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| CLEARSTREAM2 Antenna | 
 enlarge | Brand: Antennas Direct
Category: CE
Buy New: $122.99
New (3) from $122.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 11
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0.2
MPN: C2
Model: C2
UPC: 853748001125
EAN: 0853748001125
ASIN: B0017O3UHI
Promotion: Get free shipping on this item when you spend $25.00 or more on All items from Toyzz qualify for free shipping! offered by Toyzz. Enter code OCT6FREE at checkout. Terms and Conditions
Availability: Usually ships in 1-3 weeks
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 13 | | NEXT » |
Very good antenna, don't expect miracles November 11, 2008
This is the first roof antenna I've installed at my current house so I can't compare to a traditional UHF antenna but I can say it works quite nicely.
My Conditions:
The Antenna is on the roof of a 3 story house in a semi-urban area (Lancaster, PA).
Surrounding buildings range from 3 to 10 stories tall.
All the stations I care about are within about 50 degrees of a center-line.
The antenna is pointed directly at the furthest station I'm trying to reach, which is about 36 miles away (WITF near Harrisburg); Coincidentally there is also a 6 story apartment building directly in it's path, about 3 blocks away.
My cable run is about 70 feet from the antenna to the TV.
For what it's worth, the TV is a new Westinghouse LCD.
Observations:
On initial setup I was quite happy, I received all the channels in the surrounding area. I also unexpectedly pick up some Philadelphia channels off the back of the antenna but in analogue B&W so I'm sure they won't come through after the DTV transition.
There is some noticeable multipath interference on some channels, probably due to the relatively high gain from the back of this antenna (check out the graphs on the antennas-direct website); it's not enough interference to cause issues with digital channels though, just ghosting on the analog channels.
After a couple weeks I noticed that on stormy or overcast days the digital signal for WITF, the station furthest away and behind an apt building, would cut in and out. I tried tweaking around with the antenna angle but to no avail. I have since purchased an amplifier: Motorola 484095-001-00 Signal Booster which I hooked up between the TV and the receiving side of my antenna cable; The signal never drops off anymore.
Bottom line:
It's a really good antenna; When paired with an amplifier it meets all my needs. The stated 50 mile range is probably unattainable without perfectly clear line of sight, but it does 36 pretty well under my conditions.
PS. It's a heck of a lot smaller and less ugly than a traditional antenna also.
 Ineffective antenna November 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I CANNOT ENDORSE THIS ANTENNA. In anticipation of the Feb cutoff date, I purchased and installed a digital converter. It shows signal strength as one of 9 values: Bad, Medium, Good, with Low, Med, High in each. Reception was OK, with most channels in Medium to Good range, but several were 'Bad', and I soon discovered what 'pixellation' is. Swapped out the splitter, which feeds 2 TVs, for a 'no-loss' unit; got marginal improvement. Replaced the balun and cleaned the connections on my 15 year old antenna with no improvement.
Went looking for a new antenna and found the ClearStream2. I liked the design; I liked the small footprint; I also bought into the 'designed for digital channels' hype, so I ordered one. Installation was straight-forward and simple. Too bad performnce wasn't up to marketing's claims. I did get marginal signal improvement on ONE channel, but suffered from constant pixellation or total loss of signal. This was across all channels. I'm 23 miles, clear line-of-sight (no obstructions) from the antenna farm used by all channels (digital 7, 10, 18, 19, 20, 22, 31, 32, 47), which is well within the 'up to 50 miles' spec for the antenna.
After several conversations with the techs at one of our TV stations, I was finally able to find an antenna installer who has a field strength meter. He measured the signal output of the antenna and found it to be MUCH lower than it should have been.
I now have a ChannelMaster 3016, which cost half that of the CS2, and all signals are med or high Good. I even have a couple channels (from 63.5 mi away!) which I didn't get with the CS2!
Unfortunately, all this took more time than I anticiapted, so I cannot return the ClearStream as I'm beyond that date...Anyone want a $150 door stop? ($80 for the CS2 and $70 for the guy with the meter.) Perhaps I can hang some CDs from it and make a wind chime. Maybe I'll take it to the local R/C airplane club. Perhaps one of them can use it for a propeller.
Overall rating, on a scale of 1 to 5: MINUS 10
 clearstream2 antennae - marginal October 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I got an interim rabbit ear for my HDTV from Radio Shack for $16 but I want to get better pic or more stable pic for my HD so I went and bought this antennae for a lot more money. The result compared to my $16 rabbit ear is just marginally better. I still have to manually adjust the antennae for stable reception from time to time though less frequent. The unit is hooked up indoor about 4 ft from the TV and I am using it like a rabbit ear setup, not external installation. I do not recommend for indoor use. My mother-inlaw has a post card size antennae with a signal booster for about the same price for her HDTV and it is better than this set up.
 great antenna October 15, 2008
I installed this in the rafters of my garage. It still brought in digital channels from 75 miles away, even though it is only rated to about 55 miles out. To top it off, the channels it brought in from 75 miles away were channels 4 and 9 (i.e., VHF channels) when this is listed as a UHF only antenna. I would not hesitate to recommend this antenna to anybody that needed an antenna.
Clear reception with Clearstream2 October 9, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Went from rabbit ears to Clearstream2 on roof. I have over 100 feet of cable and split it twice. All 3 DTV converters show about 90% of max signal strength as compared to 75% to 80% with the rabbit ears. (I tried a shorter cable run of 25 feet and no splits on one TV. The signal strength averaged about 98%).
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