Do clip-on antennas work?

I saw a satellite setup at an apartment complex setup just like mine today while I was driving around except it had an odd looking antenna attached to it. Got home this evening and did a search and found a bunch of these clip-on types. Are they any good?

Originally Posted by Aaron62

I saw a satellite setup at an apartment complex setup just like mine today while I was driving around except it had an odd looking antenna attached to it. Got home this evening and did a search and found a bunch of these clip-on types. Are they any good?

They should work quite well. They are designed to clip into the focal point of the antenna. This way they receive a magnified signal. At one point in time I was going to build one out of an old discarded free satellite dish. It would be a very inexpensive way to get a good UHF antenna.

The work depending on how close you live to the stations. Depends how high your dish is mounted.

Probably a good test to see if this antenna would work for you. Your rabbit ears work much better sitting on the dish than in the house. Some one in a metal walled building that lived 5 to 10 miles from a strong UHF that had trouble indoors this would probably be enough to pull in a signal.

If you live 10 miles from a weak VHF probably won't work.

There are two advantage to this antenna. One is it gets the antenna outside and if that is higher than your inside antenna the better.

The second advantage has nothing to do with reception. Some of them come with diplexers and a jumpers, so you just combine your satellite and OTA into one cable, then split it inside.

Warning too. Since they are mainly designed to work in strong signal areas and have an amp built in powered by the sat receiver I assume (can't find any other way they would be powered), they would overload easy. Remember rule one of amps, they don't like strong signals.

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A much better approach would be to buy a j-pole attachment
Similar to this concept Winegard DS 2000 Universal 22" Pipe / Tower Mount for Off-Air Antenna (DS-2000) | DS-2000 [Winegard]
Note the antenna shown is not part of the package. But a way to attach a small OTA to a dish mount.

Of if they let you mount a dish, on a j-pipe wall mount, it's just as cheap to buy a second j-pipe for OTA. And there are many small antennas that are end mounted that can be used.

Originally Posted by 1inxs

They should work quite well. They are designed to clip into the focal point of the antenna. This way they receive a magnified signal. At one point in time I was going to build one out of an old discarded free satellite dish. It would be a very inexpensive way to get a good UHF antenna.

I just went back and read the part. Are we talking about the same type of clip ons?

Terk TV-44
Terk TV-42
RCA ANT3901

where the ones I found that clip to the edge of the dish.

No magnification from this point on the dish, if anything it's way to close to the metal of the edge of the dish.

If there is some other style I am missing, I would love to see a better type of clip on.

Again my advice is only use on if holding your rabbit ears out the window works a lot better than in the apartment. That means the building is blocking signal. Actually that is a good test for anyone with poor rabbit ear reception.

Thank again for the info, some of the clip-ons look so odd like the Terk TV-44 you mentioned Piggie.



They almost make a dish look old with the weird wiring material for the antenna, but hey, if it works, it saves on having to put up a separate mount for another for an OTA antenna.

Those are the only ones I have seen. Like so many other types of "unusual" antennas, they work mainly by getting the equivalent of an indoor antenna outside. The mere fact you get outside often increases the RF field from stations by 10 db.

That said this antenna probably had negative gain. It's too close to the edge of the dish and would diminish the reception of it's folded dipole design, not benefit just because it's a satellite antenna to begin with.

It will work though like I say, if you can place your rabbit ears outside and it makes all the difference in the world, then antennas like this would probably work.

If you are fighting to get a signal from an attic or outside antenna, forget antennas like these.

Well, my 11 year old antenna, an Ez-Dish by RDI Electronics, which I used for analog was designed as a "clip on" for satellite antennas. I got it because of its unique shape and touted 40 mile reception in a compact size. It worked great, until wireless technology flooded the airwaves over the years.

Another pic:
Box shot:


Yes, it looks like a spiral galaxy, but it worked. It didn't work for digital by itself. Still taking up space in the attic. If I have a bit of free time, I'll hook an amplifier to it and try it out.

I call those J-pipe extension antennas. Because it's second very short mast that bolts to the j-pipe.

Hope you saved that part of the antenna because you could mount something outdoors on that type. If nothing else those extension pipes are about $15 to $20 with shipping.