Customer Reviews for Winegard Elite 7550 Long Range VHF/UHF Outdoor HDTV Antenna

I don't love this antenna. I was planning to replace my cable service with this antenna, but it did not perform as hoped. I mounted it inside an attic; it's made mostly of plastic and I don't think it will handle the rough weather at the shore house where I have it. The mount in particular is mostly plastic. I could not imagine it would last long, so I kept it inside. The first channel scan yielded 35 channels, and most of them looked great. Many of the channels even populated info in the channel guide. I moved the antenna several times around the attic, but I never got more than 35 channels. In fact, I never got 35 channels a second time. I hovered around 20 or 25 most of the time, and on my most recent scans I only picked up 8. Overall, I'm mostly disappointed. The picture is great when a channel comes in. I think if it were outside, it might work better. But the fact that the scanned channels keep changing - and more importanly, decreasing - has made it mostly useless.

This is an excellent Winegard product that has really helped my reception. I installed this outdoors on a deck railing and compared it to a patch antenna (indoors) that I had been using. I was getting about 60 channels, with this antenna I now get 125 channels! I also have better signal strength now, no more freezing or pixelating. My only issue is the mounting holes in the plastic bracket are a bit large and the deck screws I used really need washers on them because the heads are smaller than the holes. Product has a power inserter to power the amplifier in the antenna. The power inserter goes indoors and plugs in the wall or a USB port. This antenna is great for cord cutters!

Assembly instructions are straight forward any easy to follow and complete, I have several concerns about how much black plastic is used overall. Time will tell how well it holds up in the Phoenix climate. The initial channel scan found 64 digital channels. The most notable missing channels were the Phoenix NBC channel 12.1 and ABC channel 15.1. I added the amp and the extra coax cable required but not provided. I ran the second channel scan and found a total of 94 digital channels. All missing channels were found plus many more. Reception on all channels was excellent. Wind can be an issue with loose fitting plastic mounts for UHF rods. They will probably be rattling in the wind since they are not very well secured. Too much plastic used. Black plastic parts may be an issue in the blazing hot Phoenix weather in a short time.

Winegard has been around for more than 40 years. They have always made a quality product and this is no exception. Easy to assemble, install and works well. My previous indoor antenna would get 28 channels at best. This antenna mounted outdoors gets 48 channels......all local of course. Bear in mind that you will have to run a coax (RG6 or RG59) from the antenna to the TV. That is the hardest work for myself. The value in this antenna is being able to cut the cable if you don't need premium channels or at least you can reduce your bill from the satellite providers. Also the over-the-air channels are generally HD. I would recommend this product!

Wow! This antenna works so much better than I thought! I live down in a valley-like area by the lake and surrounded by trees. My local satellite company couldn't get a good enough signal in order to get good reception on my TV. I also tried several different antenna's with only a few channels coming through. This antenna has to be assembled and does not include coax cables (2 needed) but that was no problem. The antenna was a little larger than I anticipated but that doesn't really matter to me. Most of the parts are plastic so I hope it holds up with the high winds and rough seasonal weather. After assembly, you hook up your coax cables to the little white power cord unit and then the ends go into the antenna and your TV. The antenna itself gets mounted to your roof or some other high surface (can also be used on RV's, Trucks etc. for mobile use). You go online or on the recommended app (see pics for more details) to determine which way to face the antenna based on your local satellite towers. Once I determined which way to face the antenna toward the closest tower, I tested it out before mounting which is what I showed in the attached picture. I then turned my TV on to TV setting by pressing the "source" button on my remote control. You would then go to auto channel search which will take a couple of minutes to load the channels. I was able to get 45 channels in an area that normally doesn't pick up satellite reception! Once your channels load, use the "channel up & down button on your remote to get to a working channel first. The picture on my TV came through as digital which made it very clear although the picture I attached looks a bit blurry because I took it with my cell phone. I can't believe how well this antenna worked! I've read other reviews where some people thought it was just "oK" but I would highly recommend this antenna based on my experience. My brother is a semi truck driver who goes all over the country and he wants to get one to use while he's on the road and has to stay in his truck overnight or when he's camping with his family.

It's been set up for a week, about 20 ft off the ground, pointed toward stations 35-40 miles away in hilly terrain. About a 20 ft. cable run. It performs consistently better than the (passive) Antennas Direct ClearStream 2 it replaced -- it increased both signal strength and quality from the high 60s to the high 80s on a benchmark station (according to HDHomeRun tuner). Mostly plastic, so we'll see how it holds up. It's primarily a UHF antenna. I use a separate VHF antenna combined with a UVSJ.

Easy to assemble, we receive many stations on this antenna.

The 7550 is only a single high VHF dipole so it works for nearby rf channels 7-13 but not for 2-6 The UHF side pulls in rf channels 14-60 easily at the 50-60 mile distance from my home. What really makes this antenna work so much better than other antennas of similar size is the built in low noise preamp. I get 60 channels solid as a rock and I'm looking thru trees and blocked by higher hills so I have no line of sight path.

Better reception picture and sound than last antenna. Still waiting for 70s technology with a rotation dial so you can change towers while sitting on the couch.

Easy to assemble and aim. Great results. The base is plastic so would question long term reliability if mounted outdoors. It is mounted in an attic so no problems.

Great antenna! You get what you pay for.

So far it has exceeded my expectations. I haven't installed it yet on the roof but so far it has great reception just inside my house. I fully expect when I point it toward NO area it'll bring in more! I also got the "juice" reception amplifier and believe that together they'll get me plenty channels to watch and very clearly too.

Great reception! Exceeded my expectations! Installer was well worth the cost!!!

Easy to assemble, good reception.

I installed mine in my attic and I will say that this is a really nice antenna. My OTA towers are about 55 miles away and every single channel comes in clear as a bell. I do live in an area where my residence is in a slight valley so I’m certain the amplifier is doing its job. This antenna drives signal to 3 sets in my home. I used a 2 way power pass splitter rated a 5 MHz-2.4 GHz at the antenna as I have another one facing the opposite direction. Since my 3 way splitter is located near an outlet in my attached garage, I was able to install the amp between the splitter and the antenna inline. My only disappointment is that the antenna will only fit the angle brackets and pole that came with the unit. So if you want to put this on an existing pole, this antenna will have to be on the very top as it will not attach below other antennas if you plan to use to use the antenna below the existing ones. Since mine was an attic installation, I was able to get away with tie wraps and tape to fasten it to my existing inch and a half pole. It’s very light weight and I would say probably just under 2 pounds. I installed this one in my attic only because of the fact that I have a small reservation about its construction. I’ve installed a lot of antennas and even though this one appears a little flimsy, it does a nice job, however I believe if this is installed where a lot of inclement weather is experienced -it might last 2 to 3 years at best. I couldn’t get a good photo of the final installation because the area in the attic was very tight and hard to snap a clear picture of it, but the antenna looks exactly like all the pictures you’ve seen. The instructions are great-making it very easy to assemble, and it takes about 20 minutes to put the thing together.

My $20 indoor antenna from "You Must Have" brought in way more channels than this. Just to be sure that this was true, I placed both antennas in the same place. I also made sure to use high quality cable. I tried to adjust the direction of the Winegard to optimize the signal. All of this was to no avail. Save your money - buy a cheapo antenna.

I bought this antenna to replace a $29 antenna, hoping to improve reception. it did not work as well as the old antenna. I have returned it. Settled on a $49 GE Yagi with a $30 pre-amp - Works GREAT for half the price.

This expensive antenna did not pick up as many station as my cheap one.. They were both mounted in the same place with the same cable. I returned to home depot which was very nice in returning the antenna..

We live 40-50 miles from towers in either direction. I had to add a second antenna facing the opposite direction to be able to receive all of the stations I wanted.

Works great. What a difference.

All channels I expected to get come in most of the time. Much better than my previous antenna.

This antenna was easy to assemble and has delivered way better performance than I expected!

Rating provided by a verified purchaser

Easy to set up. I live over 50 miles from Nashville and I can pick up 60 channels . I got it mounted about 20ft up on my chimney.

Easy to assemble and mount. Picked up more channels than any other of the 3 antennas I tried.

Had the best reception compared to at leaSt 5 other similar antennas

Since this is an outdoor antenna I felt the quality would be stronger/better. It is very much a flimsy plastic and I do not feel it will last. I was hoping for something a lot stronger. I will most likely return.