no question...
also think some on the fringe (like me) may also find what they see during the daytime may not be the case at night.. check out post # 129...

Just did an OTA install today in northern Brampton not far from Castlemore which is outside the 60dbu contour area. Regardless, I was still able to receive CHCH on 11.1 VHF using a rooftop mounted CM 4221HD aimed towards Buffalo. Signal comes in at around 75% on a CM-7000 D2A digital TV tuner and all other Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo channels come in except ION and CTS.


Regards,

Dr. Sat

The most important factor with any antenna setup is to get your antenna outdoors and mounted at an appropriate height to achieve LOS.
__________________________________

So the bottom line is that we can't always blame the broadcaster. We have to sometimes accept that we can't always have our cake and eat it too:(

I agree with you regarding the current options.

However, we need to remember that the word is BROADcasting not narrowcasting. The onus therefore is on the broadcaster to live up to their remit and put out a signal that actually reaches their target market, and makes reception simpler not harder. What is the point of having repeaters in Timmins, North Bay, Sault St Marie, Muskoka etc and drop half of a major metroplis? Really, it's quite comic when you think about it.

Not everybody has the option to build a 60 foot high tower or even mount an external antenna

We also need to remember that the DX enthusiasts on here are not the typical OTA users. OTA reception should be as simple as possible. It should also be as low cost as possible.

Before we expect OTAer's to go out and buy new equipment for just 1 channel out of 30 perhaps CHCH should step up to the plate and firstly put some money in the leccy meter to pay for a decent signal, and secondly not require a different antenna type to the other broadcasters.

Just my 50p for the meter.... Happy OTA'ing everybody.

Obed, the avenue of recourse is to lodge a complaint with the CRTC about your reception of CHCH or lack thereof.

In the days/weeks ahead as many other stations transition we'll be discussing complaints further but not in this thread at this time as we concentrate on developing the "big picture" of what CHCH's new pattern actually covers. :)

No CHCH here at Yonge/Finch with my attic mounted 4221HD + CM7778 pointed at Buffalo. Anyone think a pair of rabbit ears connected to my VHF preamp input will do it?

I personally don't think so. People with outdoor VHF antennas are having trouble, so indoor rabit ears probably won't cut it. But always worth a try...

I'm in waterloo and usually never had a problem receiving CHCH-DT when it was on RF18. Now I'm getting 0 percent signal when trying on RF11. This is on both my TV and tuner card in my PC. I've done a full rescan on both and nothing.

I'm using a CM4228 with a CM7777 preamp. I could receive the analog channel 11 fine, it was snowy, but still came in....
Snowy won't cut it. You would have needed snow free reception in analog to get reliable reception in digiatl at only 12dB down in transmit power, and CHCH is using less than half that power.

Yes but I have a homemade VHF bowtie with reflectors that was getting me WNGS about 35 percent of the time and I am pointing it directly towards Hamilton. I am wondering whether the FM station theory that was mentioned here might be the cause. Does the CN Tower broadcast FM?

Chances are that FM stations would only affect you if you are using a preamp, and if the CN tower is between you and Hamilton.

No CHCH here at Yonge/Finch with my attic mounted 4221HD + CM7778 pointed at Buffalo. Anyone think a pair of rabbit ears connected to my VHF preamp input will do it?
Not a chance unless you mount your CM4221 outdoors on your rooftop. Even then, you might have to upgrade or add a proper VHF antenna to your system. Please note that your CM7778 preamp only has 16 dB gain on VHF v.s. 23 dB gain on UHF so you also might have to upgrade to a CM7777 which offers 23 dB gain on VHF.

Personally, I would first get a yagi type antenna dedicated for VHF and add it to your system by connecting it on the VHF input of your CM7778 and switching your preamp to "separate" in order to enable both VHF and UHF inputs. You can then point the VHF antenna towards Stoney Creek for maximum signal.


Regards,

Dr. Sat

Remembered when WWNY 7 out of Watertown, NY, flashcut to digital. Most of the people, outside of about 40 miles, had trouble picking it up again. The only thing that worked, was using a dedicated VHF high antenna. My Winegard UHF 8800 would not do the job, once that happened. I think you guys in the Toronto area, will be forced to do the same thing, as CHCH goes to VHF High.

We need more data from viewers with VHF antennas pointed at CHCH. Many of the posts seem to be from people experiencing poor or no reception using UHF antennas pointed at Buffalo. West of Toronto, the UHF antenna may be a big enough chunk of metal to get channel 11 but on the east side of Toronto it won't do the job. The Hamilton stations aren't much closer than the Buffalo stations on Grand Island so a VHF antenna pointed in the right direction will be required for reliable reception of CHCH.

In Brampton with a DB8 / CM7777 installed
in the attic. Being watching 11.1 for the last
2 hrs. Strength varying between 54%-58%.
Has been solid though, no drop outs... so
far. Working on both my TVs, Sharp Aquos
and a Samsung. This is the same strength I receive
9.1 and it's also been rock solid so, crossing my
fingers....

Brampton is just on the end of the 60 dBu cutoff, so I am not surprised that a UHF antenna is working there and getting a marginal, but reliable signal.

Baring a major tweak by the engineers over at CHCH, I think it is rather clear though, as PrinceLH pointed out, that outside of that initial contour, those on the secondary contour (everyone north and/or east of the airport) will need a dedicated VHF-hi antenna to get a reliable signal.

My guestimate is we see the same when CFTO goes to VHF. A UHF antenna will work for some who are close to the CN Tower, but those not in the immediate range will need a properly designed antenna. The good news is, for those east of the airport who need a VHF-hi antenna for CHCH, CFTO will probably be strong enough that you can point directly at Hamilton and get both, and vice versa for those in Hamilton who are getting a strong CHCH signal and want CFTO.

Those with just a 4221 and rotor, can try facing the back of the antenna towards CHCH. VHF is much better off the back of that antenna - I used to do that to get the VHF stations from Rochester.

I'm having a weird one with CH. No problems locking it on both my Samsung TV's, but my media computers (both have an HVR-1250) aren't locking on to it via MediaPortal. I have TSReader on one machine and that is showing a good solid signal, so I'm pretty convinced MediaPortal doesn't like VHF for some reason...most likely in my setup.:mad:

FYI, for those assessing reception tonight, it's quite an active tropo night. CHCH 11.1/11.1 is coming in here in the northern Detroit suburbs with my CM4228A (the original kind) up on my chimney on a rotor, along with WGRZ 33.1/2.1 Buffalo and several Erie stations. At the same time, several otherwise usually receivable stations are completely knocked out for me right now.

I was hoping my attic mounted SBGH gen1 would be able to squeak through since I remember it was capable of getting good reception of analog 11. However it was pointed in such a way as to try to get 17 and 29 more consistently as they are my problem stations. I get 17 80% of the time but it seems whenever I want to watch something that is the time I experience breakups. 29 I get maybe 20% of the time and is a real problem station. Anyways, in this position I used to get 11 on rf18 with a signal of 60 to 70 percent consistently. With the change to Rf11 i'm seeing maybe 10 to 20% and obviously no decode from that. I tweaked it a bit more towards Hamilton but it really didn't make too much of a difference so I put it back the way it was.

Luckily my chimney mounted mini-state antenna that I use for analog saved the day. I'm getting between 40 and 50+ % on it with the the odd breakup now and then. I'll have to keep monitoring it more and maybe tweak it some.

Also, have an attic mounted Kross 4-bay with an integrated vhf-hi dipole that gets it about the same as the mini-state. I was gonna give it to my dad but looks like I might need it especially since CKVR rf10 will be coming from the backside. Of course the SBGH is supposed to be good at getting vhf-hi from the backside but I need to get all these with one antenna to feed more than one tv.

Anyways it would be nice if they could increase the power to compensate for the degraded performance.

I've had no problems recieving the digital signal on RF11 so far. (last night and this morning) I have a VHF-hi yagi in use for WICU in Erie. I do, however have to aim that way with it. CFPL RF10 can invade any channel around here..especially 11. Time will tell of it's reliability. In answer to a previous post, I, personally, have only managed to catch the old RF18 signal a couple of times here; the most recent being a couple of weeks ago when TVO RF18 was apparently off the air.

I'm in Brampton at Dixie and Sandalwood with an original CM4228 and CM7777 preamp and my signal strength is up compared to UHF 18. My worst tuner the MDP-130 in my pc is getting 75%, the rest are between 80%-90%. My preamp boosts VHF signals 23dB, which might help some with marginal signals.

This morning CHCH is finally coming in here in Stouffville off my UHF antenna. It's weak but working ok. I'm guessing this is just a tropo event, since I'm also recieving WEAO, not sure where that ones from. I guess i'll need a VHF Hi antenna aimed at Hamilton to get more reliable reception.