Since I have Friday off work, I think I will point my array towards Detroit and see what I get later tonight. The other day I got Watertown, NY, which is about the same distance in the other direction.

I thought this was interesting,
As I have my 4221HD pointed towards the Detroit market, I also have been able to receive some Buffalo networks durning tropo evenings and mornings. They are WGRZ 2-1, 2-2, 2-3 and 26-1, and 26-2 also 49-1 the My network. I find this interesting as these signal are being received from the back side of the antenna. I also cannot get a lock from a Toronto digital station in upper 60's channel allotment. Any ideas what station broadcasts a digital in this area of the UHF.
Also channel 13 CKCO comes in so much better from the back side of the antenna too now that I am using an FM trap. Ironically channel 42 CKCO retransmitter from Sarnia area comes in mint.

According to today's Tropo Forecast @ William Hepburn's Worldwide Tropospheric Ducting Forecasts (http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html), starting this Sunday Aug 9, there will be a lot of Tropo effect in South Western Ontario. People will probably be able to easily pick up DTV signals from over 250 miles away!

Tropospheric Ducting has been non-existent in London/SW Ontario the past few days - I've picked up absolutely nothing.
It's supposed to be in the 40's with humidity.. perhaps there's a correlation? :p

I thought this was interesting,
As I have my 4221HD pointed towards the Detroit market, I also have been able to receive some Buffalo networks durning tropo evenings and mornings. They are WGRZ 2-1, 2-2, 2-3 and 26-1, and 26-2 also 49-1 the My network. I find this interesting as these signal are being received from the back side of the antenna. I also cannot get a lock from a Toronto digital station in upper 60's channel allotment. Any ideas what station broadcasts a digital in this area of the UHF.
Also channel 13 CKCO comes in so much better from the back side of the antenna too now that I am using an FM trap. Ironically channel 42 CKCO retransmitter from Sarnia area comes in mint.
Mark:

OMNI 1 from TO is RF 64-1, there are a few others but the signal strengths are diddly, sometimes I can't even get GLOBAL 65-1, I think it's like 3kW- little better than a 40W lightbulb.

The Toronto stations are not even in the OTA game with their pitiful current ERP's.

3kw is equal to a 100 kids playing with walkie talkies.

According to today's Tropo Forecast @ William Hepburn's Worldwide Tropospheric Ducting Forecasts (http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html), starting this Sunday Aug 9, there will be a lot of Tropo effect in South Western Ontario. People will probably be able to easily pick up DTV signals from over 250 miles away!

Tropospheric Ducting has been non-existent in London/SW Ontario the past few days - I've picked up absolutely nothing.

I have my antenna now pointed towards Detroit. Around 4pm today, I've picked up no Detroit DTV channels, despite William Hepburn's Worldwide Tropospheric Ducting Forecasts (http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html) site showing decent Tropo weather starting today and everyday throughout this week. Analogs 29 Global & 42 CKCO from the Oil Springs repeater towers are coming in much clearer than before.

I'll check again for Detroit DTV later today, tonight, and throughout the week... I expect reception of Detroit DTV channels 4-1, 4-2, 7-1, 7-2, 7-3, 56-1, 56-2, 56-3, and 62-1, much like Panamark did a few days ago. Perhaps reception of these Detroit DTV channels is only possible in early mornings and evenings/nights during Tropo weather days.

@BCF
indeed the Detroit market stations are only late evening to early morning visitors.
In my experience, the earliest I have picked up WDIV-HD 4-1 from Detroit is around 10ish in the evening and the others follow soon after. Typically 62-1 WWJ will follow then 56-1 and WXYZ seems to be last.
On a really decent tropo evening you might pull in 38-1 WADL and some of the Flint stations as I have recently.
If I wasn't so tired from installing my central air today I would trek back to the roof and point the antenna back towards the Cleveland market. For whatever reason they can coming in during the day much more better (perhaps the lake effect).
I did have the Detroit's early this morning, 4-1, 5-1, 7-1, 56-1, 61-1, 62-1 but they were gone by around 7ish.
BCF, typically you need the ceiling to be unlimited (found from the weather network) and visibility 24 km's for reception of fringe DTV signals from my experience.
I haven't changed the antenna lately as I am in a quest to get more signals from the Flint market as I have seen them twice in the past week in the wee hours of the night.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with US DTV OTA reception.

I remember picking up WDIV 4-1 & THIS 4-2 one Sunday morning about a month ago - they both lasted until around 9:30am that morning. But then I re-pointed my antenna towards Cleveland, and never moved it again until recently.

Between William Hepburn's Worldwide Tropospheric Ducting Forecasts (http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html) site, and keeping an eye on local weather (unlimited ceiling and visibility 24km), will help to know when Detroit DTV channels are available in the London area. I'm sure that the Cleveland channels coming in during the day is due to the Lake - very flat surface compared to land.

OTA US DTV is definitely not reliable for everyday tv viewing in London. :(
Hopefully once WTVS (56-1, 56-2, 56-3) increases its ERP in September, it will be much easier to pickup here in London.

Also channel 13 CKCO comes in so much better from the back side of the antenna too now that I am using an FM trap.The 4221 works for VHF much better from the back. Pointing the antenna normally, I can easily pick up all the Rochester UHF-DT stations, but 10 & 13 VHF are usually nowhere to be seen. However, if I point my 4221 180' away from Rochester, 10 & 13 VHF come in when they weren't coming in pointed the 'right' way. I've also managed to pick up WICU-DT on VHF 12 from Erie, for the first time, using this same method.

I started pulling in some more significant distances for me, with Watertown and Syracuse 9 showing up. While this is kinda fun now that I have the rotor to aim by (though I still have to raise the mast another 5-7 feet or so to the final height), it does making a mess of my regular mappings. My Tivax remapped the new 9.1 (already was CTV) to 17.3 (which was PBS Thinkbright), and moved 17.3 to 17.6. Too bad the tuners don't allow for manual override of the virtual channel assignments, or simply start to tack them on the next .X number available.

Hey everybody!

I came home from work tonight around 11pm to find both VHF Rochester stations coming in (10-1 WHEC and 13-1 WHAM)! The rest also came in (8-1 WROC, 21-1 WXXI, and 31-1 WUHF.) I also picked up 9-1 WSYR from Syracuse briefly (got to see a bit of Jimmy Kimmel and the dopplar radar on subchannel 9-2). Then Erie, PA started coming in just before 2am and I picked up WQLN along with the WICU triology (12-1 WICU, 12-2 WBEP, 13-3 WSEE.) I even got the elusive 66-1 WFXP for a few minutes (it's fighting hardcore with analog 22 CHEX from Oshawa, but overpowered it for a bit. Funnily enough WICU on 12 was fighting through analog CHEX from Peterborough!) I love that they added WBEP and WSEE to the subchannels. Makes me feel like I'm bagging three Erie stations for the price of one!

My new goal is Watertown, as I've seen the signal flickering on RF 21 at least twice now, but have never been able to catch it! (RF 21 is most likely WWTI.) It's a shame they seem to have such a low power compared to other stations (I think WWTI is only 25 kw).

@ PanaMark - I'm late in replying, but you should have seen the look on my face when I got Detroit channels a couple of weeks back! A total jawdrop! It took a couple of seconds to realize it wasn't Watertown when RF 21 decoded as WMYD! Getting Detroit also helped me figure out when Watertown is trying to come in on RF 21....the signal flicker goes out when I aim at Detroit, but flickers stronger when I aim towards Syracuse / Utica.

@ Goforit - I'm also late in replying to you about my setup to receive VHF digitals! I actually just go back and forth connecting the rabbit ears when I'm aiming for VHF stations, then connect the CM4221HD back when I'm focused on UHF digitals. I'm too afraid to open up my CM7777 pre-amp to separate the inputs, so instead of combining them, I just connect the one that suits me at the time to the UHF input. I have experimented a bit with lengths of the antenna, and find that Rochester needs the poles elevated a bit more (sometimes in a V shape) but Erie works best when they are flat out extended to the left and right.

Great tropo night and here's the weather (from Weather Network - Buttonville Airport):

17 °C A few clouds, Wind: W 4km/h, Relative Humidity: 94%, Pressure: 101.23 kPa, Visibility: 24.0 km, Ceiling: unlimited

Watertown has been coming in great for me in Kitchener lately.

Tonight I picked up two new stations (for me): 9.1, RF Channel 17, WSYR-2, Syracuse, NY. Anyone else grab this one? And WKTV-HD 29.5 (probably 29.1), RF 29. Utica, NY.

@Garth: Don't be afraid to open up your CM7777. It's 4 screws, and you're in. There is nothing you can easily damage in there. In fact, it's meant to be accessed for those wanting to switch inputs, or adjust the FM trap.

Seriously nice Dxing this evening as of 10 oclock.
most Clevelands are booming even the ION on 23-1 is paying a visit.
I am getting 30-1 WGTE from Toledo also. It is coming in and out though.
analog LP WXOX on channel 65 is pretty clear for a low powered station.
conditions from London Airport at 10pm
20 C
clear
winds NW 7KM/HR
RH 78%
Pressure 101.47 kPa
visibility 24 KM
ceiling unlimited
I've taken the Winegard amp out and in with the KitzTech for a little bit.
I just turn the gain down. It is pretty fun to try different equipment.

After all the recent rain, thunderstorms, lightning through South Western Ontario... we now finally have decent Tropo evenings. I did a rescan for US DTV channels tonight around 10:30pm, while my antenna is pointing towards Detroit. I've been able to pickup the following Detroit and Cleveland DTV channels, by far the most number of US DTV channels I've been able to receive:

2-1 WJBK-HD FOX ~50-60% signal strength
2-2 WJBK-SD
3-1 WKYC-HD NBC ~70% signal
3-2 WKYC-WX
4-1 WDIV-HD NBC ~30-50% signal
4-2 THIS
5-1 WEWS-HD ABC ~80-90% signal
7-1 WXYZ-HD ABC ~40-50% signal
7-2 RTV
7-3 WXYZ-WX
19-1 Suntv-HD (London)
19-2 Suntv-SD (London)
20-1 WMYD-HD MyTV ~40% signal
23-1,2,3,4 ION ~30% signal
55-1 WBNX CW ~40% signal
56-1,2,3 WTVS PBS ~30-40% signal

(omitting all Canadian analogue channels in the list)

I was really surprised to pickup 2-1, 2-2 WJBK FOX, as it's ERP is only 20kW!

It's just after 11pm, but 25 WVIZ, 43 WUAB, 62 WQHS from Cleveland, and 62-1 WWJ from Detroit are not coming in... strange. It could be that my DIY 4-bay bowtie antenna is not perfectly pointing towards Detroit, so some of the other Detroit channels won't be picked up, but I am picking up some of the Cleveland channels. My antenna is still just between 21' & 24' above the ground.

It's interesting what is possible with OTA DTV reception from the US here in London. Too bad that these channels only come in to visit London during Tropo days.

LOL.. PanaMark gets Toledo when I loose it.

Currently analog channels well to my NE are killing or affecting local digital signals here.

My antenna is temp. suck facing west between Detroit and Toledo (CM 9510a rotor control box needs taking apart :mad:)

I noticed around 1130pm WTVG-DT 13 ABC Toledo was terrible when it's normally pretty good. Tuned to 13-0 and there was a buzzy CTV 13 Kitchener!
WTVG-dt signal now around 2am is just about gone because of tropo and
CTV.

Some channel somewhere is really hurting WDIV 4-1 NBC Detroit on RF 45 again.

Other analog TV from NE direction
CHCH 51 was good
CBLN 40 London was real good
CICO 18 London was crushing WDWO-CA Detroit
CBLN 56 Kitchener? CBC very poor

Even CKXT SunTV London on 19-1,2 with just 1 bar showed up!

Again all of this was with a WG hd7084p + cm7777 roof setup stuck facing W-WSW towards downriver Detroit.

Wx at time. Cool, calm and clear. Even a few meteors :cool:

Primo Tropo Tonight.

Rochester is rock solid- FOX 31.

Ham. Airport- 21C, wind calm, pressure 101.8, humidity 81%, mostly cloudy.:cool:

Here's some long bombers I got tonight. No record, but it looks like it's Syracuse and Utica 240 miles away!!

Don't know what 42 Air TCT is.

Cheers!


http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=297&pictureid=1337

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=297&pictureid=1338

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=297&pictureid=1340

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=297&pictureid=1342

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=297&pictureid=1341

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=297&pictureid=1336

Same here but also WXXI 21.1-4 RF 16 and WROC 8.1 RF45