It might have been possible for Cloyne to relay the signal from Ottawa and Belleville relay the signal from Cloyne.

It might have been possible for Cloyne to relay the signal from Ottawa and Belleville relay the signal from Cloyne.
But probably not too reliably. According to TVFool CICO-DT-24 has a NM of less than -8dB at 300 feet at the Cloyne transmitter site. CICO-TV-24 analog is less than -10dB.
The best you could get, if you put the receive antenna close to where the transmit antenna is at 145m above ground, would be -4 dB NM. I suppose it's doable.

I asked TVO a follow up question from last night's presentation and they got back to me today! :cool:

- they will be providing Program titles and details on the direct HD feeds
- they are planning to provide an accurate time in STT (synched to something like the NRC atomic clock) :D

August 16: Kitchener, London, Ottawa, Thunder Bay
August 18: Chatham, Cloyne, Toronto, Windsor

Belleville's date was not mentioned, I think.

Their transition website will be at http://tvo.org/digitalovertheair but it doesn't seem to be up yet.
Belleville is also on Aug. 18th.

August 16: Kitchener, London, Ottawa, Thunder Bay
August 18: Chatham, Cloyne, Toronto, Windsor

If Kitchener and London are relaying the signal from Toronto, how can they go on air before Toronto? :rolleyes::confused:

It's likely relayed by satellite or Microwave.

It's likely relayed by satellite or Microwave.

Hmm. Lot of differing opinions on this here:

Only Toronto and Ottawa will have direct HD feeds, while Windsor will get a terrestrial feed from Toronto to rebroadcast. All other digital installs will be SD for now, as they are limited by the satellite downlinks at the sites.

My interpretation was that the OTA HD signal would be picked up and relayed through the transmitters between Toronto and Windsor (Kitchener, London, Chatham) sort of like in the good old days.

So apparently the satellite like will be SD only. I guess it could be a microwave link to Windsor (possibly also including Kitchener, London and Chatham) and not RF.

^^^^
These days, fibre is more likely than a microwave link. Also, microwaves are "RF" too.

These days, fibre is more likely than a microwave link.

I assume that when they say "Only Toronto and Ottawa will have direct HD feeds" they mean fiber, so that rules it out for the others.

Also, microwaves are "RF" too.

True, but you know what I mean.

If one was to overlay a map of Ontario showing the existing fibre network(s) with one showing the TVO/TFO transmitter sites it would be possible to guess fairly accurately which of the TVO/TFO transmitters would be fed by microwave and vice versa.

Rather than guessing and speculating, you could just ask TVO directly. They are quite approachable. Some of the questions may even be answered by watching the presentation from Tuesday night which is available online now.

I must admit in the past I was critical of TVO due to them being the lone analog-only here, but now with the plans revealed, they are pleasure to deal with. :cool:

Their transition website will be at http://tvo.org/digitalovertheair but it doesn't seem to be up yet.

The website is up now. Not much new that hasn't already been mentioned here. It does confirm the following though:

Here is our conversion schedule:

In London, Kitchener, Ottawa and Thunder Bay, TVO will cease analog transmission at 1 am and begin digital transmission at 6 am on Tuesday August 16 on the following channels:

London: digital channel 18
Kitchener: digital channel 28
Ottawa: digital channel 24
Thunder Bay: digital channel 9

In Windsor, Chatham, Toronto, Belleville and Cloyne, TVO will cease analog transmission at 1 am and begin digital transmission at 6 am on Thursday August 18 on the following channels:

Windsor: digital channel 32
Chatham: digital channel 33
Toronto: digital channel 19
Belleville: digital channel 26
Cloyne: digital channel 44

I'm quite pleased TVO has posted a link to digitalhome.ca on their digital OTA page!

TvO DTV proposals

Call Sign Area ST Netw. (Primary) A. CH Future RF CH AERP (kW) MERP (KW) EHAAT (m) Pattern Pop. (1000) Cost ($1000)

CICO-TV-18 London ON (TVO) 18 18 2.4 316 ND 144]689 311 2010-1840-9 (http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2011/2011-38.htm)
CICO-TV-24 Ottawa ON (TVO) 24 24 52.2 95 340.7 D 68]1335 480 2010-1441-4 (http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2011/2011-63.htm)
CICA-TV Toronto ON (TVO) 19 19 79 106.5 491 D 577]7613 600 2010-1442-2 (http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2011/2011-63.htm)
CICO-TV-28 Kitchener ON (TVO) 28 ??
CICO-TV-32 Windsor ON (TVO) 32 ??
CICO-TV-9 Thunder Bay ON (TVO) 9 ??

Aug 18....wow, talk about leaving it until the last minute.

Some networks are waiting until Sept 01 in the early morning. *That's* last minute.

^^^^
These days, fibre is more likely than a microwave link. Also, microwaves are "RF" too.
Most likely there will be 2 or more methods in place… a backup is always there if one method should fail.

Station to Transmitter Links (STL’s) can be Fibre, Microwave, or Satellite.

Some networks are waiting until Sept 01 in the early morning. *That's* last minute.

That happened in the U.S. too. Doing it that way costs less, but might make the switch a bit more "interesting". ;-)

IIRC, there was one station that was planning on doing that, but their analog transmitter got clobbered by lightning, so they switched to digital a bit earlier than expected.

It looks like most stations outside the GTA and a few other large cities in Canada are planning on 'flash cutting.' That's OK if they do enough testing. Judging by their announcement, all of TVO will be going that route.

It looks like most stations outside the GTA and a few other large cities in Canada are planning on 'flash cutting.' That's OK if they do enough testing. Judging by their announcement, all of TVO will be going that route.
If you're a cash-strapped network that depends on grudging government grants, you pretty well have to cuts costs to the bone. Putting up and running an extra transmitter for months or years is probably a luxury that TVO can't afford. Finances dictate a flash cut.