Are you sure you sure you are getting CKWS on channel 11 and not either their Smiths Falls or Prescot repeaters? I would have thought there would be too much interference from CHCH on 11 (that is why they built the Smiths Falls repeater). I can get it from Smiths Falls on 36 myself.

ahhh yes your right , it is channel 36, weird tho i wasnt getting it untill yesterday but thanks for clearing that up :-)

It is likely weather related. It is a low powered repeater and not intended to reach Ottawa (the contours only just enter Stittsville/Kanata and it is my weakest "local"). Enjoy it while you get it, though there is little programming on it that isn't available on another channel (my wife records a cooking show and it will show the Leafs when the Sens are on CBOT). Since it doesn't serve Ottawa it won't be going digital this year (if ever as they may choose to shut 36 down if the problems with 11 go away).

Xilbus did you not report ch 36 previously ? Or maybe it's just the first time it was nice enough for you to watch... I personally am sticking with digitals so I can't comment on this one.

yes your right but i forgot about it with the week of bad overcast that we had. but i should of gone back to check my original scan list. thanks for pointing that out :-)

last night after i came home from watching the ufc ppv i scanned in two pairs of pbs 16`s and 18`s that was the 1st time that happened.

now this morning at 7:20am im getting cbs 7`s, 16`s and 18`s ,28`s and wwti 50.1 and 50.2

hey guys

my PBS reception is great in the morning and evening , but vanishes when the sun is highest , radio interference ?
and is stronger on weekends -- but no one watches tv on nice sunny days 11am - 4pm anyway.

I added a channel 6 succesfully using ideas from another post by attaching a vip302sr ( vhf hi-low) with a titan II 7777 pre amp, vhf ,fm filter on and then filtered to a vhf low only . My cm4228 does uhf and vhf high cause its at 35 ft chimenny mount giving a better signal than my 302sr at six ft. on the backyard tripod.

yet my channel 6 is good when amped and 134% better than just the cm4228 as before , connected with a join antenna 6

still gotta try rotating the cm4228 antenna to try getting 7 acka(28)

if pbs increases their power then the viewing would be really decent ...

ps i've included my tv fool in my home page

i would say that its caused by the sun. Major sun flares can knock out telecommunications and in general when you look at antennas people tend to get better reception at night so i think sun rays have something to do with it. Maybe you good finetune with the rotor and try and get a better angle for pbs during the day ? im getting norwood 24/7

hello, world --

(i hope i will describe my evil plans, below, correctly & coherently -- if not, let me know so that i can clarify.)

i am about to put a pair of antennas (sp?) in my attic, but before i do so, i want to confirm that i'm not going to do a stupid mistake.

i live in gatineau (pq) and it appears i'm almost on a straight line between camp fortune and herbert corners, as per tvfool:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d21932002969c43

camp fortune is essentially in line of sight (from my roof-top). the herbert corners antennas are clear of a nearby appartment tower (i.e. i don't have to aim through said high-rise).

i already had a real db-2 (not a clone) that i purchased a year and a half ago for some ota testing. i thought i could aim that one towards c-f.

to get the stations broadcasting from hc, i bought a real db-4, obviously aimed in that direction.

each antenna would be on opposing sides of the middle of my attic, so that i could aim them correctly towards their respective targets through the roof and not the side walls (concrete blocks on one side, fully built wall on the other).

the plan is then to combine those two antennas through a channel plus 2512 splitter/combiner, which would then go through a winegard 8700 pre-amp (both units in the attic), the resulting signal going through a 4-way splitter and various lengths of coax to their respective end-points (computers in office & tv in the living room). all coax runs would be rg-6u, with the two segments between the antennas and the combiner being of equal length. i'm thinking of putting the power injector + power supply in the office, before the the splitter.

initially, i thought my setup was ok for where i lived, but some reading here & there planted a seed of doubt in my mind: do i need matched antennas for the combining to work, or could "mis-matched" antennas (db-2 & db-4) work correctly together? and do i have to put the power injector as close as possible to the the pre-amp, i.e. in the attic? i was thinking that with the injector "inside", i would only have one hole in my ceiling.

so... can anyone confirm if this would work?

thanks in advance for all your help,


cheers.

About combining antennas
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=95148&highlight=Stacking+ganging

It's possible you could get unintended signal losses by combining different antennas, in different directions, check the above thread

You should point only that db4 to hc and see if you still get the CF channels fine. It should be your comparison point if you try combining antennas...

@flavoie

merci pour la réponse. i did not check the board until "right now" after spending too much time in a _hot_ attic fixing a hole in the roof's plywood, left last year by the roofers when they moved the aerator... and putting up the two antennas. ack!

i was not exactly convinced the two antennas would interfere with each other, as they would be more or less aimed 180 degrees of each other (see my tvfool report in my previous post)... i thought that i essentially needed to make sure the coax segments leading to the combiner had to be of equal length. though i did have my doubts, hence the post. i have yet to read the link you provided, but i fear i might discover that ganging forces you to have the same kind/models of antennas, i.e. , you can only gang two (or three?) db-4/4221hd ... is this the case?

one thing, though: when i saw the following pic yesterday:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10680985@N04/4378866985/
where this chap has combined/ganged a VIP 302SR and a db-8, two very dissimilar antennas, i thought, "well, why not?".

...(just read it the link quickly): i think i read this already and is what planted that seed of doubt... isn't the phase of signal influenced by coax length?

to clarify: i did some testing previously, with different antennas successively (that db-2 i already had, a 4228hd i borrowed, that db-4 i purchased)... all with and without amplifier. tests were done with the successive antennas on my second floor (i have a semi-detached), with the tv on the 1st floor and the coax taking a temporary + shorter route than "usual". according to my notes, depending where the antennas were positioned/aimed at (back/front of house), i would gain/loose hc or cf stations. this is why i thought of having the two antennas aimed in opposite directions. oddly enough, i needed an amplifier to get all 6 digital stations, as without, i would only get the cf ones (3 out of 6).

but back to the two antennas interfering with each other: so i should only make sure that i should not group the two antennas 180 degrees out of phase, right? question is: how, exactly?

p.s. to my previous message, about me thinking that putting both antennas in opposite direction would not contribute to them interfering with each other: i was playing on the fact that one antenna's strength (forward sensitivity) was compensating for the other's weakness (backward sensitivity). that was the reasoning behind my setup.

You can combine a UHF and a VHF antenna easily with a UVSJ or dual input preamp. vip302sr is a VHF antenna, so combining with a DB8, hd8800 or cm4228hd or even your DB4 is easy.

But that's not what you're trying to do here.

Combining 2 UHF antennas, DB2 & DB4 like you mention is completely different, you will find you'll likely need the same antenna in the same direction, and that's called stacking. Otherwise you will be subject to different problems.

Note none of your 2 UHF antennas are equipped to get the VHF antennas, so expect you'll lack Global, SRC and CTV post-transition.

i am aware that i am using two uhf antennas. this is why i was suprised to get cbc, global & src in both analogue and digital so well. especially cbc & global, which are channels 4 & 6, definitively in vhf-low (whoa!).

are the problems you are alluding to be just the... "phasing" or is there something else i should be aware of?

thanks again for the feedback.

some notes after some testing:

to my great surprise, my bests results were with just the db4, by itself with no amplification, aimed at hc. 5 atsc signals out of 6 (missing omni2) -- did not test ntsc with my hauppauge hvr-1250. combining the antennas and/or adding amplification was not helpful. whilst i can understand that unnecessary amplification can be detrimental, i'm still not grokking how the two antennas (db2 & db4) would interfere with each other when they are aimed in opposite directions.

this is running against my previous findings (*) and by now, whilst amplification appears to be definitively a "no go" for future configurations, i am starting to wonder if i should have gone with a db8, instead. I could never get a 4228hd in my attic, so it has to be a db8 that i would finish assembling "up there" -- the attic trap door is the limiting factor, here.

though, frankly, i'm not sure i could afford to buy yet another antenna and be stuck with a db2 & a db4... is it crazy to think i could buy another db4 and combine it with the 1st one i have, to create an ersatz db8?

my roof trusses are 24" apart, i could put the 2nd db4 on the next truss besides the 1st one -- they would then be joined by a pair of ~2' segments of coax into that channelplus 2512 combiner i have, which would then go into a (monoprice) four-way splitter to feed the electronics inside the house.

so, people, could this possible new setup work?


(*) all previous testing was done on the ground & 2nd floor, through windows or the patio door. the amplifier i was lent for testing was an electroline eda-2100. i definitively needed the eda2100 to get all 6 atsc signals, even with the 4228hd on the 2nd floor, aimed at hc.

Xilbus,
Could you share stability results over the past month or so for your reception of the American channels?
As a fellow Aylmer resident, your results have encouraged me to resurrect my OTA hobby :)
Thanks!

tmp31416,

Not a big surprise... that's why i mentioned the single db4 at HC this should be your reference point. If you can't do better then you're good like this.

I think you'll do better using a low noise preamp that has an FM trap like the cm7777. That's because you plan on using a 4-way splitter; using such a splitter it is harder to overamplify at any tuner.

You should go for an HD8800 or cm4228hd instead of a DB8 in this region. The 4228hd would be OK in an attic, you would just need to drill some rivets and reassemble it with bolts/nuts. But the HD8800 is better on the lower UHF channels anyways and can be assembled in the attic.

Then when you're good for UHF you'll then want to add a small VHF antenna to the mix :)

...and by the way, i think buying an HD8800 will get you better results than trying to combine different antennas which i suspect will get you worse results than just a single db4.

Folks,
Here's my TVFool results:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d001bc86cee42e7

Looking for your recommendations for best Antennae please.

Thanks!

hi tarchanjan,

Those are very nice TVFool results for the Gatineau side. Your area must have some elevation. You have a shot at WNYF at Massena (South Colton tower) which is where you could aim your antenna

I would go with an outdoor mounted Winegard HD8800 & Channel Master 7777 preamp, and adding a VHF antenna to that, like the Delhi vip302sr. But you're so close that I'm not sure if you need the VHF antenna pointed at CF, maybe something indoors could be good enough. Others may chime in on that...

Flavoie, I think you're right about CF - I pick up very strong signals with a stripped coax cable in the window of my basement.
Thanks for your recommendation!