That's terrific of you guys to do this work - I just want to mention that the Southern Quebec folks will be having a similar situation with channel 13 after the digital transition, so I'm assuming some of this data might be relevant to that channel too?

Stampeder,

Scaling a Ch7 Yagi to Ch 13 is very easy to do, so when we get the Ch7 stacked yagi modeling work completed, it can be scaled to any single channel. For Ch 13, the bonus is: the Yagi will be shorter.

Just don't expect this work to be completed any time soon. Perhaps in 3-5 months.

I've seen a number of posts discussing possible (or is that hopeful) reception of WWNY-digital (Carthage-Watertown; NY) on Ch7 after the USA analog shut-down in Feb 09, since they have applied for (and will hopefully get approval) for the same coverage area as analog-7).


If you check out the Ottawa / Outaouais / Eastern Ontario: OTA Station Status (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=731387#post731387) thread you will see they have already received approval.

How difficult WWNY is to receive on channel 7 all depends where in the city you are located. From central Ottawa it is tough, but from western Ottawa it is much easier. For myself in Stittsville, I am trying to decide if I need to go with a 10Y7S or if a 5Y7S will be good enough.

If you check out the Ottawa / Outaouais / Eastern Ontario: OTA Station Status (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=731387#post731387) thread you will see they have already received approval.

How difficult WWNY is to receive on channel 7 all depends where in the city you are located. From central Ottawa it is tough, but from western Ottawa it is much easier. For myself in Stittsville, I am trying to decide if I need to go with a 10Y7S or if a 5Y7S will be good enough.

Roger1818,

Thanks for the link on OTA station status. I wasn't aware of all those " info nuggets" on OTA station status ..that's great...I've book-marked it !

I decided to go for the brute force with two stacked 10Y7S Yagi clones with a preamp. It would be quite easy to assemble a quick trial set-up using wooden boom and suitable wire, so the trial "proof of concept" cost would be quite low. If reception results are good, then you could experiment with reducing the number of directors until just before the cliff-affect, to get an idea of the smallest yagi needed for your particular location. ( How's that for an optimistic view ?)

If there was any interest in this Ch 7 quest, perhaps we could organize a local group that would arrange to trial the "protoype Yagi" at various member's locations ?

As you rightly point out, your location and type of surroundings are very important factors affecting deep-fringe reception and some folks will simply not receive the Ch7 signal, even with this brute force.

In that case consideration of moving into a Hi-rise apt with a southern balcony, or just moving 30-50 mi closer to Watertown might be the only OTA solution.

As soon as you talk about modelling yagi antennas, my ears perk right up!

Assuming one builds a channel 7 antenna for the express purpose of receiving the Watertown signal, then you wouldn't need an antenna rotor.

This being the case, with two supports, you could also try scaling a VE7BQH rope antenna.

http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj/longyagi.htm

Which way do you guys point the antenna? South West?

it depends where you live in the city and what you want to get. go to TVFOOL punch in your coordinate and it shows you where to point your antenna.

I live in Orleans - Chapel Hill South - very close to Blackburn Hamlet.

I took the plunge and used rabbit ears, first on my HDTV,
then hooked up to my 2 ATSC HVR-1800 tuners on my PC using a standard splitter.

I am getting CBOTF and CBOT from Camp Fortune
and my HTPC/Windows MCE 2005 is fine recording them.
It displays a signal level of 4 bars out of 6 (orange).

I'm unsure about the city bylaws, but a cm4228 would look bold in my neighborhood, the neighbors are quite close
http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/bylaw/zoning/bylaw/full_bylaw/pt_05/radio_en.html

If my skills(or lack of finding someone) or bylaws or neighbors limit me to install it in the attic, I'll take a cm4221 or cm4228 and install in my attic along with a pre-amp. I wonder if the cm4228 will fit inside the attic, let alone go through the
attic trap, and whether i can use a large gain pre-amp,
say AP-4800, considering the "close" Camp Fortune channels.

Thanks for that bylaw link!I wonder if the cm4228 will fit inside the atticThis question has come up several times in the past, and the solution is to drill out the rivets that hold on the reflector screen, put the CM4228 in the attic, then reaffix the reflector screen with machine screws - good as new. :)

It is 11 pm Tuesday night - Watertown is booming in (100% on WWTI, better than 100% on WWNY) to downtown Ottawa. A good time to get a lock on those signals.

Yes its that strong - getting the signal with a paperclip

no signal from watertown the last 2 days for me, bad weather. GerryB, You mentioned that you can only get Watertown stations about 3 times a week (channel 7, 7-1, 7-2). I'm wondering if anyone can lock on these channels at all time? What antenna are you using? preamp? and your location?

It is 11 pm Tuesday night - Watertown is booming in (100% on WWTI, better than 100% on WWNY) to downtown Ottawa. A good time to get a lock on those signals.
WWTI came in at around 75% for me on Tuesday night..same for WWNY. My antenna is in the attic though and without a preamp.

Eraser - 75% is really a good level for no preamp and the 10 dB attenuation of an attic compared to outdoors mounted (10 dB is a lot - can make the difference between a 20% and a 50% level) - and I dont think you are at nearly the same height as me - the funny thing is I am in a terrible location for Watertown - when I lived on Meadowlands in nepean I remember getting about 15 dB better signal all the time - downtown is just low and out of the way so its harder to pick up. WWTI analog 50 used to be a consistent signal from the 7th floor straight through the winter even. Here I lose all but the sync signal some days.

As for digital - tonight is just a terrible night because it was cloudy and windy all day with little heat so no layers in the atmosphere. All the same i am getting about 30% on WWNY HD right now and 20% on WWTI - not enough to watch but they are recognized by my tuner. If we get another warm stretch like we had a few weeks ago then it would be rock solid reception every night starting around 9 pm and ending about an hour after sunrise - but it all depends on the weather.

I bought a indoor amplified antenna from x-cargos on merivale road (for 20$) and I can get without anny noise all the channels (better than cable!!!)

4.0 with 4.1 (CBC)
6.0(global)
9.0 and 9.1 (radio-canada)
11 (ABC)
13 (CTV)
14 (OMNI2)
24 (TVO)
30 (Tele-Quebec)
32 (kind of christian schannel, always forget the name of this channel)
34(TQS)
40(TVA)
43(A channel)
60(omni1)
65(city tv)AntennaLady (or anyone else that can answer), are you getting these channels digitally, or analog? Because I was under the impression from a previous user's answer to me that only CBC is available currently in HD OTA (in Ottawa).

Thanks.

Paul,

All the channels are analog except for CBC English and French (4.1 & 9.1) which are also in digital.

Maybe Omni 1 & 2 will be digital soon too. Same with Sun TV soon too.

Here's another resource for telling the digitals, Paul. In this listing of all stations in Canada you can click on the Ontario link and if you look at the channel names in your area, any of them that end with "-DT" are, or will be, broadcasting in digital ATSC.

For example:

CHRO-TV 43 is in NTSC analogue
CHRO-DT 17 will be in ATSC digital

http://www.user.dccnet.com/jonleblanc/Canada_TV_Stations/index.html

Thanks acadien and stampeder :)

Hi gang, i pretty much get all OTA channels in the Ottawa area except for CHRO / A-Channel. Can someone explain as to why i can't receive it.

I have a Winnegard MS-2000, i pick up the WPBS Norwood which is 93Km away.

Also any recommendation if possible to get the US stations from Plattsburg, it's 138km away


no idea why you can't get CHRO, if you can get 14, 32, 60, and 65 from the same transmitting tower.
WCFE PBS Plattsburgh should be coming in at a similar level to WNPI.

I don't think you'll be able to get 5 or 44 analog from Terry Mountain, and in any case, they'll be gone in eight months. The digital versions are on Mount Mansfield are on channels that are all local to you (14,22,32,43), so you won't be able to get them, certainly not with an omnidirectional antenna like the MS-2000.

I think you're doing well getting WNPI with an MS2000. A directional antenna should get you WCFE and WNPI for sure, but then you'd have problems with the Ottawa stations.

TVl

Why can't i receive CHRO 43 and Global 6 with my Wineguard MS-2000? I get WPBS Norwood all the time which is 98Km away ? I'm in Embrun.

Thanks

CHRO seems to have a directional contour towards west.

Here is that contour in Google Hearth using Industry Canada (contour.dbf):
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=1173959