Mohu Television Antenna Leaf 30 Paper-Thin Indoor HDTV Antenna for Free TV MH-110502

As someone who no longer watches a lot of live tv because of the internet and streaming video, it makes no sense for me to pay for an expensive cable TV bill every month on top of my internet bill. However, there are still many instances where I would like live TV to be able to watch things like the news, sports, and public television. I've spent many hours wrestling with traditional rabbit ear-style antennas (including amplified ones). But if you don't live right next to a tower, rabbit ears can be incredibly frustrating to adjust just right, and they need to be constantly readjusted depending on the day and what specific channel you want to pull in. And you still only get a small handful of channels. I was getting fed up with the rabbit ears and figured there had to be an alternative to pull in free over the air channels reliably (after all, I live only 9 miles from the major television tower in the area--there's no reason I should be having trouble).I did some research online and stumbled upon the Mohu Leaf. And after my brief experience with it so far, I'm never going back.The first thing you should do before you buy a Mohu Leaf (or any antenna for that matter) is to go to a site like AntennaWeb or TVFool (or my personal favorite, ChannelMaster's Antenna Selection Guide) to find out where television antennas are positioned around where you live and how far you are away from them. This will give you a very good sense of not only which channels you can expect to pick up and how strong of an antenna you need to buy, but also the direction you'll need to face your antenna once you get it. It will also tell you which channels broadcast over UHF vs VHF, which can be important depending on the antenna you buy.The Mohu Leaf antenna is a thin, sturdy sheet of plastic that can be mounted to directly to a wall or window. Not only does its thin design camouflage with the wall, but the bigger benefit is that it can be placed in the exact spot that gives you the best reception (unlike traditional rabbit ear antennas which need to sit on a table or on top of the TV). The design also gives the antenna a somewhat omnidirectional capability (though make no mistake--the direction it faces DOES matter).When you first get your Mohu Leaf, you're going to need to play around with it a bit to find the best place on the wall or window for optimal reception. I first tried putting it on a sliding glass door, but the reception wasn't as good as I had anticipated and I was missing a couple of key channels I wanted to pick up that I knew were available in my area. You might want to scotch tape it to the wall in a few different locations and re-run a channel search on your TV to find the best signal (literal inches up and down and left and right on a wall can make a massive difference). The device also seems to have a slightly harder time picking up VHF or Hi-V channels than it does UHF channels (refer to the antenna sites mentioned earlier to figure out which those are), so you might want to consider catering your placement to picking up your most important VHF/Hi-V channels first. It turned out that the best spot for me was in the direction of my nearest broadcast tower but only about midway up the wall and slightly further away from the glass sliding door. Once I found the spot, I pinned it to the wall with the included pushpins and now I get over 50 channels for free!There are two versions of the Mohu Leaf--an unamplified version (Mohu Leaf 30 or Mohu ReLeaf) and an amplified version (Mohu Leaf 50). The only difference from what I can tell is that the Mohu Leaf 50 comes with an optional signal amplifier, which helps you to view signals coming from further away. If you live in a relatively urban or suburban area with television antennas located under 30 miles from you, the standard Mohu Leaf 30 should be more than adequate (you don't want to try to use a signal amplifier on stations that are really close to you because it could actually negatively affect the reception). As mentioned before, I live about 9 miles from the closest television towers and about 30 miles from some others, so the Mohu Leaf 30 was more than adequate for picking up signals from all of those towers. Reception also very much depends on the construction of your house/apartment and what's around you, so mileage will vary. You can always buy a signal amplifier separately if you realize you need one.I should also mention that I bought a certified refurbished Mohu Leaf from Amazon. For those of you who don't know, certified refurbished is NOT the same thing as used. Certified refurbished means that the device may contain some used parts, but was rebuilt and tested by the manufacturer themselves to function just like a brand new device. I've bought a few certified refurbished devices through Amazon before (this, a Blu-Ray player, and a wireless router) and have never had a problem with any of them. The only differences you'll notice from a "new" device is that it may come in a generic or already opened box and might have a few minor scratches on the outside. And certified refurbished products usually come with a good warranty, so you can return or replace it if you do happen to come across any issues. For the crazy amount of money you can save by buying products this way (I paid $20 instead of $30 for this, and the certified refurbished Blu-Ray player was half the price), there's literally no reason NOT to buy certified refurbished products through Amazon if you're looking to save a few bucks.

When I purchased this refurbished antenna I couldn't find any indication that it had been refurbished, it looks brand new. The connections are clean and tight, the included coax cable isn't the greatest quality but I haven't had the need to upgrade it.Quick version:Outperforms rabbit ears by a long shot. Received all local channels with 60-80% signal strength from 30 miles away. Received one out of market channel at 20% from 52 miles away. Very happy, would buy again.Extended version:(Conditions)I live in a single story house with brick exterior walls. The broadcast antennas for the channels in my market area are clustered together on a mountain exactly 30 miles away all on the same bearing due north of me. The next nearest market is nearly 60 miles away to my SSW. Based on elevation, I have good line of sight to the 30 mile local stations and partial line of sight to the 60 mile channels.(Performance)After playing around with the antenna to find the best orientation and height, I am able to receive all except one of the local channels at 8/10 bars of signal strength, the one exception is 6/10 which still looks great. This is through 2 interior walls, a brick exterior wall, and part of the metal roof on the back porch. After adding the Channel Master CM 3412 2-Port Ultra Mini Distribution Amplifier for cable and antenna signals (CM3412) the signal strength increased to 10/10 on the strong channels and 8/10 on the weaker one. I am able to pull in one station from out of my market with a 2/10 signal and good line of sight, its transmitter is 52 miles away.(Adjusting antenna)I started off by pinning the antenna to different locations on the wall and quickly got tired of that. At least in my situation, where you put this antenna and the angle it is at makes a huge difference (from 10% to 80%). What I ended up doing was attaching a piece of cardboard to a camera tripod and pinned the antenna to that. That allowed me to easily change the height, direction, and position to find the best spot. In my situation it happened to be in a corner at about 7'. Notice the antenna is bent slightly to tuck it in the corner, That may hinder overall performance, but I'm still receiving channels at 10/10 with it bent like that.