congrats j. Checking the SNR readings on your TV to find if you have enough margin will help you decide if you need a preamp.
I only have a SignalQuality% and SignalStrength% on the LG TV. I checked again quickly this morning and just before the sun came up, I was getting 50-1 with about 35% SS and 90% SQ - very watchable. Over about 30 seconds as the sun came up I watched the SQ% drop until it was 0% (and the video pixelating, etc.) and the channel lost.

As I mentioned previously, I'm not aiming at 50-1, more at 18-1, 28-1. I was originally aiming more towards 50-1 but found I couldn't get 28-1 and I wasn't going through all that work to only get PBS in addition to the Ottawa channels I already had with the indoor antenna. ;)

j, I was thinking about checking some of the core channels - WNYF (18/28.1/28.2), WCFE and the weakest channels off the back from CF or HC for signal strength to make sure you had enough margin. With time you will notice if some of them and borderline working and could benefit from the loss mitigation of a preamp.

Posts regarding a DHC membership meet for this region have been moved here (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=146132).

I just bought a Winegard FM antenna from Motophoto in Carlingwood for the VHF channels. I am able to receive Global (6.1) without any problem but I am not able to receive CTV (13.1) at all. I've tried everything - attic mount, roof mount, rotating the antenna to try and line up to Camp Fortune, but nothing. Does anyone have any idea what the issue might be and how I can receive CTV? I live in Kanata North, in the Morgan's Grant area. Thanks for your help on this.

Kashif, FM frequencies sit atop of the low VHF band (2-6) that is why it is possible to get audio from channel 6 on an FM radio. High VHF (7-13) starts well above 108 MHz and channel 13 itself about 210 MHz.

So channel 6 is within the range of your FM antenna design and 13 is well outside it.

Kashif, what is your other antenna and what type of coupler are you using between your 2 antennas ? The FM antenna would normally be good at FM frequencies and lower. If you are using a UVSJ at the moment to get VHF Hi from this FM antenna, I suggest to use a HLSJ instead. This would pick up VHF Hi from your UHF antenna and pick up VHF Lo from your FM antenna.

The harder job is to pick up Global, so congratulations you're very close ! There's a good chance your current UHF antenna will do well with VHF Hi, let us know how you fare.

Wouldn't using a HLSJ kill the UHF stations from his UHF antenna (assuming he has one!)?

My other antenna is a CM 4221 and I am using a UVSJ. However, I have also tried the Winegard without a UVSJ altogether and I have had no luck whatsoever with receiving CTV (13.1).

j, I was thinking about checking some of the core channels - WNYF (18/28.1/28.2), WCFE and the weakest channels off the back from CF or HC for signal strength to make sure you had enough margin.
Of course. I completely forgot about trying to keep the channels in bad weather. The Boss was watching X-Factor last night on 28-2 and was complaining about it pixelating. According to the TV though, the SS was ~80% and the SQ 100%. It only happened now and then for a couple seconds at a time but I never saw it on 28-1. Could it have been the broadcast feed itself?

DXer, depends how the HLSJ is done inside. Usually, the VHF hi part branch also allows UHF. But you're right, not all of them will behave the same.

Kashif, you could ask your dealer if they have HLSJs, let them know you wish to use the VHF Hi part of your Winegard and mux it with the VHF Lo of the FM antenna.
EDIT: Oops, I see you had not luck with your UHF antenna with CTV...
EDIT2: which Winegard ?
EDIT3: getting confused.

try the cm4221 by itself for CTV and SRC...

Hi Flavoie,

Thanks for all your feedback - it is much appreciated.

The issue is that I have my CM4221 pointed towards HC, so if I point it towards CF I lose some of the HC channels. So, I need two antennas - one pointed towards HC and the other towards CF. However, with the Winegard 6000HD, I'm not able get any other channel in the VHF band except Global. Do you think if I point the CM4221 HD somewhere between CF and HC, I will pick up CTV (13.1) without losing any of the other UHF channels?

Kashif, experiment pointing at HC and also various angles between HC and CF to see if you can get VHF HI src and ctv along with the rest of CF and HC channels. If you find a right angle then you'd be ready to add the fm antenna with an hlsj.

Got up this morning and global was barely watchable. Actually it was better this morning than last night. Last night it was unwatchable. The weather was pretty crud last night.

So anyways, back on the roof this morning and got my global strength almost full power! But the antenna had to be placed sideways on a 45 degree angle. Mounting was impossible.

So off to home depot, some ingenuity and I have 7 bars on my TV instead of the 3 I had before, and it hopefully will get better when the weather gets better. I had to fabricate a bracket to hold another pipe onto my pole at a 45. I could only get it to 6 not 7 again but it was 4 hours later so perhaps things got worse. I'll get a photo if I can.

Edit: later in the evening signal is improving now to 8 out of 10 bars on my TV. Same strength as CTV! Woot.

So my advice if you are struggling, try everything! My antenna looks silly, on the weirdest angle, from afar it looks like it fell off LOL

wing, thanks for giving me extra ideas for the time i'll be in the attic to play with my vip-302sr when I add a preamp there just for VHF.
I'm very curious, i want to see pictures :)

I'll get some to tomorrow, not going on the roof, I'll try a zoom lens.

Full strength now!!! Amazing! :o

As promised!

http://www.cartalkcanada.com/images/antenna_2.jpg
http://www.cartalkcanada.com/images/antenna_3.jpg
http://www.cartalkcanada.com/images/antenna_4.jpg

I wonder if Global Ottawa is using elliptical polarization?! If so, this might explain why this vertical VHF installation works...

Hello Everyone,

I live in Kanata (K2K3A6). I just had an external antenna (Channel Master CM4221HD) professionally installed on the roof today (Oct 2, 2011). My computer has a TV tuner card (Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 2250) and it detects 13 channels: 4.1 CBOT-DT, 6.1 CIII-HD, 9.1 CBOFT-D, 11.1 CHCHDT1, 13.1 CJOH, 14.1 OMNI2, 24.1 TVO, 30.1 CIVO-DT, 40.1 CHOT, 42.1 CTS-HD, 43.1 CHRO, 60.1 OMNI1, and 65.1 Citytv.

All channels except 9.1 CBOFT-D are received fine. Tuning to CBOFT-D only shows a dark screen. The installer mentioned that it could be my TV tuner card. Does anyone receives the channel CBOFT-D okay or not? I want to eliminate the possibility that the French channel is down due to maintenance.

Thank you for all your help.

I'm also in Kanata, and I can view 9.1 just fine this evening with a Hauppauge 1250 tuner card using WinTV.

Windows Media Center sometimes has issues when a station is broadcasting incorrect PSIP information in the digital stream. Are you using Windows Media Center or WinTV (or other s/w) to view the channel?

Edit: Indeed, when I try to view 9.1 in WMC, just a blank screen. Looks like the engineers are still learning how to configure digital transmissions!