CFTO has been fairly strong any time I've checked it. Granted, I haven't been home to check it at high noon or anything like that, but I have checked it at about 5:30-6:00pm, when the sun is still pretty high in the sky at this time of year, and it still comes in at about 60-65% power. It goes up even more at night. It will be interesting when I experiment with a Stealth Hawk at my parents' house in Elma this weekend.

Also, I think the Rogers' channels upped their power at least a little bit last night. On Wednesday night, I started to receive CITY and the 2 Omnis, but the power was only so-so. Last night, it was full. I checked at about 8 this morning and there wasn't really much change if any at all. Hopefully that lasts.

Also, I just checked the TV Fool for the Elma location again. They have yet to account for the channel and power changes up in Canada with the digital switch. For instance, CFTO is still showing as Channel 40. I would guess that any TV Fool reports for any location in or near Canada would be highly, but probably favorably, inaccurate.

Remember you guys, that Rogers stations are now on the FCP in the downtown core, and they will be moving in late October to the CN Tower at higher ERP's and more height, so dont count them out yet.

Is there any word as to whether they'll maintain or increase the power level once they move up there? Like I said, all 3 of their signals were very strong last night and this morning (usually, the more "unreliable" Toronto signals at least start to fade/drop out in the AM down here). It could just be atmospheric though.

I believe they will be all in the 22KW range which is higher than what they are at now, plus the new height advantage.

didn't know that. So all they really did was retune? makes sense I guess as I rarely ever received them on their transition freqs.
Thanks Humbar there's hope yet:)

The report TVFool generates creates a link for forums--so others can view the report without providing your specific location. Can you copy and paste that link here? Thanks.
I guess this would be the link you were asking for JASE88?

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d838774b46ef508

903ASP,

yes that would be the one. Since you said your antenna is on a hill, 100 feet or so higher than your house, you have to be very careful that the coordinates u plugged in reflect where the antenna is, and not the coordinates of ur house. I'm not sure how accurate the terrain data is that they use for TvFool. i.e. - the resolution of the terrain data may very well miss that hill and/or valley. There are tradeoffs between terrain data accuracy, terrain data file size used on the server, and computation time.

Alternatively you could probably plug in the exact coordinates of your house (see the ota faq for instructions on obtaining your exact coordinates), fake it out using a receive antenna height of 110 ft and see if it improves much. If it doesn't, ur probably gonna have a difficult time getting any signal as you may have already found out. May just be too many hills between you and the TV transmitters.
To confirm if that is what is going on, see what happens at 110' and post the new link, then we'll advise from there:)

Woah! I didn't know this thread even existed.

Anyway, I'm getting CFTO pretty reliably using a 30+ year old set of rabbit ears. CBLT, the Toronto station I'm most interested in, isn't coming in as well though. It's hit and miss, sometimes it'll work fine, sometimes it's too glitchy, and sometimes it doesn't work at all. I'm wondering if anyone in the area knows the name of a good antenna installer.

Thanks

Their is a guy in your neck of the woods. I think his company is RWAntennaSat. Trying looking that one up.

Just flipping through channels, CBLFT appears on channel 53896-3. Didn't even know my TV could count that high.

EDIT: CBLT is also coming in on Channel 1-3, as well as 20-3.

903ASP,

yes that would be the one. Since you said your antenna is on a hill, 100 feet or so higher than your house, you have to be very careful that the coordinates u plugged in reflect where the antenna is, and not the coordinates of ur house. I'm not sure how accurate the terrain data is that they use for TvFool. i.e. - the resolution of the terrain data may very well miss that hill and/or valley. There are tradeoffs between terrain data accuracy, terrain data file size used on the server, and computation time.

Alternatively you could probably plug in the exact coordinates of your house (see the ota faq for instructions on obtaining your exact coordinates), fake it out using a receive antenna height of 110 ft and see if it improves much. If it doesn't, ur probably gonna have a difficult time getting any signal as you may have already found out. May just be too many hills between you and the TV transmitters.
To confirm if that is what is going on, see what happens at 110' and post the new link, then we'll advise from there:)
My experience with TVFool is that the version that says look up you address on the map, seems to factor in terrain. However TVFool is still just guessing. I recently help set up antennas in two different location. First one was outside of Whitesville NY, the TVFool gave me the Elmira NY stations being available with a decent signal strength. We couldn't get Elmira, but we did get an awesome signal out of Buffalo, 2,4 and 7. The second set-up was north of Angelica NY, Tvfool show two stations available, WKBW 7, and WPXJ Ion. We got WGRZ 2, without any amplification, and Ion is a strong signal there. When I put a 10 db injector on the antenna I got WIVB 4, but the injector I was using went bad, so I came back with a 28 db pre-amp, thinking I would get Ch.4 again, but I didn't, I am going, with a Attenuator to cut back the gain, to see if I get WIVB again,
we never could lock onto WKBW 7. Anyhow Tvfool was not accurate as to what I could get in either location, I have found Tvfool very accurate in other locations, but it is obviously not always accurate.

Has anyone in the Buffalo area found a "sweet spot" for both Hamilton and Toronto? For CHCH, I have to move my CM 4228 almost 40 degrees from Toronto in order to get the signal most reliably (and usually that's only at night). At that position, CFTO (VHF 9) still comes in okay, but all the UHF Toronto stations seem to go away. Occasionally, CBLT (UHF 40) will come in choppy, but Global, TVO are nowhere to be found, and none of the Rogers channels (Omni 1 & 2, and CITY) even have a prayer at that position.

CFTO has crapped out on me for the first time since the transition.

Nevermind, it's fixed now.

Any of you guys down south now receiving CFMT and CITY?? It appears they have moved to the CN Tower.

I have it, but the signal isn't any especially strong. It's always been intermittent for me.

It's cloudy and rainy, which is when my signals seem to be the best, so it's kind of a bad indicator.

ditto, CFMT 47 is coming in now (no dice on the pc tuner though), warm weather lately so no warm fuzzy for reliability here.
a whiff of 44 CITY, but that's so close to the strong local 43 WNED I would hardly ever expect CITY to come in at all much less reliably.
Not even a whiff on rf 51 which i have seen in the past on strong tropo.

I seem to get CITY a little better and more frequently than most people in the Buffalo area, but I don't know if I'm just far enough to the side of Grand Island to make a difference, or it's the fact that I don't use an amp or a pre-amp (overload issues compounded by WNED 43). I seem to be in a different boat than most OTA users in Buffalo. I just wanted CBLT for Hockey Night in Canada. Since I didn't need an amp or pre-amp for that, I didn't get one. It's sounding more like a blessing in disguise. CFTO has been solid as a rock for me though, as well. I like the picture on Bills games better than on WIVB, plus the feed always seems to be about 3-5 seconds ahead.

Anyone in Buffalo getting CITY or Omni? Right now, my signal is a little bit better than normal, but I also see there is some favorable conditions making every channel look good, so I can't tell.

No, not tonite. None of the Rogers stations. Would have to be really strong tropo here.
The rest of the TO stations are in as usual, including CFTO.
CHCH will come in if I were to move the rotor at Hamilton.

Edit: Are you seeing anything from Erie, or Rochester?
Usually when conditions are favorable (approaching warm front, going from cold->warm) all 3 markets boom in
or are at least whiffable, ~ the same time

I hadn't tried. I'd have to move my rotor towards there. I just wondered about Rogers' move to the CN Tower, and whether or not it's happened yet. I usually get the channels half the time I try for them. Again, the people who don't around here are ones that have used pre-amps, so CITY is going to run into some overload issues with WNED. I've noticed the same with an amp I have, so I don't use it.