that being said, IF you're going with a VHF antenna, I would go for the 8800.

I'm holding off on any VHF specific antenna purchase until the switch-over at the end of August. The 4221HD pulls in enough VHF for my purposes (save for Global which my kids would like for Wipeout).

My sole reason for another antenna is to get WNPI or WCFE which lately seems a bit stronger but still no lock.

As to losing sleep, I'll stop that when I get a reliable lock like you have.;)

amac, my philosophy about the Antenna Chart is that it continues to prove correct for a wide majority of reported cases across Canada, but we've found over the years that there are some particular areas in which the unique behaviour of some of the antennas may actually be better/worse. In the case of the National Capital Region, the members have learned and reported some very valuable things about which brand and model to use.

I'm great with that, and asking here for clarification is the best thing to have done. :)

PourquoiPasRémi I've moved your post into this thread covering Vanier, so please look through it to see how others have done. :)

PourquoiPasRémi, looking at your TVFool results, I would say you have a good shot at receiving all the locals with an indoor antenna. The big caveat to this is, what are the local factors that will affect your reception (what direction you are facing, what is the building made of, what floor are you on, are there other buildings/trees/etc in the way)?

One good way to use TVFool to help you predict some of these issues is to use the "maps" tool, switch to satellite view, zoom in and drag the marker to where the antenna will be located in your building and turn on "Show lines pointing to each transmitter." The two dark green lines point to the two local towers. You can see if they if they travel through anything nearby that could cause you problems.

If you could describe the results of this analysis, we can help you choose the best antenna for your situation.

Warning, you may not want to post this image if you are concerned about privacy as (unlike the radar plot) it could give away your address.

PourquoiPasRémi, you should also consider those 2 "indoor" antennas which are larger but made for UHF:
Antennas Direct CS2
Channel Master 4220hd (which also has a version coming with a mount, the 4220mhd)
With those 2 antennas, you'd likely get better results than a Silver sensor, but you would need to combine it with rabbit ears of another VHF antenna to get VHF channels, with a special, inexpensive splitter/combiner called a UVSJ. And you'd have to decide if you can find a location that reduces the eyesore.

From your username, I am thinking that come September 2011 you might want to still get SRC which will move from 22(uhf) to 9(vhf), along with Global & CTV which are currently and will stay at channels 6 & 13. The VHF range you would then care about...

I agree that typically the CS2 and the 4220HD are the best UHF antennas for indoor use. Since the locals are about 130 degrees apart for PourquoiPasRémi, he may want to remove the reflector from those antennas so he can receive signals off both the front and the back of the antenna equally. Local factors will determine if this is best for him so I was holding off making specific recommends.

With the warm weather I have my first glimpse ever of WCFE this morning.

Hi, I just switched from analog to digital (been using OTA for years). I've been pleasantly surprised by the results. Using old rabbit ears, getting clearly right now: 4.1 CBOT 25, 9.1 CBOFT, 17.1 CITY, 18.1/2/3 WNPI(WPBS), 20.1 Sun News, 27.1 OMNI1, 57.1/2/3 Mountain Lake PBS, 66.1 OMNI2.

I used to get WNPI and Mountain Lake before the US analog shut-down, but always snowy, so I was quite surprised to see such clarity with digital now. It does look like I can sometimes lose them mid-day, but I rarely watch TV mid-day.

I haven't been able to get 28.1/2/3 WNYF yet. But part of the problem might be that, after a scan, my TV doesn't allow me to manually tune in real channel 18 because whenever I enter "18" it automatically goes to 18.1. :(

The biggest surprise for me is CF. I'm in an apartment building facing south, so I get channels coming from HC very clearly. But all analog channels coming from CF have always been somewhat scrambled; a strong signal, but with ghosting and scrambled, sort of like how scrambled premium analog channels used to look on cable. For some reason, I get CBC and SRC clearly in HD now, despite them looking still all messed up on the analog channels. I really did not expect that! :o I was getting my CBC and CTV programming from CKWS-36 and CJOH-8 since I couldn't get them clear from CF. Now I can hardly wait for the rest at CF to go digital to see if I can get them all. :)

Fota, you must have some good elevation, because getting WNPI & WCFE is impressive just from rabbit ears. What level are you in your building ?

Agreed. Also, where in the city? A link to your TVFool report would also be nice. :)

There were some good tropo conditions on Sunday (29-05) which may explain Fota's reception of 18.1/2/3 and 57.1/2/3 (I also received both from my attic setup). Tomorrow (Wednesday 01-06) will be another good day according to William Hepburn's forecast. http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html

According to Google, ground elevation here is ~ 100 meters, and I'm on the 11th floor (don't really know how high that is). East Ottawa, near Crosswinds (google "Ottawa Crosswinds").
My "rabbit ears" is a table top VHF antenna with integrated UHF loop.

Hi all,

Pulled the plug on Rogers over the weekend, so I have until June 22 to get setup.

First things first -- link to my tvfool report:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d2193ca5d5806f9

Looks like there's decent coverage, especially if I can capture the stations from the US. Been reading on these pages for a few days now, and my head is spinning!

My early options - comments and suggestions welcome!!!! - might include either one antenna or two antennas.

I want to be able to reach long distances for the US networks, and I also want to reach the Ottawa stations. The more I read, the more it seems as though one antenna won't give me good reception for both. But that's not yet clear to me.

I want to feed content into my iMac for PVR duty and iTunes-based distributions of recordings, which means that I don't want to rotate an antenna.

A friend of a friend runs a DB8 from Antennas Direct. Sounds like it might work for the US stations, but it doesn't capture channels 13 and under. I'm not sure that matters or not (ie, if the channels in that range are repeated elsewhere in the higher range).

I also need to figure out where to purchase mounting hardware if I plan to attach the antenna or antennas to the roof or chimney.

Other than my iMac for PVR duty, I plan to feed a Samsung DLP projection TV and an Epson 8500UB projector environment. Can't wait to see the quality of the HD feeds!

Comments welcome - especially wrt antenna choices. I'll post more as I continue my investigation and learn.

Major thank you to Hugh and everyone else who makes these forums so helpful! I hadn't been on here in a few years and I was shocked to see how much it's grown!

Cheers!
Mario

Hi canuck22 and welcome,

if you could specify your location, the moderator will be happy to move this post to a specific Reception results thread.

You likely can get good reception both from US Channels and locals. The hardest to get US Channel will be WNYF(CBS, Fox) at UHF channel 18, which means for the best gain at this channel, you should consider a Winegard HD8800 (1st choice) then Channel Master 4228hd (2nd choice).

I don't rotate my antenna and I have a PVR setup as well. My antenna is pointed at WNYF and I get the rest of the UHF channels on my 8-bay antenna.

The DB8 is a fine antenna but it should be a 3rd choice compared to the other 1 I mentioned because of its lower gain at channel 18 & similar lower UHF channels we have in this region.

The big question is whether by pointing at WNYF you can get enough gain in the back/side lobes for local reception. Somebody else can comment on that.
My personal opinion is you should also get a good preamp like the cm7777.

You'll also want a separate VHF antenna if you wish to receive VHF local channels, channels 6(Global), 9(SRC), 13(CTV), pointed at Camp Fortune.

Thanks for the quick and helpful post Flavoie!!!

I'm about 15 kms south of Barrhaven, in North Gower.

Your input seems to fit with what I've learned so far. I really appreciate the input on antenna choice! The antenna report PDF available elsewhere on this thread also points to the Wineguard.

Do you also have a VHF antenna for Camp Fortune?

Is there a local vendor who sells antennas and mounting hardware? I've only found a few loose references here and there. Online vendors seems to be the way to go? Amazon shipped to Ogdensburg :-)

Thanks again!!!

Hi and welcome canuck22. Looking at your TVFool results, I would recommend a Winegard HD8800 pointed towards WNPI/WNYF for UHF and a Wade/Delhi VIP-302SR pointed towards CF for VHF (for Global, CTV and SRC). You are so close to HC that you should be able to receive them no matter what direction your antenna is pointed and the CF channels should be receivable off of the back of the HD8800.

This is the wrong thread to discuss retailers, but I will say there is one in Carlingwood Mall (you should be able to find it with Google).

Hi canuck22,

I have a vip302sr myself pointed at CF which I bought in the local Ottawa store referred to by roger (actually bought virtually everything there). Check above there is a link for "Where can I Buy" you can ask your questions about buying there. There are separate online vs Ontario local dealer threads.

I combine my cm4228hd (wish I had bought a hd8800) & my vip302sr using a cm7777 preamp with FM trap ON and separates input enabled.

Typically you assume about 10 feet per floor in apartment buildings, so you are about 110 feet above ground level. I did a quick TVFool report (http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d219361c5fe2b5a) for the location and elevation you specified and it shows a NM of 6.2 and 4.2 dB for WCFE and WNPI respectively. This isn't quite good enough to expect reception with a UHF loop, but the results may be slightly different for your actual location. There also may be other factors at play.

As for WNYF-LD, the NM is -4.5 dB, so if you can receive WNPI with a UHF loop, then a better antenna should be able to pull it in. The risk is a reflector my affect reception from CF since you are already at a disadvantage by facing south. A better antenna that doesn't have a reflector (or has it removed) would improve results (reliability) from CF though.

Roger1818 & Flavoie, thanks for the multiple tips - you've just moved my project ahead in a big way with your tips. Found the store you referenced above by consulting the "where to buy" forum. Strangely, when I first did some searching for an Ottawa store, it hadn't come up. I'll be visiting soon!

Sounds like a static two-antenna setup would be prime. I think I'll attach it to my chimney to avoid the risk of poking holes through my roof shingles. I assume that this is OK even if I actually use my fireplaces :-)

Again - can't thank you enough for the valuable info and quick responses. Wish I could take the afternoon off and get installing :-)

I assume there are other forums here to discuss PVR capabilities with my iMac. I'll do a bit of digging to expand my knowledge in this area.

Cheers!