do is work out the direction to each tower from your location and point you at it. Use the app for direction and the TV meter to confirm.

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When the towers are in different directions

If your city page shows the main network towers spread over more than about 60°:

• Compromise aim. Point between two clusters and test. Directional antennas have a useful beam of roughly 30 to 60°, so a nearby station off to the side may still come in.
• Multi-directional antenna. Gives up some range but catches everything without re-aiming.
• Rotator. A motor on the mast turns a directional antenna by remote. It gets the most range in every direction, but you turn it when you change channel.
• Two antennas. Two directional antennas joined with a combiner can work, but signals from both can interfere. Use a proper UVSJ or channel-specific combiner, not a cheap reverse splitter.

Fixing common aiming problems

• A channel comes and goes. Usually reflections (multipath) or a signal close to the edge. Raise the antenna, move it a few feet, or narrow the aim. Leafy trees in summer and wet weather make marginal signals worse.
• One strong local station is missing. It may be on VHF and your antenna is UHF-only, or it transmits from a different direction than the others. Check its bearing.
• Everything pixelates at once. Look for a loose connector, a damaged cable, or an amplifier overloading near a strong tower.
• Channels vanished after months of working. Stations sometimes change frequency. Rescan first, before touching the antenna.

Height beats almost everything

Each step up in height clears more trees, roofs and terrain between you and the tower. Moving an antenna from a window sill to the attic, or from the attic to a mast 10 feet above the roofline, often adds more channels than a bigger antenna or an amplifier. Aim first, raise second, and amplify last. The amplifier guide explains when that last step is worth it.