Home > Consumer Reviews > CLEARSTREAM2 Antenna

I live 23 miles from the broadcast towers. In Portland, we are fortunate that they are all co-located, so a cheaper directional antenna works well, no need for an omni or an antenna rotator. I first dismounted an old satellite dish and mounted this on the little arm mast but it was partially blocked in that location and I could not get any of the OPB (PBS) channels or Fox. I dismounted it, stuck it on a broomstick, and walked around my back deck. As soon as I cleared the neighbor's house, bingo! all stations clear, even if I just leaned the thing up against the house. So, I moved the mast to my deck cover, re-routed the coax and ground, and I now have everything that is available in our area, from Ch. 2 to 49, with no amplifier needed. Of course, if you have long cabling or splitters, your needs may vary. I just run straight from the antenna into the back of my DVD player, and then on to the TV, with a total of about 40 ft. of unspliced coax. You may see complaints about the placement of the F-connector and they are spot-on; it is a bit of a pain. The best thing to do is to run your coax through the reflector mesh first, connect it to the loops, and THEN attach the loops to the reflector. I had to do this several times as I kept mounting and dismounting it in my trial-and-error process but the performance is worth the extra little effort.

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%).

I had to call the manufacturer to see if a vendor that I bought a DB8 from was real, since they hadn't shipped and it was way past due on delivery. Needless to say Amazon gave me a refund. While I spoke with a great lady in customer service at Antennas Direct I asked what should I use and she told me that they just released the C Series antennas that day. So I looked on Amazon and found a great deal. The vendor that I bought from shipped before I realized that I had purchased. Nice job. The antenna was very easy to assemble except for the clearance for the coax connection on the back of the "bow tie". Once installed I did not get the performance that I was told I would nor expected. It could be that I have a grove of trees to shoot through and I guess I have added issues because I have an in-house distribution system to 12 TV's with 4 internal channels and I think these antennas are basically thought of for one TV. That makes gain very important when matching to a distribution amplifier. So I called Antennas Direct and spoke with the same CSR and in the middle of our conversation the President of the company cut in. We talked tech for a bit and then he said he would send me a C4 (two C2's side by side) to try . . . that is now up and working very well. It looks very superior, is low profile and is doing well with Low & Hi VHF and naturally UHF. It's range is 7 (Hi VHF) up. That is what we need here in Denver since our ABC and NBC affiliates will be allowed by the FCC to go back to 7 and 9 below the channel 14 cutoff after the conversion.

I reinstall the C4 in a different way every week to see where I can get the best reception, since HD is all or nothing. So far I have only tried three variations, but the first of just slapping it up with no precision or proper aiming was the best. So as of this moment, this antenna is covering all, including low band VHF, of our off-air needs, some channels a little grainy, but they will be gone soon. All the channels that we need or will need are coming in clean and clear (some UHF channels better than they ever have) and better when the conversion happens and all stations start broadcasting at full power or complete antenna relocation. The Antennas Direct C (Clearstream) Series is new and good technology. Get a C2 or C4! It'll do the job for you.

I live in Lexington, SC and have had this antenna for about 2 months now which I bought from antennas direct. I installed this antenna on my roof and I live at the top of a street in my subdivision. My signal on most channels run about 85-90% with an amplified splitter between two TVs. I will still receive a little picture break-up on rare occasions, but 98% of the time, I am receiving a "free" High Def signal which is clearer than when I paid for Cable or satellite. Consider a HD TIVO unit as a compliment. I have been very happy with mine.

It always bothers me when I see an antenna--such as this one--sold as an "HDTV" or "DTV" antenna, with no clarification in the sales information or on the packaging as to what that really means. The "DTV spectrum" is the same range of channels as the analog spectrum, with the exception of the low-band VHF channels (2-6), and the antenna really doesn't care whether the signal it's receiving is modulated analog or digital. This antenna is really a UHF-only antenna. I find that VHF reception quality, even in the high-band VHF range is poor with this antenna. After 2/17/09, there *will* be high-band VHF digital stations on the air in many television markets! So, buyer beware...if any of the TV stations in your town are moving their digital signals down onto their original VHF channels following the 2/17/09 analog shutoff, I would not expect this antenna to receive those VHF stations well. As for UHF reception, I find this antenna to be quite a bit better than an indoor "loop" antenna, just a hair better than the popular compact "Silver Sensor" indoor antenna, but not as good as a traditional UHF or combo VHF/UHF "rooftop-style" yagi antenna.