HDTV OTA antenna (outdoors) Need advice.

[neftv]

Here's the owner's guide to get you started. I got mine from Warren Electronics for about $70 but that was 2 years ago...

Thanks for the manual however I not ready yet. I found it at the same price from someplace but they didn't have it in stock. I put myself on a email list to let me know.

 

[neftv]

I just bought the "[FONT=verdana,helvetica,sans-serif]Antennas Direct C4 ClearStream4 Outdoor Digital HD TV Antenna" from SolidSignal . com (good prices and very helpful) I threw it up in the attic and I'm getting 85% - 90%+ on most stations. Attic installation can cut the signal around 50% so I can't wait to see what it does once I mount it outside and tweak it. [/FONT][FONT=verdana,helvetica,sans-serif]Very small in size compared to the "traditional style" antenna, which makes it very easy to install. [/FONT][FONT=verdana,helvetica,sans-serif] I'm about 18 - 25 miles from most of the transmitters.
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Before I got the Winegard I looked at the C4 antenna but their web site does not show specific technical details for their antenna the way Winegard shows for the one I got. I have to becareful too because I am much closer to my main TV transmitters (9 miles) that such antenna might cause me a problem trying to get distants with the locals so close to me. I think what I will do the next time I get a 40 degree day again is to try point my new Wingard to the various distant stations and see what signal level I get and if I can get them I might end up with a rotor and a preamp too I not sure but I need to test it out. If it seems like I can get the distants but a preamp will not help then I will investigate getting another more directional antenna and using it on a rotor. I wonder if I could just combine the signal of the to antennae to one coax at that point. Anyway that is going overboard for me I really didn't want to clutter my chimmy like that but we will see.
I guess there is no one else from Philly on this board to compare notes.

 

[Don_M]

Good call. More antenna specs usually means a better product. The less they tell you, the more they have to hide.

The Clearstreams are designed for UHF only, but AD's advertising copy misleads a lot of people into thinking they work on all channels. AD also quotes dBi in gain claims, inflating its figures by 2.15 dB over dBd, the scale other major makers use. They're not bad antennas by any means, but they're definitely not designed for a market like Philly, where you have VHF-low and VHF-high stations in addition to UHF signals.