ClearCast HDTV indoor antenna -- overhyped?

[Jeffhs]

Greetings.


I received my new ClearCast HDTV antenna the other day. I was able to receive a few stations but, unfortunately, the two channels I was hoping to receive (Cleveland channels 8 and 19, the subchannels of which are 8.2, Antenna TV and 19.2, MeTV respectively) did not show up on my flat screen in several channel scans. Here is a list, however, of the channels I do receive with the Clear Cast at my location 30+ miles east of Cleveland, near Lake Erie:

1a WKYC, NBC, Cleveland ch. 3.1
1b WKYC Weather Radar
2a WEWS,ABC, Cleveland ch. 5.1
2b LiveWell Network..........ch. 5.2
3a WVIZ, PBS, Cleveland....ch. 25.1
3b WVIZ Ohio channel, ch. 25.2
3c WVIZ World, channel 25.3
3d WVIZ Create, channel 25.4
4 WBNX, Akron-Cleveland, ch. 55.1
5 CSCN, audio only, channel 38.9

I receive several other channels besides those listed, but the other channels are duplicates of the listed stations (and WBNX's standard-definition and This-TV subchannels); I don't know why the ClearCast picked up the local stations twice.

I do not know what the CSCN channel is supposed to be, as I did not listen to it very long; however, I suspect it may be an LPTV (low power TV) station since it carries audio only, perhaps from a local FM station, such as are found in the Chicago and New York City areas. These cities have LPTVs on channel 6 (as I learned from reading posts by VK members living in those areas) which can still be received via an antenna, but for how much longer is anyone's guess.

I tried the ClearCast antenna at many different spots around my apartment (as many as the length of the supplied antenna coax [about 15-20 feet] would allow me to get to) but, try as I might and did, I could not receive channels 8 or 19 at all -- not even a pixelated image.

I don't know whether these two channels (eight and 19) are in locations that just do not allow the signals to reach this far east of town without a real outdoor antenna or what the problem is, so I went back to cable and stored the Clear Cast antenna -- for now, anyway.

Do not waste your money on the Clear Cast antenna, as it is little more than a repackaged version of the old UHF bow-tie indoor TV antennas that used to come with new televisions 40+ years ago (and were available from Radio Shack, et al.), long before DTV -- and the CC antenna works just about as well as those bowtie aerials did, which wasn't very well in anything other than strong to moderate television signal areas. The Clear Cast does receive UHF DTV stations well, but if the DTV channels in your area are still on VHF channel positions (as are 8 and 19 in my area), it will not work well since the CC is not designed to receive VHF channel frequencies. WOIO-DT is a translator station for Cleveland CBS affiliate WOIO, but unfortunately the translator, on channel 24, is in the Akron, Ohio area (it is meant to cover that area until WOIO's antenna work and power increase are complete) and does not reach here.

My best advice is to get your indoor DTV antenna (if you decide to use one instead of a rooftop antenna) from Best Buy, Radio Shack, et al., as the DTV antennas these stores carry are better and much cheaper than the ClearCast; the CC antenna costs $38 plus shipping (for whatever reason, mine cost almost $60 with these charges included) if purchased directly from its manufacturer, Brilliant Built Technologies of Canton, Ohio, 70 miles southwest of Cleveland.

[jr_tech]

Too bad it did not work out for you Thanks for the report! Can you get your money back?

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I receive several other channels besides those listed, but the other channels are duplicates of the listed stations (and WBNX's standard-definition and This-TV subchannels); I don't know why the ClearCast picked up the local stations twice.

In weak signal conditions, an ATSC tuner will often receive a station but not get enough information during the scan to determine the virtual channel number, so it will show up as the actual transmitted channel. On another scan, you may have had a better signal, and the tuner read the virtual channel number correctly. Both will show up in numerical order on your channel list, although they are the same station.

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I do not know what the CSCN channel is supposed to be, as I did not listen to it very long;

Still checking on this.... "Audio Only" condition may be the result of weak signal conditions.... Canadian station?

EDIT ADD, Figured it out: Very likely the ch 38 is W38ET-D in Eastlake:
http://maps.google.com/?q=http://tra...26state=OH.kml
W38ET-D is a translator for WVIZ... WVIZ ch 25.9 is the Cleveland Sight Center Network (CSCN) . Whew! that took a bit of detective work!

jr

[Jeffhs]

jr_tech:

Thanks much for researching this issue. Your explanation of why I was getting two exact copies of my channel scan list on my flat screen when running the channel scan makes sense. This does not happen on cable.

Now "CSCN" makes sense to me as well. The channel is audio only for the use of visually-impaired or blind persons. This sounds a lot like the radio reading services I see listed on www.RadioStationWorld.com in some cities (I believe Cleveland may have such a station as well), the stations operating around 88 MHz. I am thinking perhaps, even likely, PBS affiliates across the US now have these audio-only channels, available to OTA viewers but not yet to cable subscribers.


I did not know, however (until now), that WVIZ operated such a channel, although I do know (and have known for some time) that the station does operate a small network of translator stations, most of which are located in far-suburban or fringe areas that WVIZ's main OTA signal does not reach -- very well or at all.

In this age of digital TV and its often weak signals in far-suburban areas, these translators serve those areas in which folks still get their TV reception via antennas. WVIZ has one such translator in the city of Ashtabula, Ohio, 50 miles from Cleveland and very near the Pennsylvania border near Lake Erie, as well as a translator in Sheffield Lake, Ohio, a far-western Cleveland suburb. There used to be a translator for the city of Chagrin Falls, Ohio (a far-eastern Cleveland suburban area), but it was taken off the air when WBNX-TV signed on in 1985. The problem was that WBNX operates on the same channel as did the WVIZ translator for Chagrin Falls, so the latter had no choice but to go dark. Whether or not it ever returned to the air on another channel, I don't know.

WBNX has three DTV subchannels: 55.1 is the main one (WBNX CW--the CW television network), 55.2 is WBNX-SD (standard definition), and 55.3 is This-TV. The third subchannel was added as a direct result of the affiliation contract of WUAB in suburban Lorain, Ohio having expired and the station did not renew it--in time or due to financial issues. This-TV was then supposedly moved to WBNX's subchannel 55.3, but the cable system in my area doesn't yet carry that subchannel or 55.2, and I'm not sure (don't know, if the truth be known) if or when these subchannels will be added to our channel lineup here.

I could get a refund on my Clear Cast antenna (the procedure to do so is outlined in a form letter sent along with the antenna), but I think I'll keep it, as I intend to do more experimenting. However, these experiments will not be very frequent, as every time I switch from cable to the CC antenna or vice-versa, I have to rescan the TV and redo the channel labels at the same time. For whatever reason, my area's cable system doesn't label the cable channels on TVs so equipped; labels appear on my set (in a small blue box at the upper right corner of the screen), for example, for only the major network affiliates. Since my cable carries some 50 channels (analog and digital), relabeling the cable channels, while not difficult by any means, takes quite a bit of time, as the channel labels must be entered one letter at a time for every station received.

I suppose, however, that I shouldn't complain, as my area's cable has only 50 channels; if I lived in either the metro New York or Los Angeles area, however, I'd have to spend perhaps an hour or more labeling all the channels those cities' cable systems likely carry, since both cities have seven VHF channels and probably many UHF stations as well. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the cable systems in those cities carry well over one hundred channels on their standard service tier alone.