The importance of a good antenna

General Discussion
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Until today, I was using a 10 year old sit-on-a-table antenna that a friend gave me when he decided to completely cut the cord and built a good antenna set-up in his attic.

With that antenna I was getting 13 channels (including sub-channels and channels I didn’t want). This is pretty significant seeing as how I live in a north facing apartment in the north end of Toronto (all the broadcasters are south of me). I suspect I am getting signal bound off the building across the parking lot.

Today (having had the Tablo for a few weeks) I decided to see what I could get with a new (and supposedly better) antenna. I purchase a ClearStream from BestBuy on the way home. I chose it because it has been mentioned a few times in various forums and it was available at the store. The ClearStream does not include a signal booster (the old antenna has a signal booster).

The Tablo detects 25 channels, including sub-channels, 21 of which work. The other 4 are from 2 broadcasters that only get me 1 “dot” of signal strength. When I drop the channels I don’t care about, I’ve got 19 channels.

Remarkable what a better antenna can do.

I think tomorrow I need to go see if a signal booster will let me get those last 2 broadcasters and boost the 3 ‘dot’ channels to 4 or 5.

An interesting side-note: the Tablo tunes in stations that the TV doesn’t when connected to the antenna.

For those who haven’t given up reading this yet:

The new antenna is a Antennas Direct ClearStream Indoor/Outdoor Digital TV Antenna (C2-V-CJM-CN).

The stations are as follows:
NBC (one dot) + 2 sub-channels - won’t play
CBS (3 dots)
CBC (5)
ABC (5) + 2 sub-channels
CFTO (5)
PBS (one dot) +1 sub-channel - won’t play
TVO (5)
CW (3 dots) + 1 sub-channel
SRC
FOX (3 dots) + 2 sub-channels
Global (3 dots)
OMNI (3 dots) - the old antenna wouldn’t pick this up
MNT (3 dots) + 3 sub-channels
CITY (3 dots)

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Post a tvfool report so some of the more knowledgeable folks can assist.

I have this antenna and I love it. I just had to readjust in order to fix an issue with abc in my area. It’s a solid antenna, but your tvfool report is what is needed to accurately help you out.

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Thanks for the suggestion. This is my results:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3De6a490b79dc39f

Please note, when providing suggestions to improve reception, I am limited to angles between west-north-west and north-north-east because I am in an apartment building. Given that all of the signals I am picking up are from (roughly) south, I’m fairly certain I’m relying on signals bouncing off the building across the parking lot from me.

At this stage, I will be making a more solid stand to mount the antenna on (and make it look nicer) and trying to find ways to boost the reliability of the signals I am picking up.

On a related note, where would I pick-up a pre-amp for the antenna?

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I should add to this, an indoor antenna works best if there isn’t a screen in the window you point it through when you mount it inside.

Now all the stations that the Tablo can pick up are 3 stars or better.

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The less obstructions the better.

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