You will get all the channels in green or yellow from an attic location in your tvfool. It will be harder to do with a simple indoor antenna.

Hello Folks,

I finally got a preamp for my Attic set-up. DB8 and 7778 preamp. Was getting a very weak WPBS signal with 16.1(2%).

I am still not getting 28.1/28.2 early enough in the evening, think I locked in around 9ish. WCFE and WNPI were coming in strong. Is there anythign else I can do besides putting it on the roof that might help me?

Will a Winegard 8800 make that much of a difference? It'll be a tough sell to my wife unless I can sell my DB8.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d03d947f368e74a

I think putting the DB8 on the roof instead of the attic will make more of a difference than putting an HD8800 in the attic. Swapping antennas may gain you a dB or two, but giving the antenna "fresh air" could improve your margins by 5-10 dB. (As high as 20, but since you're getting these stations already, I suspect your attenuation due to roofing materials is in the 5-10 range.)

According to the net gain charts on hdtvprimer, you would gain about 6dB in gain at channel 18 (28.1,28.2) by moving from a DB8 to a HD8800.

I have to agree with tvlurker that going on the roof may be enough. Of course doing both would give you optimal results.

There are other Antenna comparison sites (http://www.antennahacks.com/Comparisons/CM4228_vs_DB8_vs_HD8800.htm) on the web that give different comparisons of the HD8800 vs the 4228HD and the DB8. It is not clear that the 8800 is necessarily the winner, even for channel 18. And the difference on channel 18 may only be 2 or 3 dB, and the winner (according to antennahacks.com) is actually the 4228HD , not the 8800.

By the time you get to channel 20, the differences are less pronounced (DB8 is still on the bottom, but not by much).

The differences between the DB-8, the 8800, the U8000, and the CM4228HD are few, so unless you face a very specific situation in which one of them squeezes out more performance (as mentioned by falvoie and tvlurker) you should be fine with any of them. Get your antenna out of the attic if at all possible!

Thanks Folks,
Unfortunately my WAF is low, she doesn't want it on the roof. Guess i'll have to make do and play with the aiming/positioning.

Find out what show she needs to watch on CBS or Fox, and see if the WAF for pixelation during a show alters her view...

(I share your pain)

The good news is come September Global & CTV are within reach in the digital realm; I found a lot of shows I get on CBS are shows she'll eventually watch on CTV digital anyways.

Well my system partition crashed and so I did a fresh install of wmc 7. I found my stations but now i cant get reception for the south colton tower...never had problem before (though I havnt tried for a while). Thoughts?

Also any update from ctv/global?

Hi Guys,

Well I finally got my rotator installed a Channel Master 9521A and a CM-7777 preamplifier. Using a CM4228hd antenna approximately 24 ft high in Bourget Ontario. With a Sony Bravia tv.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d03d976c305399d

Here are my final results which I'm very happy to be receiving:p

Canadian Channels:
4
4.1
8
9
9.1
11
13
14
17.1
20.1
24
27.1
30
32
34
39
40
43
60
65

For some strange reason I still don't get 66.1 which isn't a big deal. Maybe it's being blocked by a big Hydro tower that's in that direction.

US Channels always:
18.1
18.2
18.3
57.1
57.2
57.3

US Channels evening only:
28.1
28.2

I also got these channels one night tropo maybe? As they're not on my tv fool results. I was aiming at WWNY-DT that evening

50.1 WWTI-HD ABC
50.2 WWTI-DT2

Thanks Guys for all your help.
Mary-Jane

Mary Jane, Glad you got it working. Dont worry about 66.1 for now. I believe that it has something to do with the HD version of the 4228 antenna that has been optimized for channels 52 and below. All channels will evenually move to 52 and below.

There are some things that you could look at to improve 28.1/2. One is to perform the simple mods on the 4228HD that is discussed in the antenna section.

the second is to do what this guy did

http://72.9.159.100/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1328965


And the third would be to play with tilting the antenna slighly back by in the range of 3 to 10 degrees. Normally this is not advisable on an antenna with a rotator because it could affect the nearby stations - but you could try and check the nearby stations (if it improves 28.1)

Mary Jane,

Your setup's lack of picking 66.1 is bugging me. You say that you are receiving 65. How clear is 65? Are there any ghost images? If there are some Ghost images then try and move the antenna to the left or right to see if that improves signal quality (now that you have a rotator that you could do it from the coach - no more up and down the ladder :D) If that improves the image on 65 then do another scan for 66.1. It may be that the signal signal is strong enough but of a low quality due to multipath problems. Let me know if that worked for you

Hi RamKat,

Still no go on channel 66.1.

It's not a big deal to me since it's the same as channel 14. It's probably not going to be a channel I would be watching anyway.

But Thanks for the advice of trying to get it better tried it in different directions but no success. By the way I get 65 so clearly that it almost looks like 17.1 without the HD.

When I put my tv to 66 to try and pull in 66.1 there is some ghosting noise happening but I Can't pull it in.

Will keep trying in case......

The Good News is I pointed my antenna this morning towards WWNY-DT. I started getting 7.1 7.2 but they weren't clear so I adjusted my antenna until they became clear at 136'

Go figure I now get 28.1 and 28.2 full time :) at 136' is it tropo? Or a possibility?
I guess I'll eventually find out.

Thanks for your Help
Mary-Jane

Hi Maryjane, on my CM rotor, with time the dial does not always equal the real direction. There's an offset between where the antenna is pointing and what the box displays. I didn't put much work into it, but that may be what you have now. All I cared about what the fine tuning in one direction so I left it there after I optimized my WNYF position.

I suggest you optimize for WNYF at 28.1/2 for best reception, then figure this should be the South Colton tower for wnpi/wnyf. Then move 62 degrees up and try channel 66.1 again...

Looking at TVFool, OMNI2 66.1 seems to have a null towards Bourget. The Noise Margin for 65 analog is 20 dB better than 66.1.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. if you get OMNI1 27.1 today, then you should get OMNI2 on 20 when it changes channels on August 31.

OK
Thanks Guys for your help
Mary-Jane

Good spotting TVLurker, missed that one, Shows again, the difference between two stations is not constant 360 deg around the same tower. On my TVfool 65 and 66.1 only differs by something like 7 dB.

That's because they broadcast from different antennas at different elevations on the tower, and the OMNI antenna probably has a more directional pattern than the CITY antenna.

Newbie here, hoping to setup HD OTA for the first time to supplement Netflix/Hulu/etc.

Located in a single home in Orleans, Southern exposure, TV's have ATSC tuners. Here's my TV fool report: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d03f34bb7bcc2c2

Hoping someone can help me understand what I might be able to receive with a roof mount antenna vs an indoor antenna, and possibly provide some recommendations.

Thanks!