This is a great deal on a great antenna.
I can attest to that! Have several friends that have it in my area and it works great - roof or attic, through trees, 30 to 50 miles out from the broadcast towers. Good combination of UHF + VHF.
Anyone use a pre-amp with this antenna? If so, which one?
I installed this C4 antenna for a friend and he bought the Kitztech 200 preamp at my recommendation. This preamp is the best I’ve found (0.4 db noise - outstanding).
However another friend did not wish to spend the 80 bucks to go with his C4 so we went with the RCA TVPRAMP1Z preamp ($25). This is a good one and has a good technical review at several forums. Not as good as the K200 but for the money works fairly well in non-extreme situations.
Personally I use both the RCA and another Kitztech - the 500 (which has twice the boost of the 200 but also a higher noise figure (0.85).
For what it’s worth I consider the Kitztech 200 the gold standard of preamps (as do some others at other OTA forums)! But in desperate, extreme situations, the K500 is like a bulldozer moving impediments and obstructions out of the way.
A C4 with a K200 would be ideal. My friend who uses this combo is in a forest of trees and gets all the stations at 80 to 100%. I usually recommend the C4 for ease of handling but personally use another antenna (not on the market) which I built myself for my situation - a Gray Hoverman.
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+1 on Kitztech 200! Have used it for the past three years. These are handcrafted. The only preamp in the world that beats it is $200 from England - the Research Communications LNA (will get stations no other preamp will).
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Thanks!
What about the Winegard LNA-200 preamplifier? Amazon reviews have been good.
So to hijack the thread, I have a Clearstream 4V already so just looking to add to it. So it sort of related 
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It’s on a par with the RCA though the RCA has better overload capabilities for situations where one has close and distant stations. I have both preamps and the RCA outperforms the Winegard by about 1% (yes, I’ve measured it LOL). And it is 20 bucks cheaper. Some people with dual UHF and VHF antennas prefer the RCA because it has dual inputs (one VHF, one UHF) so no combiner is needed.
However, the Kitztech beats both considerably. If you have a great antenna such as the C4, go with a great preamp. No use putting cheap or medium grade tires on your Rolls Royce…
The other brain-twister when comparing the RCA and Winegard, is that each performs slightly differently from the other based on specific channels!!! That can make you go crazy when trying to establish which one to use. Do I want a better channel 15 or a better channel 26? With the Kitztech you get both 15 and 26 better.
With a powerful antenna such as the C4, the best preamp is one that has the lowest noise figure and that would be a Kitztech. In comparing the Winegard with the Kitz, when the Winegard gives me a signal of 24 db (80%), the Kitz gives me the same signal at 27 (90%). There’s a measurable difference. The lower noise figure comes in when there is a station that is marginal and problematic. So a channel at 30% that the Winegard brings in sporadically with pixelation, the Kitz will maintain it continuously and stably.
However if one has desired channels at 30%, the Kitztech 500 will boost it up the best no question. As an example, both Winegard and RCA will get me a certain channel at 21 db (70%). The K-500 brings it in at 27 (90%). The K-500 also has a variable selector to choose the level of amplification if a 36 db boost is too much and overwhelming.
Also a question of money: $25…$45…$80…$110. In some situations, the $25 one does the job.
Amazon is a little tricky in evaluating preamps from users who may be all over the place. AVS and TVFool forums (and others) have a good set of topics evaluating and testing all these preamps. At Amazon one guy can say this one is just great and two posts down another guy will say just the opposite.
Oh one last thing - both RCA and Winegard preamps have different boost and noise levels for UHF and VHF. Does one want a better UHF or a better VHF? The Kitztech’s have one uniform level for both.
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Preamp comparison:
Kitztech 200 - 24 db gain, 0.4 noise
Kitztech 500 - 36 db gain, 0.85 noise
Winegard - 15 db gain (UHF)\16 db gain (VHF), 1.0 noise (UHF)\3.0 noise (VHF)
RCA - 22 db gain (UHF)\16 db gain (VHF), 2.0 noise (UHF)\3.0 noise (VHF)
For extremely problematic stations, Kitztech 500.
For best gain to noise ratio across the band, Kitztech 200
For best price with UHF-VHF combining, RCA
All of them are actually good having used all of them in different situations. It all depends upon one’s objective.
I always start off with the cheapest and work my way up if a problem isn’t solved. Love those 30 day return policies, otherwise known as “testing time.”
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I am rocking the RCA and have all green, so worked out for me. Plus the RCA one is available at Menard’s so I was able to pick it up that day to try out 
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Thanks. I actually currently have the Winegard HDA-200 Distribution Amplifier just before the coaxial cable goes into the Tablo as the minimal loss from the internal 4-way splitter causes some pixelation issues.
I am looking to add a preamp with low noise at the antenna/mast to see if it further improves my signal. I occasionally get audio dropouts or video pixelation on some channels I want.
The real question is, where do I get this Kitztech 200 in Canada? They are not for sale on Amazon or eBay.
Thanks for the info. I’d love to be able to test them, but not many retailers in Canada with OTA hardware that allow returns.
I order through email using PayPal. Can also be ordered thru product page.
http://kitztech.com/products.html
http://kitztech.com/contact.html
Ships to Canada.
Each product comes in 2 versions depending on electrical connection desired.
Thanks - the exchange rate is going to kill me lol
I will have to go with the coax powered version - I can put the power inserter about half way through my cable run as I had to use 2 coaxial cables.
Figures… I just bought my 2V last year from Best Buy. I have the Wineguard LNA pre-amp on it but don’t really have any issues at all. Actually… no issues… I just want the 4V now…
I could strangle you Canadians! I am a Montreal Canadiens fan. Have been for 40 years. Carey Price is the greatest.
We have the NHL streaming package. Last night my wife and I sat down after a good supper to watch the Leafs-Habs game. Looked forward to it all week! Both Leafs and Habs have their best teams in years.
And what did we get? CBC blackout…in the US! Game not broadcast on the NHL Network due to CBC restriction. The anger in our household was heard all over the county. The CBC oh yeah.
The 4v may not help you. If I recall from your TVFool, the 2v gets you all the channels in the green block but the next block of channels are a hundred miles away outside the 4v’s range (or any antenna).
Sorry to hear that! I got CBC on OTA so I was able to watch it, the one channel with no issues lol
Are you sure that a preamp will help? The C4 is a directional antenna; are your channels clustered together or spread out?
I have one channel that is 60 degrees apart from all the rest. No preamp helped. I had to set up another antenna to face that one channel.
It should, I have some signal issues with CTV (channel 9 which is VHF), but for example CBC (channel 20 which is UHF) comes in great. Both are broadcasted from the CN Tower in downtown Toronto. See below for details of each channel. Do you think a preamp will help? Or is the issue the VHF antenna on the Clearstream 4V is too small?
I had a problem with my VHF as well. The 2 VHF in my area are very hard to get and I ended up getting a large roof directional VHF antenna to replace the small VHF on the 4v. I used the RCA amp to combine them and have had zero problems since. I have it all mounted on a pole in my spare bedroom and there are trees in the line of site. The UHF on the 4v works amazing though.