Hi, I live in Milton, ON. I was told to purchase an Antennas direct DB4e antenna. Is this a good antenna for my location? I figured a DB8e would've been better because I could aim it in different directions. The antenna will be placed outside. I have a home made antenna in my attic. I pick up 16 channels from my location. My goal is to pick up as many channels as possible. I currently pick up 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 17, 19, 23, 25, 36, 40 41, 43, 47, 57.
Thank you in advance for all your help.

It looks like you're doing just fine with your homemade antenna. Before spending money on a commercial antenna, try directing your antenna towards Buffalo and see if you can pick up more Buffalo staions (channels 2, 26, etc.). It looks like your antenna is currently pointed towards Toronto as you're able to pick up all of the Toronto stations. You may be better off investing your money in a rotor rather than a new antenna.

Hi Taximan, I tried rotating it before. If I rotate it, I lose Toronto channels, and still don't get 2, 29, 49. Thanks anyway.

I forgot to ask you if you're using a preamplifier. If not, your reception will be greatly improved if you insert a preamp between your antenna and TV receiver. The preamp I'm using ony cost about $14.00 and it works fine. A preamp is pretty well a must if you're trying to pick up weaker stations, regardless of the type of antenna you have. Also try placing your antenna outside (with preamp connected) to see if that improves things. I've fallen into the trap of buying all kinds of antennas and I found, for the most part, that none of them really worked any better than the others (and I just wasted a lot of money). I built my own crude 4 bay reflector antenna at one point and it it worked about as well as those commercial antennas.

Actually, the commercial antenna that worked the best for me and the one I settled on is the smallest antenna of the bunch. It works extremely well on both the UHF and VHF-high bands as it is tuned for those bands. It's a log periodic antenna and it is only 750 mm. long. It looks like a small yagi but has elements with tapering lengths. This is one antenna that you don't hear ANYTHING about in OTA forums. I've tried all kinds of corner reflector yagi and multi-bay reflector antennas and this log periodic antenna works by far the best, at least for me in my location in Kitchener.

I hope this information helps.

Its not easy picking up stations from different directions, yes a rotor would work the best, however, I have one of these Digiwave installed at my parents house NW Toronto and skewed the two antennas until I found the best reception, but must use a pre-amp, VHF/UHF

Digiwave ANT-7287 , less than $40 dollars

Good luck, if lucky, you should also pickup 67-1 (rf chn 7)

Which channels do you receive?

I thought about putting my antenna outside, but it's not built to be weather proof.

With my log periodic antenna pointed towards Toronto, I receive the follwing channels consistently or fairly consistently (I'm located in Kitchener):

5 (CBC - Toronto)
6 (Global - Paris)
9 (CTV - Toronto)
11 (CHCH - Hamilton)
13 (CTV - Kitchener)
19 (TVO - Toronto)
25 (CBC French - Toronto)
28 (TVO - Paris)
36 (CTS - Hamilton)
41 (Global - Toronto)

The following channels I receive sporadically:

17 (PBS - Buffalo)
23 (CW - Buffalo)
27 (Global - Peterborough)
31 (CITY - Woodstock)
35 (CTV2 - Hamilton)
40 (OMNI2 - Toronto)
47 (OMNI1 - Toronto)
57 (CITY - Toronto)

When my antenna is pointed towards Buffalo, I can receive pretty well all of the Buffalo stations when conditions are good. Not bad for such a compact antenna!

I feel that any decent UHF/VHF antenna mounted outside at a reasonable height, connected to a preamp and pointed in the right direction will yield good results because we're deaiing with digital signals now, not analog, Signal strength is not the most important factor anymore. Keep in mind that it's the QUALITY of the digital TV signal that matters most.

That's pretty good Taximan. I'm impressed.

Re: I was told to purchase an Antennas direct DB4e antenna. Is this a good antenna for my location?

It's a fairly good antenna. There's a ton of them in Etobicoke. In your area, I can't be as sure but it may be fine.

Re: I figured a DB8e would've been better because I could aim it in different directions.

The DB8e is essentially two DB4e's horizontally ganged. Take a look at the tool on the Antennas Direct website that gives gain statistics for different orientation. You'll notice there's tradeoffs. It may be better for you than a DB4e, or maybe not, hard for me to pick one over the other without on the ground experience at your location.

Interesting. Thank you for the information El Gran Chico. I'll take a look at the tools on the website. Good stuff.

I'm in the same boat... looking for the right setup. I bought a 4-bay Electronic Master antenna and just mounted it on the side of my house, not trying to specifically point it anywhere and i picked up 14 channels (although there were a number of duplicates and SD channels) just going straight to my TV.

Need to know whether I should spend the money to buy an RCA ANT-800 multi-directional antenna instead... with a preamp.

Any suggestions?