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ON - Ottawa, Vanier, Gloucester, Orleans - OTA

588K views 2K replies 301 participants last post by  Whitewulf613 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Getting started.
I live just north of the Racetrack/Casino, Quinn Rd

I have lived with rabbit ears for years and want to upgrade to an outside antenna system for 3 TVs picking up as much UHF and VHF signals as possible to start with. By living with cheap rabbit ears running two TVs for years, I know I will be very happy with the improvements I will have going to a proper outside Anenna system for analog and digital signals.

I have been reading posts for 2 days now to get myself started and I think I have information overload and there are so amny things to consider.

I have gone to TVFOOL to find out channels and locations.
I understand I probably do not want a long distance setup as most station are fairly close.
I am not sure of the antennas I need for my area/use.

Does anyone live near me that has been doing this for a while who can help me get started?

Cheers,
 
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#499 ·
And to answer your other questions you can always check the OTA FAQ and knowledge base but yes weather will affect reception. Even though they come from the same tower they are at different height on the tower, probable at different powers and their UHF channels would have slightly different propagation.
 
#502 ·
Coax is about 30 feet long right now, but will be cut down to ~20 feet when I finish the install and make it permanent. I am unsure what type it is... It reads Commscope inc. E11333A CM OR CATV (UL) C(UL) CMG 18AWG

There are no splitters, but I may add one later.

Roof is standard tar shingles, siding is vinyl.

I tried tilting the antenna both upward and eastward but the signal did not improve. Right now the best signal I could find was by placing the antenna as high as possible facing south (might be able to play with that a bit more).
 
#503 ·
Try your best with aiming and ask yourself if all cables have been crimped right since this too can have an effect if you have a loose connection

I don't think it's your case but you can also try splitting the signal to see if it gets better. It should not in your case but it's worth a try. It would mean your tuner is overwhelmed by the too strong signal.
 
#505 ·
Check that wiring again, then if there are other buildings around, that same signal can be bouncing off and come at a different angle. Feel free to aim off the location where you think the signal is coming from until you find a sweet spot.

If all else fails, a preamp can help and make a difference.
 
#508 ·
Yroc
That south building must be the culprit
Can you see rg59 or rg6 on the cable ?
At this point if you think your aiming tries don't give you anything better and you have good rg6 cable then I'd go with a preamp before hacking your good antenna, in my opinion only...
 
#520 ·
Variable signal strength - a question
I have an indoor antenna to pick up CBC Ottawa HD (it's the only OTA channel I need). Usually the displayed signal strength is 88-92 but recently it's been dropping to as low as 70 (and consequent signal loss) for a while, up to several hours. Have there been transmitter problems, or is, perhaps, my antenna failing? What impact does weather have on OTA digital? I don't want to install an outdoor antenna.
I have noticed the same thing with CBC Ottawa here in Brockville. The signal has been much more unreliable in the past 2-3 weeks. It has been rock solid for at least a year, now it has bad reception periods often. Usually, If I look at CBOFT at the same time, it is still working well. It is my understanding that CBOFT is a lower powered station on the same tower.
 
#521 ·
Yroc,

A preamp worked wonders for me from my test location when I was getting only locals. With only about 30 feet inside the house, adding a preamp moved the channels I was getting marginally to solid.
Later I ran into the problem of having too much signal from the preamp and getting worse reception when using no splitters and one tuner. The simple fix was to put a splitter before my tuner. All in all, I always got better reception when using a preamp in Ottawa, I tried it in the house, on the mast, ... And in all cases it gave me better results. If you have all channels solid then you don't need one, but if you lose channels, have borderline ones or during bad weather then my opinion is it will help you.
 
#523 ·
A preamp worked wonders for me from my test location when I was getting only locals. With only about 30 feet inside the house, adding a preamp moved the channels I was getting marginally to solid.
That is a sign of a frequently overlooked reason for using a pre-amp, a noisy first stage amp in your tuner. Since only the noise factor of the first amp in the chain is important, if the per-amp is better than the first stage amp in your TV, you will see an improvement even if conventional wisdom says you won't. In the old days, all TVs had great amps since most people used antennas and many didn't have pre-amps. Now that most people have cable (which provides a strong, amplified signal) many TV manufacturers cheep out on the first stage amp. This is also why distribution amplifiers are usually noisier than pre-amps, since the designer assumes that it won't be the first amplifier in the chain (not necessarily to be cheap, but because of other trade-offs).
 
#522 ·
Thanks flavoie, set myself up so I can add one if I need it.

Is there a way to connect cable and an antenna to the same TV. I have basic cable for the next 30 days (or maybe longer) and would like to have both hooked up if possible.

Perhaps a connector that converts coax to HDMI or a coax switch?

Anyone know of the options?
 
#524 ·
Is there a way to connect cable and an antenna to the same TV. I have basic cable for the next 30 days (or maybe longer) and would like to have both hooked up if possible.
While the signals can't be combined directly, since they use the same frequencies, you do have a few options.

  1. Some TVs have 2 RF inputs, one for cable and one for antenna.
  2. Use an A/B switch to select the source, though you may need to do a re-scan on your TV every time you throw the switch.
  3. Use a digital box for either OTA or cable (and connect the other directly to your TV). A cable box may be the better choice as you can rent one (saving the investment) and it is necessary to watch cable channels in HD.
 
#526 · (Edited by Moderator)
Sandy Hill

I'm trying to decide if investing in a better antenna is worth it...

Right now i've got one of those $20 Monoprice antennas... Live in an apartment building in Sandy Hill, window facing South down Chapel St...

I can pick up 4.1, 9.1, and 20.1 in Digital, and pretty much everything in Analog (really fuzzy though, 65 coming in the best and 13 coming in the worst)...

Since i'm pretty much constrained to an indoor antenna, is trying out a different one even worth it? Does anyone in this area have experience?
 
#527 ·
Hi CorSter, please input your address and height in tvfool.com to generate a report and post it here for others to see. I notice you are not getting HC digital channels even though you are pointing south, so i'm curious to see what TVFool says about HC channel strengths for the few digital channels coming from the south.
 
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