Do you guys think my reception problems could be due to my pre-amp? AP 8275?

I read a lot about the cm 7777. Also the GE one. Does a pre-amp really make that much of a difference?

The Winegard AP-8275 is one of the most powerful preamps on the market, and using it with an indoor antenna is not good. You are probably having overload issues. My advice is to put the antenna outside again and get a couple of attenuators from one of the Montreal-area shops and try them inline to see if they eliminate the overload. Attenuators are cheap, and you should get a 3dB and a 6dB.

Another option is to build a Gray-Hoverman (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=81982) antenna for outdoors. With one of those and an AP-8275 you'd have huge signal strength and your attenuators would be necessary, but you would not have spent much at all.

Good observation Yuprules.

Even with my antenna 40 ft off the ground and pointed right at their broadcast tower, I never managed to get much more than 70% on SRC or CBC. And CBC usually has 5% less or so than SRC.

STL

Hi kovalev, can you please make the photos smaller and then post them again? They are too big for the site to display easily.

You have a Channel Master VHF/FM antenna on the bottom (a very good one!) and on top is a 4-bay Bowtie Reflector for UHF. They are both feeding into an older Channel Master Spartan preamp. So, you have good gear. :)

If the antennas are aimed properly you will have excellent reception of the Montreal stations and might also get some or all of the U.S. stations too since they are in the same general direction as Mount Royal from St-Jerome. Eventually all the Montreal digital stations except T-Q will be on Mount Royal, we hope.

The preamp may or may not be working, but do you have the power unit for it that plugs into an AC socket down below?

You should not climb that antenna until the warm months, and you should go very slowly to watch for corrosion or any other problems as you go up.
Can you send that info again to me in french ?
also about the picture, i also need help to change my post, can i edit it ?

thank's again !

STL:

Curious about your exact location between duCollege and Cote-Vertu Metros - it seems you have clear LOS to Maison Radio Canada building, howevere on another post you also said you are at least partially blocked by Mt-Royal, but due to your antenna height you're OK. Can you elaborate? Thanks

Balm:

Here is a picture of the LOS line between the CBC building and my house:

http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=srccbcug5.jpg

You can see that the line just clears most of Mt. Royal. Using Google Earth however, I see that the highest terrain elevation on this line is about 350 ft. I'm at 130 ft + 40 ft antenna and CBC is at 50 ft + ~250? ft antenna. So my signal is diffracted and not LOS.

I get a decent signal thanks to high gain antenna and antenna elevation. The higher the antenna, the closer I get to the LOS signal and the stronger the diffracted signal.

STL

STL:

Thanks for the details, that's about what I thought. My line rfor CBC goes thru almost dead center of the mountain, near peak elevation of about 650 ft, my own elevation with antenna is about 120 ft, guess I can forget about any CBC for now.

I would also assume that's why I can get TQS, as it's line is just off the lower, back side of the mountain (north-west)...

thanks

balm:

You should have a clear shot at Télé-Québec broadcasting from the Olympic Stadium mast. They're on RF channel 27. Can you receive this channel?

TVA does not broadcast an ATSC signal yet. They haven't been explicit about their plans but most of us expect a flash-cut to digital in August 2011.

As for the SRC / CBC relocation to Mont Royal, work is scheduled at the tower site this summer. But I am not sure if this also means the additional broadcast moratorium will be lifted because the site exceeds the RF-radiation exposure limits.

STL

STL:

Yes I get Tele-Quebec easily, even facing the antenna in the direclty opposite direction!

Also, I easily get TQS (television quatre saisons) with a little extra height on the antenna. I believe TQS is on Sherbrooke, near Parc Lafontaine.


I read about the RF radiation exposure concerns for the Mount-Royal antenna, but I was not aware of the moratorium,


thanks

does anyone know what is the exact broadcast frequency of WVNY on VHF13?

VHF 13 bandwidth is 210-216 MHz. When I built my Yagi, I cut the element lenghts for 213 Mhz that might not be ideal

I am trying to fine tune the lengths of the elements on my yagi

thanks

does anyone know what is the exact broadcast frequency of WVNY on VHF13?

VHF 13 bandwidth is 210-216 MHz. When I built my Yagi, I cut the element lenghts for 213 Mhz that might not be ideal

Unlike NTSC which use one frequency for picture, one for colour and a third for audio (over simplification I know), ATSC broadcasts use the entire 6MHz equally (see picture below) so tuning the antenna for the middle frequency is the correct thing to do.

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/spectrum.gif (http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ISSUES/what_is_ATSC.html)

Thanks Roger for the info

I was hoping to fine tune my Yagi

Most of the time I receive WVNY at 42-44% and 45%-49 on a good day.

My tuner locks at 46% and above. So all I need is a TINY little improvement on the reception. An improvement of 5% will do!

I am looking for ways to improve. I can't make the antenna longer due to space restriction. If I made the boom longer, I must lower the antenna near the floor then I completly lose reception. Therefore, I must achieve a compromise between antenna height and boom length due to the triangular shape of the attic roof.

My Yagi has 8 directors and is currently made of 1/4'' threaded steel bars. It is connected to a CM7777 preamp on the VHF port and a DBGH on the UHF port

Any suggestion to get that 5% improvement will be appreciated

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=85&pictureid=486

hungt999:
Any suggestion to get that 5% improvement will be appreciated

I have you try using an Indoor Balun. That's about the difference I get Between the Channel Master Balun and a Inside Balun.

What is an 'inside balun'?

So far I tried the following baluns:

- balun from Addison $0.99: that is what I am currently using
- balun I took from an old Radio Shack antenna, weather resistant with a rubber sleeve. It has two free wires instead of a 300ohm flat ribbon: no particular difference

- a home made balun made from a piece of RG-6 coax cut at half wavelength: no good, worse performance than the 0,99$ balun

Any better baluns I can purchase in the Montreal area?

I winder if the nuts that joins the rods and the U bolts could make a little difference ? If you can, try to remove those nuts and join the rods and U bolts with a temporary aluminum paper twisted around acting as a conducting scotch tape.

Connected the antenna to my TV (42LG70)

Could only catch a few dtv, it was all PBS at 57-1 which was HD
57-2 and 57-3 where in SD

Could catch other few MTL channel, on old uhf/vhf ?
nothing else in DTV ?

why ? located near st-jerome, mirabel

thank'S

Hi kovalev, I looked over some of your past posts. You mentioned you had an old tower with an old antenna on it with a cable hanging out of it. Is this what you used to scan for DTV channels on your TV?

If so, there might be a few factors affecting why you are only getting one DTV station:
1) It's rusted to heck
2) It has MOVED over the years and is no longer aimed properly at Mount Mansfield (or maybe they never aimed it there)
3) The existing cable is damaged (any damage or rust at the connector will affect the signal strength)
4) Grounding will affect scanning if the: Antenna, tower or coax cable is not grounded properly (builds up static, could also damage the tuner in the long run).

thank's "Yuprules"

your attention is appreciated !

I am really "beginner" to this !
the tower is rusted, the antenna, i can't tell.
I have looked at my neighbors antennas, and i think they are not aligned in the same direction as mine.

kovalev, assuming your neighbors are pointed at Mount Mansfield. You'll need to get some tools to loosen the bolts and change the direction of the antenna. Please be careful of power lines!!!.

The best way is to download Google Earth, type in your address...then type in "Mount Mansfield Vermont" (without the quotes). Use the RULER tool (at the top, it's a blue ruler) and draw a line between your house/the mountain. There's where it's suppose to be pointed.

if you are realy in St-Jérôme, just point straight to Montreal as MtMansfield is inline for us.

you can use analog 46 to fine tune the antenna orientation.