Professional Antenna Installer Checklist

In order to be a professional antenna installer you need many things. First, you can’t be afraid of heights. Second, you can’t be afraid of small spaces. Third, you can’t be afraid of spiders or wasps. Fourth, you need to understand all the nuances of coaxial wiring. Fifth, you need an infinite amount of patience. Sixth, you need a bunch of weird specialized tools.

At StreamWise Solutions, formerly freeTVee we have run across plenty of customers who have at least four of these qualifications. Unfortunately, if you want to get the job done right, then you need all six. You can be completely fearless but if you don’t understand the nuances of coaxial wiring you will run into trouble. Why? Over the years most homes have had multiple contractors setting up satellite or cable. Often times, these previous installers have improvised to make thing work. If you don’t have the experience improvising then you will have no idea why the living room TV doesn’t get signal on a specific channel when all the other TVs in the house get that channel. Is it a satellite splitter hidden behind the wall plate in the room above? Are there too many splits causing signal to bleed? Are the fittings installed correctly? Is the tuner on the TV malfunctioning.Our professional antenna installers have provided professional HD antenna installer services for nine years. StreamWise Solutions installed antennas in thousands of attics and on the top of four story homes. During this time, we have seen every kind of coaxial configuration and worked around them all. We have crawled through spider web infested crawl spaces and been stung by more wasps than you can count. (DIY Tip: Wasps love to build their nests in satellite dish mounts).

And then there are the tools. You need a signal meter that actually works and it will cost you at least $100. Then you need coax cable strippers and a reliable compression tool. After that, you need a line toner and you need to know what it means when that line toner does not show a connection. If you need to integrate antenna and then streaming, you will need several apps on your smart phone to test WiFi placement. Its a lot of experience and a lot of work to get perfect OTA (over the air) signal to all your TVs.