Just to add my two cents in... I'm getting both omni1 and 2 in at a signal strength of 80-90% (according to meter in a panasonic plasma and would have hoped this would have been enough signal strengh), but I only see the channels later at night on the panasonic and not at all on our samsung lcd (if I manually change the channel on the samsung I get the info omni/dolby digital, but no signal or sound even at night??).

I only have a bow tie in the attic (Barrhaven) but I have no problem with 4/9/20 digital. Any way I hope when they get city tv up in running that it will work better with my setup.

This is very similar to what I am experiencing with Artec T3AP converter box. Regardless of signal strength, the device is having trouble locking the signal. If I am switching the remote between an OMNI channel and any other channel (CBC, SUN), it will eventually lock the signal after 10-15 attempts. Once locked, it works well even with the low signal strength. As soon as I switch to another channel, I have to repeat the remote control switching exercise to get OMNI1 or OMNI1.

Can anybody help me understand how come some participants of this discussion group are receiving OMNIs on 27.1 and 66.1, while my digital converter is showing 27.2 and 66.3?

I am also not receiving the call signs for OMNI1 and OMNI2, neither the programming schedule.

Thanks

I am also not receiving the call signs for OMNI1 and OMNI2, neither the programming schedule.

Apparently Rogers doesn't transmit the programming schedule (or accurate time of day) on any of their stations. The reason for this is they don't want to have any of their broadcast equipment connected to their computer network (presumably in fear that a hacker could break-in).

Hi Roger1818...thanks for your response, the TVFool site is great, and really helps. I'd prefer to get all I can Digital and Analog until the Analog switchover.

Could you post a link to your TVFool results? Are you wanting to receive just the Ottawa broadcasts or will you also want to receive some American stations as well? From your location, you should be able to receive PBS and CBS (with FOX on a sub channel) without too much difficulty.

I don't mind paying for a decent exterior antenna if it helps with quality. I do own an RCA settop I picked up at xcess cargo a few years back but it's iffy to say the least.

That isn't surprising. From your location an indoor antenna won't cut it.

My brain said VHF High, and my fingers typed low. Sorry about that.
Hey, I do it all of the time. There will only be 43 stations staying on VHF low, after the 12th. The closest one is in Toledo, Ohio.

Back to WWNY, I believe that they've moved the channel 35 antenna to the south side of the tower, making me believe that they'll be transmitting away from the Canadian border. Also was in Watertown, yesterday, and took a look at the two transmission towers near Copenhagen, NY, for WWTI and WPBS, while visiting the area. Quite impressive. There is a massive wind turbine farm, just a few miles to the southeast. I've never seen so many giant windmills in one area, in my life. They must have stretched 25 miles in distance. It was windy yesterday, and those turbines must have generated enough power to look after northern New York and Eastern Ontario.

What is the latest plans with WWNY? What will they be broadcasting on ch.35? Will they put CBS on 7 and FOX on 35? Just need to know as I was about to start building a single channel 7 yagi!

Oh well at least a second yagi for 35 would be shorter....
You might want to look into a VHF high antenna, with one of the Syracuse locals using channel 9. Two of the affiliates, in Rochester, NY, will be using 10 and 13 after the 12th.

Here are the results using TVFool...I selected post transition all channels.

The Ottawa broadcasts would be 1st and foremost, the US ones would be an added bonus.

http://www.tvfool.com/modeling/tmp/249d/c19/49bd0a8/Radar-All2.png

Wow! Just about all of those stations can be picked up with a good antenna, pre-amp, and a rotor.

The downside is, you are surrounded on all sides. :)
Mind you, a lot of those channels don't actually exist in real-life.

For the Ottawa stations, a GH antennal pointed midway between them might pick all of them up acceptably, though you'll do better with two (sets of) antennas and an A-B switch, so that you can point one at Camp Fortune (north-north-west), and the other at Herberts Corners (north-east), without need/nuisance of a rotor.

Cheers

mlord: I notice that you use a few a-b switches. I would like to do likewise. My a-b switch seems to impact quality especially when one input is CATV and the other input is one of my antenna (when compared to using a coupler). Do you think it is the quality of my a-b switch or CATV leakage? Once I ditch my cable, using a good quality a-b switch, would you expect any insertion loss when using it with 2 separate antenna inputs?

mlord: I notice that you use a few a-b switches. I would like to do likewise. My a-b switch seems to impact quality especially when one input is CATV and the other input is one of my antenna (when compared to using a coupler). Do you think it is the quality of my a-b switch or CATV leakage? Once I ditch my cable, using a good quality a-b switch, would you expect any insertion loss when using it with 2 separate antenna inputs?
The very high isolation A-B slider switches should not exhibit either problem. Specifically, the best switches I know of are the kind shown at the lower left side of this photo of mine:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=45&pictureid=240

I have a good stock of them in the basement here if you want to drive across town to Bells Corners for one!

Cheers

For the Ottawa stations, a GH antennal pointed midway between them might pick all of them up acceptably,

Will a GH pick up Global on 6? I thought it was a UHF antenna and could be modified to also work for VHF-HI (7-13).

Here are the results using TVFool...I selected post transition all channels.

The Ottawa broadcasts would be 1st and foremost, the US ones would be an added bonus.

It is hard to tell much about the Canadian stations as they may not broadcast at the full power allocated to them in the post transition plan, but it looks like you should be able to receive WNPI, WCFE and WWNY with a good antenna. Now the big decision is do you want to go with a rotor or separate antennas.

As mlord says, you might be able to get away with a single antenna for the stations out of Ottawa (the two towers are about 65 degrees apart), but that antenna definitely wouldn't be able to pick up anything from the US.

A rotor is a good solution if you only have one TV and watch everything live, but it doesn't work very well when you have multiple TVs or you want to set up timers to record programs. It also isn't very convenient for channel surfing. Having said that, combining multiple antennas isn't easy either.

Will a GH pick up Global on 6? I thought it was a UHF antenna and could be modified to also work for VHF-HI (7-13).
Yes, a GH will pick up strong VHF stations.
In my own setup, though, I coupled the GH8 with a very simple VHF folded dipole (no directors, no reflectors).

Cheers

Good night for reception, from Navan (southern orleans really), with my antenna (cm 4242) pointed directly at Watertown, I am receiving 19 digital stations/substations.

Other than the standard Omnis, CBCs & Sun

3 PBS (9 substations) 23 wnpi, 41 wpbs, 38 mountain lake PBS
WWNY 7 CBS & Fox
WWTI 21 ABC & CW

WWNY has been coming in more regularly lately - they may have fixed their transmitter issue. I am hoping WWTI is not a fluke.

Like Caper75, I stumbled across Digital forums when researching the best outdoor antenna to buy. I live in Petawawa abou 200 Kms NW of Ottawa in the Ottawa Valley. I got tired of paying for the same channels over and over again with Bell and have been using an indoor antenna for the last six months.

I can receive 6 channels ATV Ottawa, CTV Ottawa, CBC Ottawa and TVO plus two french channels. I was just wondering if anyone else in the area could give advice as to the best antenna for me, I have recently heard of an antenna which is suppose to receive 33 OTA channels in this area but can not find out which brand it might be. I tried TV fool but did not get any results for my area.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hello,

By reading through years of old posts I noticed a few members mentionning that it is possible to get some of the big american networks ota (like abc,nbc,cbs,fox, pbs) in Embrun Ontario. I'd just like to know what equipment I would need for this? From what I understand I would need an 8 bay antenna like the cm4228 (although apparently the new ones aren't that great, maybe winegard is a better choice?) with a preamp like the cm7777.

Would this work by simply installing the antenna to my roof or do I need one of those giant towers (really trying to avoid that)?

thanks!

Hello and welcome here - use the Search This Thread tool to the upper right beside Thread Tools and put in "Embrun" as the search term to see other posts from your location. The Where Can I Buy Forum (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=164) has several OTA threads stickied at the top of the page to help you find gear.

Like Caper75, I stumbled across Digital forums when researching the best outdoor antenna to buy. I live in Petawawa abou 200 Kms NW of Ottawa in the Ottawa Valley. I got tired of paying for the same channels over and over again with Bell and have been using an indoor antenna for the last six months.

I can receive 6 channels ATV Ottawa, CTV Ottawa, CBC Ottawa and TVO plus two french channels. I was just wondering if anyone else in the area could give advice as to the best antenna for me, I have recently heard of an antenna which is suppose to receive 33 OTA channels in this area but can not find out which brand it might be. I tried TV fool but did not get any results for my area.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

These are actually all local Pembroke rebroadcasters, using the CHRO tower in Pembroke. (except for CBC Ottawa on ch. 3, which is between Chalk River and Deep River). There should also be a third french channel, TeleQuebec from Chapeau on ch 23.
I ran TVFool for the centre of Petawawa, and it looks like you're getting all the unduplicated channels that are easy to get. With a VHF low antenna, you should also be ale to get Global on channel 2 from Denbigh. (You probably could get CBC-HD from Camp Fortune, though)

Today I bit the bullet, and did the software hookups for Omni 27.1 and 66.1 in MythTV.

I opted to share the heretofore PBS-only dual PR-8800 array, with 0.4dB preamp and HVR-950Q. So that part of the setup here now pulls in the two Omnis at 100%, but shares a tuner with WNPI-DT.

I would have prefered to have them on the dual-tuner HDHomeRun end of things, but Myth tends to crap out when the HDHR has reception issues. So using the HVR-950Q will be more reliable, but could create recording conflicts with PBS.

Never enough tuners! :)

Just to let you know that I am able to pick up CBOT-DT using a regular paper clip as the antenna. I was happy to be able to watch the game Friday night in HD.

Unfortunately, I can't pick up CBC French or Sun TV who also have transmitters in CF.

I'm located in the Byward market on the 12th floor facing towards Gatineau.

I don't know if it's the weather lately or what but I seem to get new channels every time I scan. Today it is SunTv, 20.1 & 20.2. On the weekend I got WTVH 5.1 & 5.2 as well as WNYS 43.1. Since June 12th I also have noticed an increase in the signal strength on all the channels I had before the cutover. Co-incidence?

CBOT-4.1
WWNY-7.1 WNYF-7.2
CBOFT-9.1
WPBS-16.1 16.2 16.3
WNPI-18.1 18.2 18.3
DTV-21.1 21.2 WWTI-50.1 50.2

I've got a signal for 27 and 66 but no picture.