As of this time, nobody is broadcasting DT (and HD) from Mont Royal. You better aim you antenna towards the Radio-Canada tower (to get CBC or SRC DT) or toward Mount Mansfield (to get PBS, CBS, NBC and FOX).

Finaly got signal from my Square Shooter. The highest I had is 35% while playing with it. As soon as I am not close (touching the antenna)to the antenna the best signal I had is not much than 19%. I was told that the antenna is not high enough. How high am I gonna have to put it. It is already about 15 feet of the ground. I am getting desperate...:(

Hi guys,

I presently have installed a CM4228 and loving it. I get all UHF channels from vermont and hoping to get PBS Mountain lake when it's up and running. The signal meter on my tv ranges from 65 to 90, the lowest being WFFE (fox) . Oddly CBFT (2.1) comes in when it feels like it, probably need to tweak direction of my antena but thought i should get the highest possible for WFFE (fox) since it is the weekest. Some of you have mentioned to get a CM 7778 pre amplifier what good will it do in my setup. Will it help in getting WVNY (ABC) since it is VHF, I read that the CM4228 has good success with high VHF channels. I presently find the CM4228 ugly up there on my roof and the thought of adding a VHF antenna would really be ugly. My home has aluminum sideing so an attic install would really make the signal drop considerably.

EDIT : Would a Channel Master Model Spartan 3 Model 3041 DSB also be ok

What are you thoughts on my setup.

Thanks for the help already given

Lucatel

LucaTel, Both CBFT-DT and CBMT-DT are broadcast from the roof of the CBC building so that may be the cause of you not receiving CBFT-DT well.

As for WVNY, as far as I know, the only people able to receive it have a good VHF antenna. A cut channel antenna for channel 13 isn't very big and shouldn't look too bad with your CM4228.

Ok so I understand that I need to get a single channel antenna for VHF 13 (WVNY). With the research I did I have found that wade-antenna makes single channel antennas for channel 13, here is the link hxxp://www.wade-antenna.com/Wade/cutchannel.pdf . I would probably like the 5 element model as it is only about 2 and a half feet long as opposed to the almost 7 foot 10 element. Anyone have one of these and will the 5 element suffice? I really don't see myself getting a 7 foot beast on the roof.

Thanks

Lucatel

Thanks Roger1818

I am now thinking the 5 element yagi from wade, it would not be to bad at about 3 feet of lenght. Does anyone know if it will suffice, the 10 element offers more gain but is also 7 feet long :(

Does anyone have any other recommendations and what should I expect in terms of price for a single channel.

Thanks

Lucatel

LucaTel, I recommend evaluating your exact location using TV Fool's (http://www.tvfool.com/) TV Signal Locator. It isn't perfect as it isn't able to take local obstructions (trees, buildings, etc.) into account, but it gives you an excellent idea of how difficult it will be to receive American stations (I would ignore its results for Canadian stations, as it doesn't have accurate information for them yet).

Hi Roger1818,

I am not so interested in the canadian stations for the time being, the US stations are what matters for now. With my CM4228 i pickup all stations except WVNY (22.1 real 13), signal meter shows 20 percent so no go. A preamp was sugested but I still have not recieved a clear picture of what it will do for me as the 4228 is UHF and cable lenght is under 50 feet. My understanding of the situation is that i need a channel 13 antenna for WVNY. My local store whats an exorbitant amount for it so I will try a DIY might learn a thing or two.

Lucatel

LucaTel, If your cable length is less than 50' and you aren't splitting it, a pre-amp won't help you much. What you need is a VHF antenna. TV Fool will help you decide which antenna you need to receive WVNY-DT.

Hello all,

I'm I correct to assume that if I point my Winegard to the south, that will give me both the analog and digital(hd) channels from the US and that I would probably need some other way to get the local SRC/CBC channels?

Thank you

hemmi

I'm I correct to assume that if I point my Winegard to the south, that will give me both the analog and digital(hd) channels from the US and that I would probably need some other way to get the local SRC/CBC channels?


where in Laval? Normaly you should be able to get SRC/CBC and the US network. If you are west of the 15 then the atenna should point south-south-east

Also using a stealthy antenna in Laval might not be good enough for the U.S. stations, so I look forward to your results.

Kro,

I'm .5 km from the 15. So I will take your advise and point SSE .
I should be getting my Winegard before the end of the weekend

thnx

Stampeder,

Could you elaborate, what do you mean by stealthy?

Thanks

hemmi, the Winegard Square Shooter is what is called a stealth antenna, like the Terrestrial Digital Lacrosse and a few other types out there. They aren't traditional antennas. They are meant to suit people who are in close to maybe fringe areas who want a less visible antenna. In your case a traditional antenna would be best. See these links and get the antenna chart to help you compare:

Thank you for the reply...Are you saying that I would have been better off with a Channel Master or a Terrestrial Digital DB2/DB4 for my area?

Thank you again

Thank you for the reply...Are you saying that I would have been better off with a Channel Master or a Terrestrial Digital DB2/DB4 for my area?

Yes. A Channel Master 4221 is what I'would recommend. And you can get the 4221 for not much $. Since it's not very big shipping $ is not that bad.

So I finally made the trip to Montcalm Electronique and bought a chimney mount, grounding rod and wire, and clambered up on the roof. The chimney mount is a Wade-Delhi CMY7-12, and cost $51. More than the online prices for the ChannelMaster mount I was looking at, but no shipping or duty issues. Note that there were no instructions in the box, presumably because it's designed for pro installers. One question: is there a recommended practice for mounting the grounding wire to the wall? Should I use insulators or something? Is it ok to go over the eaves? Right now, I have the grounding wire basically dangling down the wall.

So I've now got the CM4221 strapped to the chimney, and the results are, well, good and bad. The good is that, when connected directly to the TV's ATSC input, I get CBS, NBC, PBS, CBC and FOX rock-solid. The bad is that the AverMedia A180 card in my homebrew DVR is much more picky, and despite reporting 90%+ reception gives me minor dropouts every five seconds or so -- much better than the major dropouts I was getting before, but still annoying.

So I Googled around a lot, and found that the tuner used in the A180 is not very good at resolving multipath issues. I suspect I'll have to replace it with a DVICO Fusion5 or a Hauppauge 1600, which apparently have the 5-th gen LG tuner. My recommendation: unless you're in an urban area, very close to the broadcasters, avoid the A180.

Other than that, I'm pretty happy. I have a Wade-Delhi 5Y13S on order from Montcalm, so I can get ABC. Thanks very much to you guys for your help!

(As a side note, I've noticed there seem to be two categories of HD material: one which generally shows no artifacts, even in fast-moving scenes (e.g., network shows with high production values: CSI, Heroes, etc, or the "exploring space" documentary on PBS) and one which shows much more compression artifacts (pixellation and macro-blocking during fast-moving scenes). I'm guessing that the former is hand-tweaked by a compressionist, to take full advantage of available bandwidth, whereas the latter is more likely run through a real-time compression box with no special sauce. It'd be interesting to do an A/B comparison between BEV or videotron HD and OTA on the high-quality material to see if fast-moving scenes show macroblocking, since I'm guessing they re-encode the bitstream, and if true would be a good case for OTA.)

If your eaves are metal then the ground line must not touch them. Even a piece of wood between them would be fine. I'm not sure if the Quebec Electrical Code has rules about ground lines but you can check into that.

You've really done good research! :)

Thanks, stampeder.

I've had a lot of fun nerding out on this stuff. When I told the guys at work that I was getting HD from a UHF antenna, they were quite surprised. When I played them some HD material from my laptop, dropped legally, straight from my DVR, they were blown away. Try *that* on an sat. or cable setup.