The following Buffalo and/or Upstate New York OTA TV stations are the most difficult to receive with stability in the area of Southern Ontario called the Golden Horseshoe (Niagara, Hamilton, Oakville, Mississauga, Toronto, Oshawa).

Its a multiple choice poll, so only select the one(s) that you personally have trouble with on a regular basis, not including tropo events.

If your location is not in your User data for all to see, please tell us where you are too.

ION is the only one I have trouble with. I think I've seen WNYB but it's not a channel I watch.

WNYO is hit and miss with me right now. ION is one that I've never been able to get, but others in my area have...so it may be possible for my setup.

I don't consider ION WPXJ as a regular station at 85+ miles away from here and they only broadcast to the east&west from their tower. ION for me is strictly a tropo event. So, WNYO is the only real tough one because of their directional broadcast, however I can get it regularly with careful aim, but then I loose some strength on WNED when I peak the antenna's aim at WNYO.

Marbles_00

I doubt that many if anyone gets ION in the Hamilton/Niagara area other than through extreme propagation [tropo] events. The only way would be to aim a very directional full sized long range boom antenna directly toward Batavia using a rotor.


The following is an evaluation from WPXJ.

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The map indicates that you are located 80 miles from our transmitter site. Were you able to receive WPXJ analog ? If so, How Well? It is not surprising that there are signal interruptions over so long a distance. I doubt that you will receive a 100% reliable signal given the distance involved. I would say that receiving us perfectly the first night was due to extraordinary propagation conditions which the month of June is famous for.

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Chief Engineer

WPXJ/Buffalo

I get Ion regularly in summer, and a few times with our winter tropo we've been having. Ion isn't a station i watch, no programming there i'll ever need.
So, my Buffalo antenna is pointed at WGRZ, its the most unreliable out of stations i actually watch. Only very rare dropouts due to bad weather. All the other buffalo stations are solid.

I can only get ION at night using a 4228 with rotor on a 30ft tower. The rest are all good but the rotor is essential.

The following Buffalo and/or Upstate New York OTA TV stations are the most difficult to receive with stability in the area of Southern Ontario called the Golden Horseshoe (Niagara, Hamilton, Oakville, Mississauga, Toronto, Oshawa).

Its a multiple choice poll, so only select the one(s) that you personally have trouble with on a regular basis, not including tropo events.

If your location is not in your User data for all to see, please tell us where you are too.
My challenge is WKBW. I get everything else I want via my homebrew SBGH. The Grand Island stations, except Fox, boom in here. (Who cares about Fox?) WGRZ is consistent at 76.5 miles. Why wouldn't WKBW, at the same location on the same azimuth also come in? A source of great frustration to me, and the only barrier to dropping cable service! I don't think the US stations realize that they'd pick up significant viewership if they'd just shift their coverage slightly Northward and/or just slightly increase their ERP. (I'm in Burlington, ON on a prototype GH in the attic, thanks to digitalhome construction instructions.)

WGRZ for sure. From my location closer to the lake (lower elevation) Droputs frequently and lately nothing. Signal is hovering just below lock. Only problematic when temps are below -5, otherwise it's rocksolid.

If I gang and move my preamp to the the antenna and fix the tilt on my tower (instead of having it 30 feet down) it should solve the problem.

The rest come in like a charm, even WNYB.

Antenna aimed 135 deg SE (somewhere around Akron, NY), so not at WGRZ.

I stand a slight chance of getting WPXJ regularly if I reconnect my unused 4221 clone and do some tweaking, but it's not worth the trouble, as it comes in 80% of the year.

Very early on in the poll it didn't take long to establish that WPXJ-DT ION stands out as the hardest Buffalo (Batavia, actually) NY OTA station to receive in the Golden Horseshoe. As we know, each of the Reception Results threads covering the various Golden Horseshoe cities/areas has a long history of laments about ION's poor signal north of the border. ION's location significantly east of Buffalo, its beam pattern, and its ERP all contribute to the problems for Canadians.

WNYO MyTV is known to be problematic too, especially in the Hamilton area, and there is a long history of WGRZ NBC problems in various places owing usually to the change of the seasons. We can also see that some of the other stations thankfully suffer only occasional or rare issues, probably due to local circumstances at the receiving end.

If you haven't voted yet, please do. Remember that this is a multiple choice poll.

Oddly I have never had a problem with WNYO. It is my second strongest station (80%) only surpassed by WKBW (85%).

Even WNLO and WNED are weaker (70-75%). Probably because of preamp overload, but still :P

I just might be really lucky. Try peaking your antennas for WNYO. It might do you all a great deal of good. WGRZ should be less problematic actually, it's just my personal setup right now.

WPXJ ION is the only station I dont get 100% reliable.Its 161 KM away so I dont think I have much hope.In winter its usually nothing, summer it is usually fine.If they could move to a Buffalo tower that would be great.

The poll has given us enough data already to see the trends, so a big thank you for your responses. :)

ION is hard to get consistently on this side of the GTA. Fellow OTA'ers out in Durham Region, especially along the lake, generally have no problem.

Your numbers look good and are about the most you can expect given your location and antenna setup. Good job!

Oh man for the good hour that i viewed the Qubo channel, i really like it, and so did my kids, i was thinking of mounting the antenna up on roof, but given what you just said its really not worth the effort i guess, this is really disappointing to hear i really want the qubo channel, i don't understand how it was coming in with good signal and all of the sudden it vanish, my tv does not have a percentage meter
..............bad.........normal...........good.
about there>>>>>>> ^


qubo and ion were coming in at ^

I agree its the hardest station to get but it will likely be surpassed by WNGS as the hardest to get. You don't have to be near the lake to get consistent reception on ION. I'm well away from the lake near the Durham line and get it consistently all year round. The only time I lose it is when some weird tropo activity is happening.

Trust me it's alot harder west of the GTA. People in the eastern parts of GTA have it easy when it comes to ION. Go check the TVFool profile to see what reaches our neck of the woods...

That said ION has been steady for 3 weeks now.

Over the weekend, I had installed an antenna in my neighborhood with LOS across the lake. With a good distribution amp, ION and all other channels came in rock solid...

Don't give up, give it a try with a CM antenna and good amplifier. The Qubo from ION channel is excellent for kids.

Again, you're in Durham Region and receiving ION is not as big an issue as it is for those of us in Halton and Peel (and probably York).

I think part of the problem is the ION transmitter uses a "figure 8" pattern with lobes directly west and east of the tower and not much north/south. This would explain why I can receive it when I turn my antenna several degrees south of the 116 recommended by TVFool.

I agree Qubo is very good for kids programming.

Given that WNGS has just returned to the airwaves with almost no signal entering Canada it is obviously the hardest Buffalo-area station to get in the Golden Horseshoe today, but since this is such an early stage in WNGS's return and there is a great deal of uncertainty about its operations, please use its own dedicated thread to discuss it:

WNGS-DT Back OTA In Buffalo, NY Area - VHF Channel 7 (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=124973)

As for regularly operational stations in the Buffalo area, it is clear that WPXJ Batavia NY 23 (ION, remapping to 51) continues to be the one with the greatest reception difficulties for most Canadians.