If you think TV antennas are a thing of the past, think again.

Nowadays, many people are opting to cut the cord and switch to a modern outdoor HDTV antenna. They've had enough of ​the high cost of cable and satellite television.

And many broadcast stations like FOX, CBS, ABC, and NBC continue to send signals for free, so antenna users can rest assured they aren't missing any shows that are happening on TV.

Besides the welcome disappearance of regularly recurring monthly cable bills, you can additionally count on the higher-quality, uncompressed picture and sound you'll get from over-the-air (OTA) television signals.

Just in case you’re considering cutting the cord, here’s a list of my favorite outdoor TV antennas currently on the market.

Ditching your cable subscription forever and enjoying the benefits of free OTA television requires you to select the best TV antenna for your needs.

It's a small, up-front investment in time and money that will pay dividends for a long time.

But many new cord cutters often don't know where to start, or which antenna type they need.

Here we'll show you the factors to consider in choosing a TV antenna that's ideal for you. Keep these factors in mind as you go through the various antenna reviews. And feel free to leave comments or ask me questions at any time.

If there's a single most important factor you need to know when choosing a TV antenna, it's signal power.

On the web, there are many great tools to assist with this (e.g., the DTV/maps and tvfool.com websites). You simply input your address or zip code to see a report of available stations and transmitters.

The comprehensive report includes the following information specific to your area:

This information is provided for absolutely free, and is a must for finding out which type of antenna you'll need.

You'll notice in the report above (on the left side) that towers and their distances to the antenna's location are indicated in a radar-like of diagram with concentric circles.

Looking closer at the diagram, you'll also notice that while some single transmitters can be found in isolation, many more are grouped together, arrayed in a single line.

Theoretically, you could use an omnidirectional antenna to pick up all these stations. In practice, however, omnidirectional antennas offer low antenna gain for their 360-degree reception, and can have less reception range than their directional counterparts. In fact, many models are amplified to boost the TV signals they receive.

For this reason, omnidirectional antennas often work better in areas with TV transmitters relatively close by (i.e., less than 15 or 20 miles away), than in areas with fringe television reception.

Alternatively you could choose a directional antenna, which has greater reception power in a narrower direction but offers the increased antenna gain to better overcome interference. Such antennas come in two varieties, either uni- or multidirectional.

A unidirectional antenna, as its name implies, has a relatively narrow beam width but powerful reception when aimed towards a transmission tower. Observing the radar plot on the left side of the signal report again, a unidirectional antenna aimed towards the line of multiple towers either north or south of the antenna's location would probably get good reception from those stations.

Finally, you could get a multidirectional antenna, which can pick up broadcasts from towers within 180 degrees in which the antenna is pointing. Like unidirectional antennas, multidirectional antennas typically offer high antenna gain and often don't need amplification.

With a multidirectional antenna, you'd be able to more stations from a wider reception angle, but such antennas are often bulkier and less aesthetic looking.

Broadcast channels are of two types -- Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra-High Frequency (UHF). In a nutshell, radio frequency channels with lower numbers (2-13) belong to VHF, while higher-numbered RF channels belong to UHF.

In the days of analog television, many TV stations broadcast on VHF. As OTA analog broadcasts ended in 2009, most of these stations moved to UHF. The picture is actually more complicated today as some digital broadcasters have moved from UHF back to VHF due to an FCC spectrum auction.

The signal report you get from tvfool.com also provides information on which frequencies each station is broadcasting on, in order to help you determine whether your antenna should be UHF only, or dual UHF/VHF.