Over-the-air TV channels near you, and which way to point your antenna

Point your antenna at the transmitter, and use the antenna band the station needs. Tunearby looks up every over-the-air TV transmitter within 125 miles of you, lists the stations the FCC predicts reach you or come close, and shows for each the compass direction to aim, the distance to the tower, and whether it is low VHF, high VHF or UHF. Farther stations that miss you appear when you search. Use your browser's location or type a U.S. city. It is free, with no sign-up, no cookies and no ads, and it runs in your browser from FCC public records.

Does it use my address or ZIP code?

No. Tunearby measures from your browser's location, or from the center point of a U.S. city or town you type; there is no address or ZIP code box. If a ZIP code is all you have, type the town's name. A city search measures from one point for that place, not from your house: a few miles barely changes the direction to a tower dozens of miles away, but it can for one in your own town, so use your device location when you are at home. If location is blocked, unavailable or slow, the page shows New York, NY until you allow location or pick a place, so check the label at the top before trusting a list.

What TV channels can you get in your area?

The channels you can get are the stations whose FCC-predicted coverage reaches your location, read along the line from each tower to you. Tunearby groups them:

Stations more than 60 miles away whose coverage misses you are left out until you search. These are predictions, not promises. They assume an outdoor antenna about 30 feet up and ignore individual hills and buildings, so an indoor antenna or a ridge in the way can cost you channels. A channel scan on your own TV is the real test. The 3- and 15-mile limits are Tunearby's, not FCC categories. The longest predicted coverage in the catalog reaches about 105 miles from its tower; with the 15-mile fringe that is 120 miles, which the 125-mile search radius rounds up.

Which way to point your TV antenna

Point the antenna along the bearing from you to the tower, measured clockwise from true north: 0° is north, 90° east, 180° south and 270° west. Each row shows that bearing with a compass point and the distance, such as 227° SW followed by the miles to the tower. True north is not the north a handheld compass finds, and the gap depends on where you live, so allow for it if you aim by compass. Select a station and the map marks its tower and your position, so you can check the direction by eye.

Read the whole lineup before you climb a ladder. If the bearings of the channels you want cluster in one direction, one aim serves them all. If they spread out, no single aim will, and you are choosing which channels matter most.

One aim can bring in many channels

Most TV stations share a tower with others, so one bearing often covers several channels. About three in four main TV transmitters in the catalog sit within a couple of hundred yards of another station's, and the busiest towers hold 20. On the map, a shared tower draws as one numbered disc; select a station and its popup offers "Same tower: N more stations", a list with each station's own coverage verdict. Stations on one tower share an aim direction, not an antenna: a station on RF 12 and one on RF 32 at the same site still need VHF and UHF reception respectively.

A station can have several transmitters, including fill-in sites. Tunearby aims you at the one with the best predicted coverage at your location, and in a tower list a station that reaches you best from a different transmitter says "Best from its other tower" with that tower's distance.

VHF or UHF: which antenna band do you need?

Which antenna you need depends on the station's RF channel, not the number on your TV: RF 2 to 6 is low VHF, RF 7 to 13 is high VHF, and RF 14 to 36 is UHF. The number your TV shows, such as 31.1, is a virtual channel, and for most full-power stations it differs from the RF channel. In the New York area, for example, WNET shows as channel 13 but transmits on RF channel 12, which is high VHF. Each row carries a band tag reading VHF-Low, VHF-High or UHF, and the station popup on the map adds the RF channel.

Compare the tags on your favorite channels with your antenna: a VHF tag is a likely suspect if your antenna is UHF-only.

What station is channel 31.1?

Channel 31.1 is a virtual channel, and which station it is depends on where you are: the same number is used by different stations in different parts of the country. Type the number from your TV's channel list into the search box above the lineup; 31.1, 31-1, 31 1 and ch 31.1 all work, and so do call signs and network names. The number before the dot identifies the station, because every subchannel (31.1, 31.2 and so on) shares one transmitter. While you search, the list reaches the full 125 miles, even stations whose predicted coverage misses you, since a lookup is often about a station you are not getting. If nothing matches, the catalog may simply lack the number: about two in three transmitters, mostly translators and low-power stations, have no channel number on file and appear as RF-numbered rows, so also try the call sign or a network name.

Some matches carry a number for another station. A row that reads "Carries 13.1 · PBS (WNET)" means that transmitter carries a partner's channel, through channel sharing or an ATSC 3.0 arrangement. ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) transmitters can only be decoded by a TV with an ATSC 3.0 tuner; without one, look for the partner transmitter that usually carries the station's standard channel. The station popup lists its subchannels when the catalog has them (about one station in four), linking each to the station's or the network's site where one is known.

Why is a channel missing?

A channel is usually missing because the signal does not reach you, because your antenna cannot receive its band, or because the transmitter is ATSC 3.0 and your TV cannot decode it. Check, in order:

What is the difference between full-power, low-power and translator TV stations?

A full-power station is a broadcaster's main licensed transmitter; a Class A or low-power station is licensed to serve a smaller area; a translator repeats another station's signal into an area its main tower does not reach; and a fill-in transmitter is an extra site of a full-power station that usually shares its call sign (some extra sites, marked DTS by the FCC, are labelled Full power). Each row names its type. Translators are the largest group, roughly 2,900 of the catalog's transmitter records. When the catalog knows which station a translator repeats, its row says "Rebroadcasts" and names it, but that is on file for only about 7% of translators; most show just their RF channel.

Where the data comes from

The catalog comes from FCC public records: more than 7,000 licensed TV transmitter records for roughly 6,970 stations across the United States, covering full-power, Class A, low-power and translator stations and fill-in transmitters, with the FCC's predicted coverage for nearly all of them. About 8,900 subchannel and network rows are named partly from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. Catalog data updated October 2026. Distance, bearing and coverage are worked out in your browser; map tiles come from OpenFreeMap, and a city you type is sent to the Photon place-search service with a rounded, approximate position (see the privacy policy). The Tunearby app for iOS and for Android cover AM/FM radio today, and a TV tab is coming to them; the home page covers the radio finder.