Reception In Toronto
 

Hi there. I have a Clearstream 4 Indoor/Outdoor antenna mounted on my roof about 30' high I have about 50' of RG-6 heading into my home where it meets a splitter for 2 tv's. My antenna is pointing about halfway between Buffalo and the CN Tower.
I have clear sight to the CN Tower and have no problems with reception from there. Unfortunately, I have no signals coming in from Buffalo. From my report, it looks like I shouldn't have any issue receiving Fox, CBS, or ABC. I would love to find a way to receive these channels.
I also have a Channel Master 7778 amplifier that is not connected. When I first mounted the antenna with the amp connected, I received no channels at all.

Previously I had the same antenna mounted on the side of a Townhouse about 12' high, without the amplifier. I easily received Toronto and Buffalo signals, with Buffalo giving me a hard time on cloudy days.

my image of signal reception should be attached.
Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance, guys.

PS my antenna is not grounded. Should it be?

1. I recommend you post the link to the entire page with your TV Fool Report and not just the image. In the report you can click on each station to see additional information.

2. What happens when you point the Clearstream 4 directly towards Buffalo? Say, about 160 degrees on a compass? [The Clearstream has a rather narrow beamwidth and midway between Toronto and Buffalo might not get the Buffalo channels.]

Re. to ground or not to ground...

http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=901

post #15 of the thread is a summary of why to ground
post #20 of the thread is a summary of what a typical grounding project entails

Grounding an otherwise functional OTA TV antenna should not effect it's reception capabilities in most cases, The prime goal of grounding/bonding is to reduce the risk of unsafe voltage being present on the antenna system.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...e2cb37cb6970cb


Sorry. A little new at this forum.

Jake V - I've never considered beam width. I haven't noticed this information on Specs before. is there a website where I can find out about this to compare antennas? Thanks in advance.

GroundUrMast - thanks for the link.

https://www.antennasdirect.com/cmss_...-sellsheet.pdf

The beamwidth for the Clearstream 4 is 43 degrees. From your location the Toronto signals are at 232 degrees and the Buffalo signals at 160 degrees. That's a range of 72 degrees. If you're pointing in the middle (say about 196 degrees), then the Buffalo signals are pretty far from the center point.

It's always a hassle climbing up on the roof but the best experiment you can do is to re-point your antenna at 160 degrees using a real compass and see what happens. My guess is that since the Toronto signals are pretty strong you will not loose them.

If re-pointing at 160 degrees does not bring in Buffalo solidly then bypass the splitters and run your cable to only 1 television to see what happens.

That's at 470 MHz. It narrows to 31° at 698 MHz.

Thanks for your help, everybody.

Before heading to the roof to turn the antenna, I decided to perform a small experiment, and remove the splitter inside the house. The splitter splits to three tv's yet we only have two in the house. Anyhow, I removed the splitter and coupled the antenna cable with our main tv. I now receive about 31 channels clearly. All of Buffalo has been discovered!

So now, with this new situation, I would obviously want this with my other tv. I obviously do not want to reinstall the splitter. Should I head out and buy myself a distribution amplifier?

Feeling hopeful now.

From your description, it sounds as if you will benefit from a small distribution amp. I would suggest trying a Channel Master Ultra Mini 2 CM-3412 two port amplifier. That should give you the gain that you need to maintain signal integrity of the Buffalo stations.

Thanks again everybody for your help. I finally found some time to head up onto the roof and turn my antenna to 160 degrees. I also bought and installed a distribution amp. I now receive 39 channels. I think my issues (at least, antenna) have been taken care of. I will be sure to pass it forward.