Thanks for the details! We should all be providing more details so we build a decent body of knowledge.
My first test with the Tablo was with a $3 Refurbished RCA “bow-tie” digital antenna I bought from the dollar store. The kind you have to assemble. Its 3 pieces of plastic with conductive traces on it that are clamped in the middle by a plastic shell. I don’t think the wires make electrical contact. The thickness of the plastic must be such that it acts like a capacitor, so radio waves have no problem passing through.
I just wedged this thing between window panes of a South facing window on my top floor back-bedroom. The plastic easily slipped between the windows, and I pushed it in until the plastic clamp was wedged in, this let it stay put at the top of the widow frame - and horizontal.
I then used the iPad App to scan and I got the local CHEX TV and all of the local Toronto towers (~10 total channels). I could see WNED PBS but it was too weak. Could not even detect CHCH in Hamilton. Still, not bad for $3.
Next I borrowed a used Digiwave ANT5013. These things are expensive but claim a total signal gain of 43db. Its a rectangular plastic box with an external device that I was told is an amplifier, but I suspect its really a power injector (12V @ 50 mA).
Just holding this thing in one hand, vertical, at the top of my south facing window I get ~18 channels. Almost all are 5x5. In addition to what the bowtie got, this added PBS (WNED) which is very important to the spousal unit and I. And it got CHCH 11 in Hamilton.
Based on this I next put the Digiwave outside on an old Satellite J-pipe half-way up the West wall of my house, pointing South.
This got a few more US network channels, maybe 20 in all. But I was suspicious that it was a poor location for OTA. So I hired Able TV & Antenna Service in Whitby to come over and move it to my roof. Norm Jr. is a great guy. He was skeptical of the Digiwave so he had a CM antenna in his truck in case the results were lacking.
So, now the Digiwave beast is on my roof, facing South. And I get around 40 channels. Its actually really hard to count them in the list. I also wish there was a way to SAVE that list to PDF so I could keep history and post it here!!
During the channel scan it says “found 48” just before the screen flips to the “add to guide list”. I can see a batch of channels “51-1” to “51-6” that Norm says are new and rather East of Rochester, so its hard for a South facing antenna to grab them. He admitted (reluctantly I think) that I’m getting 5x5 signals from Rochester and other US towers that are usually very hard to get. Not that he is endorsing my antenna. In fact, we both say “wait until winter”. Lets see how it handles next Winter’s storms and this summers Sun. Maybe by next spring it will falling apart… And I guess I owe my buddy a few $ for this thing. Looks like I’m keeping it… heheh At least I have not taken it apart (yet).
In Summary, my current setup is Digiwave ANT5013 direct to my Quad Tablo. And I get:
- Total 37 channels (I just re-counted them in setup)
- 6 are 1x5 (51-1 to 51-6)
- 1 is 41-2 an SD version of 41-2 so I don’t select it.
- 30 channels are all 5x5. (at least today, clear and sunny)
Now - belatedly - it occurs to me I could feed this signal into my existing Rogers installed COAX. There is a splitter 10’ from where the Tablo is, and cables to 5 rooms. I think they used RG6 for everything too. I wonder if I would need a distribution amp?