Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums banner

Antennas Direct OTA Antennas & Gear

361K views 890 replies 153 participants last post by  JJMoney 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
If you're already receiving HD then this is not going to be a cost-effective experiment. However if you're still interested, a good quality antenna would be a Blake or a Televes. The Televes is a bit cheaper.I picked up two Televes for $300. They have a local HDTV Info and reception section with a lot of knowledge in it. Good search function as well. If you're looking for a 6000 OTA module, I'll probably be selling one in the next couple weeks. The bloody things sell for almost as much on ebay as they are new. I think they might be getting hard to find new. On ebay you can expect to pay about $130-140 US. Jonic is selling them for BEV for about $310 Cdn. Which DirectTV box do you have. I believe most of them have a built in OTA tuner. If it's the Hughes, it does, and it seems to be a decent tuner.
 
#267 ·
I'm hoping the Clearstream 2V will be available in Canada soon, as that one will be able to receive VHF as well as UHF. Very important in Toronto, with CFTO and CHCH both being VHF. Lots of people do use the Clearstream 2 indoors as it is quite small, even though it is designed as an outdoor antenna. The Clearstream 2V will be a bit wider as it has the VHF dipoles, but should still be small enough to use indoors. Until it is available up here I will stick to my Terk HDTVi, which is hauling in 25 channels for me, although three of them are a bit unpredictable. I chose the Terk over the Micron mainly because it receives both UHF and VHF.
 
#269 ·
Actually the press release only says:

“We have created an antenna the size of our DB4, with the performance of the DB8,” said Schneider. “Light years ahead of our competition, no other bowtie antenna can match the DB’s combination of power, gain and value.”

There is no statement that the new DB4 performs the same as the DB8 - there is no mention of new models names at all. Perhaps the name of the new model is DB8 but it is the size of the old DB4.
 
#270 ·
The new bowties are called the DB2e and the DB4e where the "e" stands for "enhanced". Realistically, it can be expected that the "e" version will offer somewhere between 1 and 3 dB more gain at any given in-band frequency than its predecessor model. This is a function of shifting its peak gain to channel 51 as opposed to the older models that peaked at much higher frequencies.

The idea of doing a new 8-bay to replace the legacy DB8 is still being looked at. I don't have any details if or when it might be done.

We don't ship direct-to-customer in Canada due to brokerage and customs fees. It's my understanding that, early on, we did ship to Canada, but the brokerage fees in particular that were charged by UPS (our only shipper), were so onerous that most customers balked at paying them. We do ship to our retail partners that are listed on our website. We've offered them the new C2v model, but they haven't yet ordered any. At least two of them indicated that hadn't yet received any interest from potential Canadian customers...
 
#271 ·
I recently purchased a ClearStream 5. Here are my observations on the product.

1. Poor workmanship and quality control.
- The heat shrink tubing that forms the seal between the antenna element and balun was pinched and damaged. That would have caused the balun to fill with water.
- The balun was full of metal filings, presumably from the machining of the tubing that forms the main element.

2. The color! How about a nice soft grey that doesn't stand out as much during the day?
 
#272 ·
I agree. My CS5 was not welded together very neatly.

I doubt it affects the functionality. Made in China/Taiwan. What do you expect?

For most items, I search for anything not made in China these days. I'll pay double. I don't care. I've had enough with stuff that breaks 1 week after you buy it.
 
#274 ·
Well, I'm interested in getting a new DB4e. I'm going to do a shootout with a 4221hd on a roof-peak satellite mount. I'll test each antenna with and without a pre-amp and post the results on DH.

I hope I can get one before it's too cold to go up on the roof.

Are they now for sale and shipping in the USA, at least?

By the way, I have expressed an interest in these antennas to suppliers here. But it seemed like I was the one educating them about the DB4e's existence.
 
#275 ·
HWP, when you do that shoot out, can you make the two simplest modifications to the 4221HD? (i.e., remove the plastic covers on the bowtie screws and pull the balun out away from the boom).

I found that easily bumps the strength by 10 points on most stations, so it'd be interesting to see how the DB4e does against the 4221HD without these needless handicaps.

Something for you to consider.
 
#276 ·
For the published shootout, if I ever get my hands on a DB4e, I'm going to use both the 4221hd and DB4e in out-of-the-box condition. That's a fair comparison for everyday people.

This shootout could potentially determine that there is a better choice than the 4221hd at the go-to antenna for simple Toronto installations.

Maybe I'll do a mod on the 4221hd after the shootout and compare again. I'll send you the results but I won't publish them.

In my opinion, Channel Master should not get any bonus points for making me have to learn how to do mods to make their antenna better.

Regular people don't want to spend real money on a brand-name antenna only to find out they have to risk destroying it in order to get it to achieve its potential.
 
#277 ·
Are they now for sale and shipping in the USA, at least?
No. A few weeks or so, maybe a month, give or take... I don't have a firm date yet.


ScaryBob and Schermy,

I'll pass your comments regarding quality control on to the product manager. As for the color, the boss likes the black, so it's black. There's always Krylon or Rustoleum if you have a different preference.

While our antennas are manufactured in Taiwan, we do stand behind them with a lifetime warranty. Any other antenna manufacturers offer one of those? From what I've seen, our direct sales return policy is the same as most of their warranties (90 days).
 
#279 ·
HWP,

I agree with everything you said. I only ask because those two mods take about 30 seconds to complete and I suspect most people who frequent this forum and use a CM4221HD have probably completed those mods.

I'm not talking about the 24" -> 20" reflector trim mod. That's a whole different ball of wax... :) And, in my experience, that mod didn't make much difference.
 
#280 ·
I hope these new antennas will require assembly, at least if a new DB8 is announced.
One of the great advantages the DB8 has, is the required assembly, which enabled me
to put it in the attic :)
 
#281 ·
I got a C5 which was a breeze to put together and the workmanship looked fine. Also got a 91XG which took a little more time to assemble; a few reflectors needed a little elbow grease to snap in- seemed like the pre-drilled holes were not correctly centered.
 
#283 ·
Funny, I noticed it as well. I also noticed that there were no instructions on how to figure out where to attach the mast to... but one call to the 800 number, and I got top notch service.
 
#284 ·
ADTech - care to PM me the retailer names? I see some models available on the Canadian site of an "amazing" large online retailer, but not the C2V.

[edit] nm, just noticed you have a Canadian reseller page. Interesting that same "amazing" retailer isn't listed. One of the listed resellers pages looks more like a spam site. There are more google ads on their pages than products for sale!
 
#285 ·
Good warranty and return policies are nice but AD products are not available locally. It would have cost $20-$30 in shipping costs to return it. Other than the issues mentioned, I am happy with the product.
 
#286 ·
Bowtie updates

Web guy got some of the stuff back online (he's still working on it). Ignoring the marketing department for a bit, take a peek at the Tech Data Sheets as put together by the design engineer.

http://www.antennasdirect.com/cmss_files/attachmentlibrary/DB2E-TDS.pdf
Note that on page 7, John did a comparison between the original and the new 2-bay antennas.

http://www.antennasdirect.com/cmss_files/attachmentlibrary/DB4E-TDS.pdf

On this one, he did a VSWR measurement comparison instead....
 
#288 ·
The comparison is a bit difficult to make as our designer was never tasked with creating a formal tech data sheet for the DB8. Consequently, any data I have for it may be the result of older simulations with other software with different data points. I simply don't know. These DB8 values are my estimates based on older polar plots and charts and may or may not correlate with modelling done by members of the public.

I'll see what I can pull together this week.
 
#289 ·
The DB2e is now in stock and shipping as of today. The DB4e shipment is still about two weeks out.

Regarding the current DB8: We're still manufacturing them for the time being. Some folks, especially our distributors, are still asking for them so several thousand are in the production queue.

Legacy DB4s are virtually out of stock. We still have legacy DB2s on hand and will sell them in parallel with the DB2e until DB2 stock is depleted.
 
#290 ·
I'll be asking Canadian suppliers to get them for me. We'll see how they respond.

The new DB4e is a four-bay that hold out hope of performing at/near the calibre of a DB8.

Will this new DB4e provide that extra gain and yet have the wider beam width that 4-bays are known to have in comparison to 8-bays?

If so, this antenna could be what the doctor ordered for many Greater Toronto Area GTA OTAers.
 
#292 ·
ADTech, Has there been any thought to selling a vertically stacked CS4? The big advantage of the CS2 is its wide beamwidth, but this gets lost when you horizontally stack it. I know you could just buy 2 CS2s and stack them yourself, but it would be nice to have it sold as a package.
 
#294 ·
roger1818,

Our design engineer actually likes that idea better than the current version exactly for the reason you gave. However, I doubt it will ever be done as a retail or distributor product.

Looks like I got the wrong info on the DB2e. They're here, but it will take a couple of days before they actually start going out. Some DB4e antennas have also arrived early.

Forum sponsor Save and Replay has placed an order for a fair number of each of the new bow-ties along with more DB8s. He also ordered ONE C2 Complete as a sample. Our salesman couldn't talk him into a full case... This shipment should go out by early next week, so he should have them in stock soon.

Any plans for a Clearstream 4-v
No plans, but I did put one together as an experiment for a customer in South San Jose, Ca.



I've been pitching an inexpensive "universal" add-on that can be bolted to the back of any of our panel antennas. The parts look like this:



I have no idea if it will actually come about. It's pretty simple - just a dipole w/holder, a diplexer, a couple of cables, and some hardware. And, wouldn't you know, I missed compressing one of those fittings before I took the photo!

Dang, I need to resize those photos...
 
#423 · (Edited by Moderator)
I've been pitching an inexpensive "universal" add-on that can be bolted to the back of any of our panel antennas. The parts look like this:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=1343542&postcount=294

I have no idea if it will actually come about. It's pretty simple - just a dipole w/holder, a diplexer, a couple of cables, and some hardware.
Any luck getting this as a product? There would be demand for a small, inexpensive, outdoor VHF-HI antenna. Even the C5 is bigger (and more expensive) than many need. As I said before, it would optimally be mast mounted, but the current mount would be better than nothing (end user could always attach it to a U-Bolt nest).
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top