Previous Signals with GH6 r0 pointed at Buffalo WGRZ:

Squiffy said,

Signals (again ZERO pre-amping so far) are typically (signal/quality/distance in KM):
Actual Channel in parentheses
SunTV Toronto (40): squot so far -- sits at 33% signal
CITY (44): helloooo I should get you -- stuck at 33% signal
CJMT (51): Houston, we have a problem -- nothing locked at 19% signal


If I rotate the GH6 toward the CN Tower direction listed signals come in reasonably well on my HDHomeRun without pre-amp as follows (signal%/quality%):

SunTV Toronto (40): 45/75
City (44): 48-50/75
CJMT (51): 48-50/70-75

So, I can see them from Acton by simple rotation.

See what I can get with original orientation adding a CM7777 pre-amp in a couple of weeks.

Other experiments will be to stack two GH6 rev 0 units with a phasing line in phase AND to gang two GH6 rev 0 units about 1 meter apart and in phase, pointing both at WGRZ and seek to place Toronto on the edge of a null and then pre-amp the pair.

Looking good so far.

Note: SunTV Toronto is still on RF66, not on 40.

Can you get RF47 at all?
This is the one Toronto station that I have not been able to get.
It must be the weakest of the lot.

There is something magical though about CBLT-DT RF20. This station has an extraordinary range.

i live in milton and am using an amp and a 4228hd on the roof and have completely lost cfto, chch, and city-tv. no signal at all. have rescanned a few times with no luck. all my american stations and all the other toronto stations are fine. any recommendations?

Try using a Hi-VHF antenna like the YA-1713. It resolved my problem with CHCH and CKVR, and also gets me CKCO as well. You might need a rotor. CKVR may not be doable from your location but I think you should be able to receive CHCH and CKCO. I also use a pre-amp at the feed. VHF DTV is much more tricky to recieve and you need the right equipment or forget it. I'm 65 miles from the CHCH tower and now I get full 10/10 bars with that antenna. VHF is so tricky because the bandwidth it occupies is very noisy, so to acheive a good SNR to get a lock you need a stronger signal than for a UHF frequency.

Looks like you are not getting the updated frequencies in your scanning, or you could have a vhf only amp which would cut off cfto and chch.
What kind of amp and what kind of tuner (ie: just the one in your tv or a pc tuner)?

the amp i am not sure of but with regards to the tuner i am using both a tv and a pc tuner

just got back from vacation and found that i have lost all of these stations. been reading through the other posts and am seeing a lot of people still get these stations with roughly the same equipment i have. what gives. can someone help me. i have a 4228hd with pre-amp on a rooftop in milton, ontario. was getting these stations fabulously before. help!

i have a samsung hdtv if that helps

The channels you mentioned have all changed their frequency, so if you are using windows media centre you will need to add the channels manually.

CFTO is now frequency 9
CHCH is now 11
CityTV is now 44

Also if your pre-amp is UHF only then you won't receive cfto or chch as they are now VHF

thanks moosebox, you are right i had a uhf pre-amp which is blocking these channels

@firsttimer:
Connect the antenna to just the TV. (no spliter or pre-amp)
Re-scan and see what you get. Change the direction of the antenna and see what you get and/or loose.

What direction is the antenna pointed?

Hello everyone I am new to all this OTA stuff and I have been lurking this forum for some time now. I have to say that it is a great resource and I really enjoy looking over the posts of so many knowledgeable individuals. However I still have some questions and I thought I would ask you knowledgeable folks for some help. My current setup involves a Q-Terra 8bay bowtie antenna (rip-off of the CM4228HD) but it swivels in the middle. I have one part pointed at CN Tower and the other at Buffalo. I know this is not one of the recommended models but I bought it before I stumbled onto this site and $25 seemed like a good deal to try OTA out. I am willing to buy something new if needed but I am not sure that it will help. The antenna is roof mounted on my two story townhouse (aprox.. 30 ft. up). I have about 130 feet of cable (RG6) from antenna to a two way splitter that feeds my tv and my computer next to my tv. In the path between the antenna and the tuners there is one F-barrel and a grounding block. The splitter I am using is supposed to be a better quality one by Channel Master but truthfully its not any better than the dollar store one I initially had. I get most of the channels except for Fox (rf 14 , ion rf 23, wings rf 7). According to a gentlemen at Save and Replay Ion (rf 14) and Wings (rf 7) are almost impossible to get in Milton, Ontario. I live on the southwest corner of Ontario St. (Rd. 25) and Derry Rd.

TVFool link: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d8387cd788a6c50.

Here is the list of channels and related signal strengths from my Sharp Aquos TV.

2.1, 2.2, 2.3 (RF33) NBC 77% at night but signal drops to 35% on sunny humid afternoons and makes for intermittent reception but viewable 95% of the time

4.1 (RF39) CBS 75%
5.1 (RF20) CBC 70%
7.1 (RF38) ABC 75%
9.1 (RF9) CTV 83%
11.1 (RF11) CHCH 84%
13.1 (RF13) CTV2 (I think) the night of transition it came in at 55% but dropped off to 31% the next morning and stayed there since
17.1,2,3 (RF43) PBS/TB 70%
19.1 (RF19) TVO 80%
23.1 (RF32) CW 80%
25.1 (RF25) CBC French 90%
26.1,2,3,4 (RF26) Religious TBN usually 30% and not viewable during the day but good in the evening and at night

29.1, 2 (RF14) FOX Signal usually at 29% but sometimes drops to zero and quickly jumps back to 29%. Never viewable or scanned by tuner.
36.1 (RF36) CTS 73%
41.1 (RF41) Global 83%
47.1 (RF47) OMNI 1 83%
49.1,2 (RF49) My TV/ Cool TV Signal at 30% during the day and not viewable but goes to 50% at night.

51.1,2,3 (RF23) ION Signal usually 0% but at times 29% during the day on rare occasions it comes in at 55% late at night.

57.1 (RF44) CITY-TV 82%
66.1 (RF66) SUN TV 61%
67.1 (RF7 ) WINGS Never viewable but at times signal strength 26% but usually zero

69.1 (RF51) OMNI 2 82%

The signal strengths for Canadian channels are pretty stable but the US ones are lower during the day but still above 55% except for CW and PBS which are always above 70% and NBC becomes intermittent with signal strength hovering in the 30s.

I have played with aiming the antenna and found that aiming one half at CN tower and the other half at Buffalo works best. No matter what I do Fox (rf 14 never comes in stronger that 29%) even when the two halves point directly at the transmitter. I even tried using only one half of the antenna (4 bays) to provide a wider angle reception but the reception was very poor across the board.

I was thinking of getting a pre-amp but I am not sure which one. I am also concerned that some signals that are already ranging from 80% to 90% might overload the tuner when amplified. I am also concerned that channels like fox whose signal strength momentarily drops to 0% quite often will have very intermittent reception when the pre-amp is added. Any suggestions? Sorry for the lengthy message and your help is greatly appreciated.

to digital frank

it is pointed towards buffalo

to gucevo

based on my results you are doing amazing! i have less distance of cable (about 100 ft.) and i also split it to the tv and the computer. but without a pre-amp i get nothing. with pre-amp i get almost all the channels you get but i am missing 67, 26. can't imagine what you might get with a pre-amp.

firsttimer,
What signal strengths are you getting without the pre-amp. I am afraid of overloading the tuner is some cases (i.e. RF25 is at 90% without preamp). Also Fox (RF14) and ION (RF23) come in at 30% but the next second drop off to zero and then back up again. Is it logical to assume that after amplifying the FOX and ION would fluctuate between the amplified signal and no signal. I am assuming that if the signal drops to zero there is nothing to amplify.

gucevo,
i don't get any signals without the preamp. like i said i have about 100 feet with one split so all signal is lost. with the preamp before the transition to digital signals a few days ago i was getting 26 stations incl analog and digital. fox was the most difficult to get. got it better in the winter than the summer and yes it would fluctuate from 0% to at best i got 60% but that is with tweaking the antenna and sacrificing a little strength with some other stations like city-tv. but there are days i don't get fox at all. you are correct if there is no signal nothing can be amplified. the amp just helps with loss of signal along the cable and its splits.

Regarding pre-amp overload, my experience...

I added a pre-amp to my setup this week to improve my Buffalo signal strength. I already had a couple local stations at 100% strength (chch, ctv). Adding the pre-amp did not overload my system. You could always purchase the pre-amp from The Source or another store that allows returns and simply return it if you do not see any improvement.

If the signal is dropping to zero, then a preamp won't help, however you could just be having multipath issues. I have a similar issue with Fox, signal strength was at 55%, adding the pre-amp got it up to 95%. However the symbol quality drops to 0% every once in awhile so I will need to move the antenna to fix this due to multipaths i believe.

@firsttimer
If you ask for help, please follow suggestions.

As mentioned earlier, hook your TV directly to the cable. No splitter no pre-amp. Do a full scan off all channels and let us know what you get.

Is the cable RG-6?
If you still get nothing, something is broken on your end.

TV Fool

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...838753b4470b0e

I have been using a Terk indoor antenna propped in a window for two weeks, and getting 7-8 channels. Today I disconnected it and put up a CM4221 on the peak of my roof with a J pole. Pulling 10 channels now, as follows;

4.1 CBS
5.1 CBC
7.1 ABC
9.1 CFTO
11.1 CHCH
17.1 PBS
19.1 TVO Kids
23.1 CW
25.1 French
36.1 Christian
41.1 Global

From TVFool, it seems I'm pulling three Buffalo channels, ABC, CW, and PBS? I played with the antenna positioning a bit, right now it is at perfect East from my location in North Burlington (Appleby and Dundas). Any more south and I lose CBC, which is a must for me.

I think I would need a second antenna to get more Buffalo stations? WHat about to get more Toronto stations? I would like to get CITY, CTV and Global as well. I had Global when I had it more south, but no CBC like that. Doesn't make sense, as I think both are on CN Tower?? What else might I be doing wrong?

Other questions;

Do I need to re-search on my TV every time I move antenna??

Do I need to ground this antenna? I forgot to ask at Save and Replay?

Thanks!

I'd get a second antenna. I have two 4221's in Burlington and get almost all buffalo stations, and all the toronto stations.