Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding antenna and company
Comment: I bought this antenna in a final attempt to get good OTA reception. I replaced a NEW Wineguard HD822U that was pathetic, even with a Winegard AP8700 pre-amp and Channel Master's 24db preamp. I live in a 50mile+ fringe,low wooded area. The CM #4228 is AWESOME ! I receive 100% better reception and 5 more channels. The support and advice from Ron Morgan at Channel Master was outstanding. And it is less than half the price of the Winegard. Great product, great American company.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Channel Master 4228
Comment: The antenna performs beautifully. I'm about 60 miles from the transmitters and in almost all cases the signal is rock solid. During extremely heavy storms I may have some loss. With a mast mounted amplifier I'm sure I could eliminate even these fall outs.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great antenna, proven design
Comment: I live in Wantage, NJ (zipcode 07461) which is a tough area for DTV reception from NYC. We're located approximately 48.5 miles from the transmitters at the ESB, and behind hills, therefore the path to us is 2 edge diffraction and very tough.
Prior to this antenna, I tried a philips corner reflector/LPDA from Lowe's, which would only pick up NJN (state run public TV) and a couple of religious broadcasters. I figured it was time for something else so I bought the CM4228.
The 4228 is a time tested design of eight dipoles (bowties) with a reflective screen.
I put it up on my 86 foot ham radio tower, aligned it towards NYC with the help of my wife (who was watching the signal meter on the TV) and got nearly every channel, with the exception of WNYW-DT (UHF 44). But considering that TVFool.com and CEA's antennaweb gave me very low prospects for receiving anything, I consider my result to be satisfactory. WNYW is a special case as they have a directional antenna to prevent interference to channel 44 in Atlantic City NJ.
Yes, I have a tower, but this antenna works fine on rooftops or other structures. It may even work in an attic. Since it is classified as a large directional, you will need to aim it properly, otherwise you'll be doing more harm than good to your received signal. Its high directivity also helps with multipath and overload from strong nearby signals.
The big plus of this antenna is that the screen acts as a VHF antenna, so it may be all you need come 02/17/09 when some of the digital stations move back to VHF.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the smartest things I ever purchased!
Comment: Stop paying cable! SAVE $$$ This item can help you break away from Comcast. I live in the San Francisco East Bay area, about 45 miles from the signal tower (Sutro Tower) without line of sight due to the hills, but I pick up about 45 channels over the air (OTA) in HD! What's more you won't believe the clarity of HD signals on your HD TV with built-in tuner or just analog TV with a digital converter box. I have this item set up on the roof, and got my bearing by checking out my location on the Antennaweb.org website. Easy to set up, reasonable price on Amazon (if you are in the bay area, you can get this item from your local Fry's for $59 + tax). If you want to set this up on your roof, you need to purchase a mast, or simply try to set it up on your attic. This is a definitely one of the smartest things I ever purchased!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Works Like A Charm
Comment: As satelite TV customers, our local HD channels are not available to us as we're "within range" of the transmitters. Technically that's true but the reality is we're in an extremely heavily forested mountain valley 50+ miles from those transmitters. Normal UHF antennas were marginal for the old analog signals and clearly no match for the more finicky digial variety. The 4228 with a matching low noise, high gain, mast mounted preamp so far has acquired an additional 13 channels we had never received before, all in perfect HD and in all weather.
Is it big? Yes.
Is it ugly? Absolutely!
Does it work? For us, it works like a charm!
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