I have a Panasonic px60u Tv and I am using a cm4221 in the south Oakville area, Last week there was some skip comming into this area so I did a rescan and pick up some other stations. At that time I lost City TV and I have not being able to pick it up since,even after a rescan.Does anyone else have this issue?.One thing to note is that when I do rescan it shows up in the list but when I go to the channel the TV does not lock on to it and then it is no longer is in the list.

Hi dstb,

Because City TV is broadcasting at such low power (2.2 KW) and checking the coverage in your area (with TV Fool) you are at fringe of receiving it. This explains why you get it sometimes and then loose it.

This depends on what the weather and the installation of your antenna. (how high your antenna etc.) If you want to receive City TV signal asumming you have pointed your antenna at CN Tower you will most likely have upgrade to 4228 to get a good solid reception. You could try a preamp assuming your line losses are high due long line length.

Try a 10 db distribution amplifer it might just do the trick :D

Biggy

Hi Biggy

I am leaning towards a firmware problem not a signal level issue.I have the digital turner with this TV as well as a stand alone ota digital stb and I can get Citytv on the stb, but I would prefer to get City with the Panasonic.

Oakville is considered fringe for CityTV? Wow, that's really, really sad.

Either that or TV Fool is spitting out some questionable data.

I think there is something wrong with the Citytv transmitter. Normally I get full signal from them (Georgetown/4221/7777 preamp), but lately I get 60-70% with dropouts to 20% every 4-5 seconds. sun/global come in 95-100%

Hi:

Last year I bought a Delhi (1483?) antennae, the 4 bow tie reflector. I mounted in my chimney and pointed it roughly between toronto and Buffalo and had fairly good results. I usually got the Toronto digital stations good (except maybe CityTV) and most Buffalo stations, except NBC and ABC were always in and out.

The other day I decided to get more serious about it and bought a second identical antenna and had one pointed more or less at the CN tower and one pointed towards Buffalo. It's important to note I have several large Maple trees between me and Buffalo, so I played around a bit to see where I could get the best signal. I combined these two antennas based on info in the FAQ in these forums and lo! I had great results on Monday night (June 2, 2008). I had mid to high 80's for signal strength on almost every channel. I watched the hockey game on NBC without a glitch. But I got greedy.

I couldn't get Fox 29.1. So I went out and got a *third* antenna hoping I could do even better by pointing it in another direction or something. This is where everything went very wrong. After screwing around with all three antennas yesterday, I couldn't even get a decent signal from the channels I had before. I tried every combination possible for the connectors on all three antennas to make sur ethey were all in phase. So today I broke down and went out and got a Channelmaster 4228 and I have it and nothing else in the mix (the other atennas are disconnected) pointing right at Buffalo and I've tried several different directions, and again, I can't get any good results at all (best case, low 60's in signal strength for maybe one or two of the Buffalo networks) and I've spent hours and hours tearing up my roof going up and back down to check the TV, I'm really at wits end.

Quesiton 1:

- Monday night was a pleasant night with clear skies. The last two days (when I've had my problems) have been cloudy and rainy. How much of a difference does this make?

- I've searched around on these forums and I noticed a post that said if you analogs are snowy, a pre-amp might help. My analogs are snowy, but how do I know that isn't just because of an aiming issue?

- Exactly how should an antenna be pointed from horizontal? Let's assume my antenna is at the same elevation as the transmitter in Buffalo, would I still point my antenna a little bit down to account for curvature of the Earth, etc., or would I be better off pointing a little up to hope for atmospheric reflections and to also point slightly above the trees I mentioned? Or maybe just exactly stright ahead?

Any help I can get would be very much appreciated, I'm going back now to playing with this without much hope. It's especially frustrating knowing how good I had it two days ago and maybe now I can't find that sweet spot again. I'd almost be relieved to find out it's the weather (although I'd give up on this if I knew I'd lose major networks when it rains).

Thanks for any help in advance.

Hi all,
I have moved my antenna and got some better results.
I was wondering if you could answer this for me:
I get the following channels:

2.1(33.1)
2.2
4.1(39.1)
7.1(38.1)
7.2
7.3
9.1(40.1)
15.1
17.1(43.1)
17.2
17.3
18.1
23.1(32.1)
25.1
36.1(35.1)
49.1(34.1)
49.2
57.1(53.1)
66.1

The question I have is:
Channels from Buffalo (2.1, 4.1, 7.1) come in at night (almost seems like tempurature), the signal is well over 75%. This dramatically drops and I will lose the signal completely. Before the storm the other night, I received all of listed channels and with excellent signal (avg 80%). What could be the culprit?
The antenna is approximately 25 feet before coming in the house and goes through a distribution amplifier. My magnavox antenna pre-amplifier died so I can't use it.
I haven't purchased a channel master 4228 just yet but wonder why the varying reception with this antenna (Digiwave clone of the 4221).

Thanks,

D

I'll throw in my 2 cents. Hopeflully stampeder can clear things up.

Lake effect. Hot day, cold lake, mist rising. Fog is the worst thing you can do for RF reception short of steel and concrete.

Temperature goes down at night, mist stops, signal clears up. There are lots of other side effect of recieving RF over water. The sun going up or down, wind causing waves, etc. etc.

My distribution amp makes things worse during bad weather. The higher signal from local stations swamp out the lower, long distance signals.

I could not put it any better, Tom. ;) Those would be my guesses too.

GeorgeMX has posted about the technical effects of the Lake on reception: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=26789

Will the 4228 dramatically improve my reception with effects like these? Pawn is my area, only difference is that I don't have any trees. Should I invest in a pre-amp instead of a new antenna? I don't get fox which is a mystery to me (maybe the antenna's UHF only and cannot pick up fringe VHF signals.
I could not find any troubleshooting reference material for my magnavox pre-amp so I am not sure what I should do.

Cheers,
D

Hi,

I have a CM 4221 in the attic (just leaning on the wood frame) and I was able to get most Toronto and Buffalo at some point (as I move/arrange the antenna I get some/lose some). A lot of channels show up 30-35% which seems to be too weak for my Sharp Aqous to lock and the channels break all the time. I notice the channels are stable at around 60%. I am trying to decide between the options below and will appreciate some advice

Optoins
- Get a preamp (probably CM 7777) and keep the antenna in the attic
- OR move the antenna out in the open but only around 10ft from the ground and bolt it to the house wall (I don't have the expertise to install it on the roof)

Some additional information that may help
- I live in Milton, the main city close to the 401 with residential houses all around
- If I keep the antenna in the attic I will need around 25ft of RG6 cable if outside I will probably need close to 50

Thanks in advance.

Hi JM,

I'd try both if I were you. When I had my UHF yagi temporarily mounted on my upstairs balcony the addition of the preamplifier really made an UBER improvement. So much so that I really could've left it there permanently. I did however relocate it to my tower in the spring, which does work better but not before I resolved my receiver overload problem. I digress.... I think you're far enough away from any one transmitter to get away with a Winegard AP4800 preamplifier. I believe the CM7777 has VHF, but I don't think that would be of any use with your antenna, and with the HDTV channels within earshot of what I think is Milton (never heard of Minton). I have also a Delhi distribution amp, but its el-crapola compared to the Wineguard AP4700 I use (lower gain version of AP4800).

DJ

I would think both options should help increase your signal strength. A CM7777 is both UHF and VHF so it would work fine. My CM7777 added about 10-20% in signal strength, but you do need some signal to start with.
The higher the antenna the better. I put a tripod on my roof so it's just above the roof line and wasn't too hard to install. The increased length of cable from 25 to 50 feet should be fine especially with the pre-amp. I ended up using 60feet for mine.

Thanks DJ and Vanslide.

I will give it a try by taking the antenna outside and without installing it check how much improvement I get with the signal strength with no preamp.

Vanslide you mentioned that you got 10-20% with cm7777, that may not be enough for me to get a good lock as I have a lot of channels around 35%. If I get 20% by taking the antenna outside and another 10-20% with the preamp that may solve my problem. I will post my results.

DB-4 on a high mast, tv is a panasonic TH-42PX60U (latest firmware). here's what i DO get:

WGRZ
WIVB
CBC
WKBW
CFTO (also doesn't detect digital during scan, but comes in eventually)
WNED
CHCH
WNLO
CBLFT
WUTV
CITS (hard to catch reliably--but don't really want it)
OMNI-1
OMNI-2
WNYO
CIII
CKXT

city shows up as analog as well on scan, but still is difficult to tune to since it kicks me back to 2 w/ nothing but snow on the picture.

Hi Everyone. I am from Milton and live near Thompson and Hepburn somewhat close to the A&P.

I bought an eaglestar pro 53-6305 (looks like a DB4 antenna). It is mounted on my deck temporarily and the cable runs into the house as needed through the patio door.
I get all the CN tower channels and get Buffalo stations pretty good!

I am considering another antenna and combining them since I am 30 KM (69 Degree bearing) from the CN tower and 110 KM (131 Degree Bearing) from Buffalo.

Thanks for reading!

Matt

Hi Matt and welcome here - you can find other posts about Milton by using the "Search This Thread" tool in the blue navbar to the upper right with "Milton" as the search term.

Also you can see great photos of OTA gear in the Pimp My Gear thread in the main OTA Forum.

As for running a DB4 clone, if you are getting all the stations you want then that's great, but frankly most people in this thread's coverage area use a CM4228 or CM4221 (or clone) antenna for best results. If you're handy around a home workshop you might even consider building yourself an SBGH or DBGH in order to have the very best. :)

I'm in Milton, near Thompson and Childs. To keep the wife happy, I've mounted dual 4221's in the attic and pointed them towards Buffalo. The only channel that is flaky is Fox, but the other majors from Toronto and Buffalo come in fine.

I use a preamp on the antenna as well to compensate for a long run from the attic to the basement. I dropped the coax down a cold-air return vent that runs straight up and down from attic to basement.

Cheers,
Pete

Thanks for the Tip Stampeder and Pete!

So Pete, are both your antenna's aimed at buffalo or just the one?

I had a conduit installed by my builder that goes from the attic to the basement so I should have no problems getting the RG6 down there.

Matt

They are both pointed at Buffalo, I never really tried aiming them in different directions due to some advice I read here that this might actually reduce total reception.

They are stacked one on top of the other. If you want/need to borrow any tools let me know. I bought a decent compression crimper when I rewired my basement.

Pete