So I started blogging again because I wanted to collect my thoughts on a new antenna. (Yes, I’m a nerd. I even have the degrees to prove it.) I received the antenna on Monday, but didn’t get around to installing it until Wednesday.
It really is stunning. No extra channels, unfortunately (I was hoping to pick up a third PBS station, but I knew it was a long shot), but the stations we were getting are coming through so much better. The trickiest station to get here in Chicago is CBS-2 and it’s coming through nicely.
Installation was stupid-easy. I set the Tivo to “channel signal strength,” muted the TV (because this setting creates an annoying whine), set the channel to CBS-2 (the tricky channel), unplugged the old antenna, plugged in the new Leaf, and played around with the positioning of the Leaf until I got a consistently good signal for CBS. The Leaf is so light and thin it really could go anywhere. Our A/V system lives in our bookcases among our books, so I was tempted to just tuck the Leaf between books, but since we actually read our books, that wasn’t the most stable solution. In the end, I mounted it directly against a window, which freed up a bit of bookcase shelf space (for more books!). Total time spent: 15 minutes… because I was having fun playing with signal strength. Really, this could be done in 2 minutes or less.
Moreover, this antenna doesn’t require power so I’ve also freed up an outlet… maybe for a future Blu-ray player? After all, I need a new toy to lust/obsess over…
ginia.org 