Sweet 'n' Sassy Girls

The Switch to Digital

Posted on 12. Jun, 2009 by Trish in Review

Well, it has finally arrived. The switch to digital TV. If you have satellite or cable TV, then this really doesn’t affect you.

If you are like us, however, and rely on an antenna, then this had a huge impact. First you have to make sure you have the converter box if your TV was too old. We did that. But then we plugged everything in, and got nothing.

Nada.

My husband could really care less because he doesn’t watch TV. We don’t watch it much, which is why we don’t pay for TV, but I watch it enough that I want to have it available. I am so glad we started preparing way before the switch, otherwise we would have been without TV.

Where we live, there is no cable available.  So you either have to have an antenna or pay for satellite.  If  you want the free stuff out here you have to have a strong rooftop antenna to get any kind of signal. I was given a Clearstream 4 from Antennas Direct to try out. We got it to work, but let me tell you my story of it.



We first tried plugging it in and just holding it up in the windows to see if it would work.  It didn’t.

So we tried opening our second story window and reaching out and holding it up near the roofline.  We didn’t get anything.

So then we decided to try to install it in our attic.  We’d heard that some people had sucess with this out here, and we really didn’t want to climb on the roof.  So my husband and our neighbor installed in the attic.  I ran the scanner to see if it got any channels, and once again, nothing!

That means we had to go to the roof.  Our roof is fairly high up, and pretty steep, so it was not something we were looking forward to.  My younger brother volunteered to go up because he used to work installing air conditioners, so he had no problem climbing around up there.  That just meant we had to wait for when he was available to do it.  Everytime he would come out here, it would rain.

We finally got a good weekend when he was here, and we borrowed a ladder, and set to work.  The ladder barely fit.  We had to go over to our neighbors and use their deck.  Since we live in townhouses, all of the roofs are connected.  We put the ladder on their deck, and climbed onto their roof, and then over to ours.

He finally got it installed and we realized that while the cable could reach, we couldn’t position it where we wanted it.  We got one channel where the cord reached.  So I ran out really quickly, with my brother still on the roof, to go buy a small coaxial cable to connect to the one in the attic.  We had it threaded through a hole in the roof to connect to the antenna.  Well, we attached the new cable and got it hooked up only to find out that we got nothing.  That one extra connector weakened the signal enough that we didn’t receive any channels.  My brother had to leave then, so he didn’t get to help us finish.

I thought maybe we needed an HD coaxial cable, so I went back to the store and got a new cable.  Since my brother was gone, and there was no way my husband was going up on the roof, I decided to go up there.  We had some neighbors who saw me climbing up, and they said it was hilarious to see me climbing up there, with my husband and our other neighbor at the bottom watching me.  What can I say?  I was rasied in a family that we all helped out and if needed to get done, we did it.  I’ve been up on roofs before.  Just not one this steep and this high up!

I finally got up there and over to the antenna and plugged in the HD coaxial cable.  My husband ran the scanner this time and we, once again, got nothing.  We decided that we would have to buy a pre-amp to boost the signal.  For now, however, we would just plug the short cable back in and deal with the one channel.  I’m up on the roof, and my husband is up in the attic threading me the cable, and he realizes that it was going around a board that it didn’t need to be.  So he unwound it from there, and passed it back up to me, and we had plenty of cable to attach to the antenna and direct it where it needed to be!  Those two extra runs to the store to get the new cables were not necessary at all!

I got everything attached, and my husband ran in to run the scanner one more time.  We had…..SUCCESS!

We received pretty much all the channels, except for two, 13 and 30.  I never could get those on our regular antenna before anyways, so that wasn’t a big concern for me.

We could not believe the quality of digital TV.  Everything was crystal clear.  No more snow!  We get a strong signal on channels 4,5,7,9, and 11.  The signal on channel 2 comes and goes.  Sometimes it’s medium, and then it goes to low and we loose it.  We are still planning on getting a pre-amp so it will boost that channel and maybe even get us channel 13 and 30.

The antenna is not a bad price, considering what you would pay for satellite and their equipment.  It’s a one time cost only.  I was a big fan of that. You can get the Antennas Direct CLEARSTREAM4 Antenna for only $109 right now on Amazon.

It is also small, which is good, because our home owners association has rules to how big an antenna can be.  This one falls within those perimeters, and is hardly noticeable up on the roof.

It does not, however, come with the J bar to attach it to the roof.  We had an old one from a satellite dish laying around that we used, but if you don’t, just be aware that you will have to purchase that separately. You can get a 75 Cm J-mount/mast for about $25 on Amazon.  It’s still cheaper than paying for satellite service!

If anyone is looking for an alternative for free digital TV, I highly recommend this antenna!

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