Hi everyone,

Is anyone in the Richmond Hill area using OTA HD? I'm wondering if it will be possible to pick up the Buffalo channels from here. It's kinda far distance wise (about 120km as the crow flies) but I am up high and I have an antenna tower that I can mount it to so I should get a pretty clear line of sight.

Thanks,
Jason

Jason, i can only get Toronto 1 & CityTV HD...
Been at it for a week still unable to capture the US stations, i'am at 16 & 404.

BTW, what STB are you planning on getting ?

Good Luck...
Jennifer.

unnecessary quote removed by 57

Thanks Jennifer. I've been thinking of getting one of the PCI HD cards out there and experimenting with it in my HTPC but I had a feeling it would be tough to pick up anything worth while. Oh well, I'll wait and see if anyone else has had some better luck before buying anything. Thanks for the info.

Regards,
Jason

Jen, what kind of antenna are you using and where's it mounted?

I'm at the Markham/Stouffville Town Line, not far from 16/404 and get all the Buffalo Digital stations except the low power WNYO-DT. They all come in nice and strong. I use an antenna in my attic with a pre-amp. You may need a similar setup.

Thanks thenewdc, that's encouraging. I'm in the Yonge/Major Mack area and like I said my house has an old antenna tower so this may be doable after all. What type of antenna and preamp are you using?

I'm at the Markham/Stouffville Town Line, not far from 16/404 and get all the Buffalo Digital stations except the low power WNYO-DT. They all come in nice and strong. I use an antenna in my attic with a pre-amp. You may need a similar setup.

wow, that's impressive. tell us what type of antenna and pre-amp your using, please.

grog and myself, here in maple, are closer to buffalo than you are so this bodes well for us.

edit: how high up would the antenna have to be?

i have a directv sammy ts-160 that brings in ota along with an arm from an old dish still mounted on the side of the house.

I'm in Mississauga, not to far from you. See my post on outdoor antennas...

http://digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16280

Where I live,its just farmers fields behind and to the south of my home and I'm on a fairly high peice of land, so that may help my reception. I use a UHF antenna purchased at Rat Shack in Niagara Falls USA. It looks like an inverted V .I dont know the model number. Someone gave me a high bandwidth pre-amp and thats all I use. Works well for me. WGRZ-DT has the least problems of them all, but most of the problems I have are not reception, but originate with the stations themselves. I also get WXXI-DT quite often as well. Oh ya, forgot to mention, I use the Samsung T-151 Reciever. Very rock solid basic unit. Very reliable, but lousy features. It can pick up very weak signals. I've played around with attenuators to see how low I could drop the signal strength. It displayed an image at -29db signal strength which was as low as I could go. Normally I get a signal between -8 and +2 on the Buffalo channels.

Hey grog, I'm just up the street from you, Yonge/Elgin Mills. Let me know if you get it to work, and maybe I can drop Rogers for HD.

I'm in Thornhill, so not far, and I am able to pickup CityTV, Toronto1, PBS (Buffalo) and CBS (Buffalo - Channel 4) with a powered indoor antenna from Radio Shack. Still no luck with the others.

You need a bigger antenna and some height to receive the others.

Hi, I live just north of the 407 and 9th line in Markham. I use a CM4228 antenna (recommended by the fine folks from here) mounted to my chimney and get all of the Buffalo stations including Toronto1 and City. Not too far east from 404 and 16th.

Jup

Is being able to receive Buffalo radio stations any indication that you'll also be able to receive the digital television signals?

I've inherited a RCA DTC100 that's no longer being used, but I live in Dundas and the local Rat Shack manager said that I probably wouln't have any luck receiving anything from this area (and suggested that i'd just end up returning the antenna anyway)...

I can get WBUF FM no problem, so I was hoping that there'd be a chance of picking up the HD stuff as well.

Buffalo to Dundas must be close to the same distance as it is to Burlington, and it works great here. It may depend on your elevation, I expect that
you might need an outside or at least an attic antenna.

- Greg

Distance wise Burlington and Dundas are close, but I think that Burlington benefits from being separated from Buffalo by the lake.

Since I can get the radio stations I think I might buck the rat shack managers advice and try the antenna anyway. I just don't think he wanted to have to process the return if it didn't work for me :)

What type of antenna are you using in Burlington? I was thinking of picking up the 15-1880, but would you recommend anything else?

i'd have to think though that if someone can get these stations from markham that someone in dundas could certainly get at least them and maybe more.

I don't think you'll have too much trouble in Dundas. I believe you have a bit of elevation over Burlington, which is certainly a benefit.

BUT, that - or any other - indoor antenna probably isn't going to cut it. Your best bet is an outdoor UHF design.

I don't think you'll have too much trouble in Dundas. I believe you have a bit of elevation over Burlington, which is certainly a benefit.

BUT, that - or any other - indoor antenna probably isn't going to cut it. Your best bet is an outdoor UHF design.

....Dundas is in a valley though. This may not bode well since the escarpment is nearly directly south of Dundas which may definitely impede the signal...depending on the part of Dundas you are in of course.

Teaches me for pretending to know my geography ;)