LTE Interference on Over-the-Air TV – What Cord Cutters Need to Know (Guest Post)

Today’s post is a guest post from the great team over at TabloTV.com. Laura Slater is one of the cord cutting experts at TabloTV.com and has been blissfully cable-free since 2010. She enjoys sharing the money saving tips and tricks she’s learned to help others join the cord cutting revolution.

The range of signals (aka spectrum) that Over-the-Air TV occupies has changed in recent years.

Most channels have moved to the UHF spectrum, while some remain on VHF. Frequencies that were formerly used for higher numbered UHF channels have been auctioned off and allocated to LTE cellular traffic.

(This auction is also why your local channels may have moved lately or may be moving over the coming year. Plan to rescan your antenna regularly!)

Because the spectrum used by LTE is adjacent to the one used by Over-the-Air TV, these signals can interfere with TV reception causing breakups in picture and sound and sometimes even total signal loss.

Some higher-end TV antennas, distribution amplifiers, and tuners (including the ones in Tablo DVRs) already include some LTE filtering, but if you live near a cell tower, investing in an LTE filter could be worthwhile for an improved experience.

When shopping for an LTE filter, choose a model specifically designed for the US/Canadian market because it will more accurately block the correct range of frequencies.

LTE filters cost about $20 and are available from Amazon and specialty antenna retailers like SolidSignal.com.

Installation is easy. Just connect one end of the LTE filter to your antenna’s coaxial cable, and the other end to your TV, tuner, or DVR.

Something to keep in mind: while LTE filters can significantly reduce errors in the incoming broadcast stream, they can also reduce signal power. On channels with weaker reception this can simply introduce a different set of problems, including total loss of channels on the edge of the digital cliff.

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