Installing an attic antenna for free HDTV in Canada

On August 31 2011, the Canadian airwaves will light up with new free HDTV signals from your local television stations.  In order to take advantage of these signals you’ll want a good quality antenna to pull in the signals.

The best option is to install an antenna on your roof, but if you’re like me then there are a few reasons why this might not happen:

1. My wife (and likely neighbours) doesn’t want an ugly antenna sticking out of my roof
2. I’m not comfortable working on the roof myself
3. I’m too cheap to pay someone to do it for me (about $250 labour to install)

The next best thing to an outdoor antenna is to install an antenna in your attic, which is actually quite easy to do.  I’ll walk you through the basics.

What you’ll need (expect to spend about $150):

A good-quality antenna:

• See the chart over at Digital Home Canada for the latest recommendations
• The CM4221 was my choice because it can grab fringe channels from Buffalo and will fit through my attic hatch
• Note that you’ll need to match the antenna to the channels you plan to receive and there are a few odd ducks out there that will be tough to match to an attic-sized antenna (I’m lookin’ at you Global TV on channel 6 in Paris, Ontario)

A pole to mount it to:

• Personally I used some cheap PVC conduit from Home Depot

A pre-amplifier:

• This is only necessary if you plan to split the signal to multiple TVs, but a pre-amp is a good investment as it amplifies the signal right at the antenna before any signal gets lost in the cable or splitters
• See the chart over at Digital Home Canada for the latest recommendations. 
• The Winegard AP-4700 was my choice as I didn’t want to over-amplify the signal and at the time I only needed UHF channels 14 and up.

Coax cable:

• RG6 grade is the way to go here, which is available at Home Depot in bulk
• You’ll also need a way to put screw-ends on the coax, which usually involves a special cutter and crimper which is also available at Home Depot (I’m happy to lend my compression crimpers out to local friends and colleagues)
• Look in the telecom section for good quality stuff, not the TV cables section which is where Home Depot puts the cheap junk

Step 1 – Mount the antenna

Find a spot in the attic that is relatively easy to access.  Use conduit clamps (also at Home Depot) to mount the pole vertically between rafters.  Use a level to ensure the pole is straight.

Mount the antenna to the pole following the manufacturer’s instructions, as high as is possible.  The CM4221 is a simple U-bolt that you loosen via a couple of nuts.

Step 2 – Run the cable

Figure out how you’re going to run a cable from your antenna to its ultimate destination (likely the TV).

Here’s how I did it:

• Found a cold-air return duct that ran from the ceiling of the top floor all the way down to the basement. 
• Popped off the cover from the vent, and drilled a hole upwards into the attic
• Stuck a coat hanger through the hole so that I could find it through the insulation
• In the attic, use electrical tape to attach the coax cable to the coat hanger, then pulled it through into the duct.
• Pull the cable through until I felt it hit bottom in the basement
• Asked a buddy to jiggle the cable while I located it by sound in the basement
• Cut a relatively large opening into the cold air return duct with tin snips to locate the cable, then pulled it through into the basement
• Stapled the cable into place in the basement, ultimately ending near where the rest of the coax comes into the house (generally near your electrical box)
• Closed up the cold air vent with the sheet metal I had cut out and some aluminum tape
• Sealed all the holes with caulk

Step 3 – Connect the antenna
• Connect the balun (the little adapter the converts two wires into coax) to the antenna
• Using a small piece of coax, connect the balun to the antenna side of the preamp
• Connect the long piece of coax to the power supply side of the preamp
• Back in the basement, connect the long coax to the power supply that came with the preamp.
• Connect another length of coax from the preamp power supply to a splitter, and ultimately to the TVs you wish to connect (you can probably re-use the cables already in your home that were put there for Cable TV).

Step 4 – Adjust the antenna

• Using maps on TVFool, figure out in which direction the TV stations are broadcasting from, and point your antenna in that general direction.
• The next set of steps is mostly trial and error, and you’ll likely need a helper. 
• Pick one of the channels from your TVFool report that is relatively low on the list, we’re going to try to point the antenna optimally to bring in that hard-to-get channel. 
• Tune your HDTV to that channel (you may have to run a channel scan first), and set the TV to signal strength mode. 
• Try adjusting the antenna left or right until you get the best signal strength. 
• Once you’ve got that hard-to-get channel working, check the signal strength on the other channels to ensure they’re coming in strong.  If not, you may have to keep tweaking until you find a happy medium for all the channels.
• Nerd tip: If you’re using the HDHomerun3 network tuner (highly recommended), there is an iPad app called Signal GH that makes quick work of pointing the antenna.  Maps, compass, and signal strength all on your iPad

Step 5 – Enjoy!

That’s about it, you should now have access to all of the free HDTV signals that are flying through the air here in Canada.

I’ve included a couple photos below of my setup to help you visualize.  You may notice that I actually chose to stack two Channel Master 4221 antennas in the attic, which helps me to pull in some of the more challenging channels from Buffalo.

 

Additional Resources:

Digitalhome.ca: More help and info on over-the-air antennas and reception in Canada

TVFool.com: Tools to help you figure out the channels available in your area

Save ‘n Replay: Canadian online retailer that sells over-the-air supplies

Media Center and HDTV: Instructions to set up Windows 7 as a HDTV PVR