Great, good to know. Since I can live without NBC (under bad weather conditions) I can now leave the antenna in the attic forever.

mnx, If I may suggest buy a 4221 or 4228 with proper mounting kit.

As far as for reception, check my post #276. I'm not that far from you and getting all Buffalo and Toronto stations on 4221 in attic. Using CM7777 preamp here.

You can buy the antenna locally (in Markham), pm me for details if you'd like.

Is that why a you went with a 4221 beaujolais?

Yes, that was my reason. Not sure how would the reception be with 4228, but I found a guy here on the forum that is doing it with one 4221 so I gave it a shot and it's working fine. I'm getting all channels except NBC (which I get when weather conditions are good).

hello all ,been reading around a while, and have a couple of questions. i got set up last sept with a sony kdf46e2000 with built in astc tuner, built a rooftop side by side pole with rotator and bearing assembly, and used a wade2900 yagi antenna , I am considering adding a Cm 4228 for the Buffalo channels, my signal strength is low on NBC to the point i lose on occassion.

from what i have read the 4228 gathers a little more signal than the yagi i use now ,(yes/no?) even tho dbl gain is approx the same,so should pick up the signal strength a bit.

My other question (problem) being i pick up CW 23 at 98% ,always strong ,can a better antenna (4228) possibly overpower and burn out the tuner even without an amplifier?. thanks in advance.

I should also mention i am in west Burlington, QEW an guelph line area , good reception for all available channels other than 2.1 NBC

Hi and welcome here waterman013 - I've merged your post into this thread so that you can read through it from Post #1 to see exactly what other people in your area have been doing for best OTA reception.

Keep in mind that your Delhi HD-2900 is a very good quality combo antenna (VHF/UHF/FM) and will be fine for all your reception needs without having to add a CM4228 to the mix. The weak WGRZ NBC signal is a well known problem, and judging from recent results in the Oakville area it is still problematic, so changing your antenna will not likely make a difference.

My advice is that you stay with the Delhi HD-2900 antenna you've already got. I hope if you're an FM radio listener that you've got its output split to an FM Receiver too. :)

Regarding a CM4228 overpowering a tuner: this might happen if you are very close to a powerful signal, but in your case a Buffalo or Toronto station would never do that.

Also here are some good links for you to read:

Well... I finally took the plunge this weekend and some friends and I did an OTA install for the two of us in Milton.

We got CM4228s which we mounted on our roofs and used our BEV 9200 OTA receivers to check for signal strength.

We pointed a little west of the Oakville water tower, which we can see from our peaks and these are the results. All in all we got 18 channels, these are the strengths for the major ones. I didn't look at the french or SD ones as I'm not really interested in those.

WUTV 75%
CKXT 85%
CBLT 98%
WNLO 88%
WGRZ 79%
WNYO 70%
WKBW 75%
WIVB 85%
CFTO 98%
WNED 89%
CITYTV 75%

DLPFreak what numbers are those? (ie.. 91. 5.1 ect...)

I can't remember offhand, but I'll check tonight and post the numbers.

I know that I get ABC, NBC, PBS, CBS, FOX, CTV, CBC, WC(I think it's WC? It's one I never saw on BEV or Cable), MyTV?, CityTV, which are pretty much all the ones I absolutely have to have for the wife to be happy!

Funnily enough, ABC was the hardest to get. I had CityTV at 95% so I kept moving the antenna with the intent of not letting CityTV drop below 75% (to be safe) and literally at 75% on CityTV, my ABC now sits at 75% as well.

My run of RG6 is also only 30ft if that makes a difference. I haven't split it yet to my MCE PC b/c I don't yet have the tuners installed (or bought for that matter) but I'm hoping I won't need a pre-amp when I split the signal.

UPDATE:

002-01 WGRZ 79%
004-01 WIVB 85%
005-01 CBLT 98%
007-01 WKBW 75%
009-01 CFTO 98%
023-01 WNLO 88%
025-01 CBLF 98%
029-01 WUTV 75%
043-01 WNED 89%
049-01 WNYO 70%
057-01 CITYTV 75%
066-01 CKXT 85%

Yeah, I'm beginning to think I'll need a preamp anyway, so the 4221 might have been fine.... oh well :)

Going back to my previous q though, does anyone know how much splitting the signal to two TV tuners will degrade my signal? Will I need a preamp if I want to do that and what is the best splitter to use for the least signal loss?

Thx again

DLPFreak splitting the signal on a 4221 will drop your signal say you had 8 or 9 bars will go down to 4 or 6 bars.

I would use a splitter rated from 5-1000mhz.

If your cable run from antenna to the first split is short less than 45-50' you can use a indoor 2 way distribution amp or 10amp before the splitter.

Any longer cable run you will lose precious signal and the indoor amps will add too much noise at the end.

Good luck.

By the way MyTv has on tonight, Miss Hawaiian Tropic International Beauty Pageant and in HD Ujena Bikini Jam . :D

Thanks Yaamon, I actually got the 4228 from you but was wondering if the 4221 would have yielded similar results. From your comments I'm guessing the 4221 wouldn't have been as good for me.

Yeah funny enough, I just tried the two way splitter (5-1000mhz) as a test and I lost about 5 channels :o eeek.

I'll give the indoor amp a try but it's looking like my MCE setup is going to require a preamp.

With respect to the preamp, I'd prefer not to climb back up on my steep roof unless absolutely necessary, so would I have to install the preamp before my RG6 on the antenna, or could I install it 4 feet down the line which I could access from my attic?

Thx again for all the assistance.

DLPFreak was that you that came on today ? I was out doing a install for a company that supplies fta on Christian newtork etc TBN. Damm those 36". :)

The ebst result would be a antenna preamp.

Good luck.

I can't remember offhand, but I'll check tonight and post the numbers.

I know that I get ABC, NBC, PBS, CBS, FOX, CTV, CBC, WC(I think it's WC? It's one I never saw on BEV or Cable), MyTV?, CityTV, which are pretty much all the ones I absolutely have to have for the wife to be happy!

I think you may be talking about the 'CW', CBS's little brother network. Carries most of what used to be 'WB'. And, yes, it is on Bell & rogers as WGN chicago.

So here's a strange thing. I just got a Hauppauge HVR-1600.

I unplugged my OTA from my BEV receiver into the MCE box and most of the signal strength in MCE is in the yellow. I get all the channels still except NBC which I NEED for Heroes :confused:

Do ATSC Tuners have less response/sensitivity to OTA strength? I wouldn't have thought they'd attenuate the signal. Btw, this is the exact same run as was plugged into my BEV 9200.

Any ideas? Does this mean I'll need a Pre-amp?

DLPFreak, one of the articles in the Knowledge Base & FAQ deals specifically with how not all ATSC receivers measure signal strength in the identical numerical fashion. Don't make any decisions on amplification based on conflicting readings like that. :) If it seems that the PC-based tuner is causing problems, find the thread for that topic and post about it there.

Here is the Knowledge Base & FAQ link:

Thanks Stampeder. I did read that in the FAQ, just thought it weird that I did actually lose one channel w/ the ATSC Tuner Card.

I guess I'll try a little tweaking to point the antenna and see if I lose anything else or get NBC back.

If not, unless anyone can provide other advice, it looks like a preamp will be the way to go if I'm going to split this signal to two tuners in the future.

Ugh... more money :eek:

Losing NBC is turning out to be common in your area. The DXing thread has some conjecture about it being weather related, so don't buy an amp just yet.

hmmm thx. I'll hold off a bit then and see what happens.

Hi:

I'm about to venture for the first time into the HD world. I have a Delphi 4BT-1483 antenna and I live about two hundred yards from Lake Ontario in Burlington at approximately Appleby and Lakeshore, My main question is, if you had a choice, where would you point your antenna: Buffalo or Toronto?

I'm interested in the reasons why (i.e., content, number of channels, dependability, or something I'm not thinking of).

Thanks in advance for any input.

KJ