What I don't understand is why the standard or regular non digital channels still look bad, I have read the FAQS and have tried searching for a few hours, but Can't seem to get too much info, my antenns is the coathanger one seen on youtube, thanks for any comments

Coathanger antennas aren't designed to a very accuarte spec and thus often don't provide significant gain. The DTV stations you receive would be quite strong and could probably be received with a paper clip. The other thing to remember is most of the analog stations you are likely wanting are on VHF and your antenna is designed for UHF.

i believe I read in the faq that an antenna is an antenna as in it will receive digital and analogue signal equally,

True, but the cliff effect of DTV means that a signal that would be a snowy mess in analog would be crystal clear in DTV, but a little bit weaker and you will get nothing. My advice would be to either build a GH or buy a good antenna.

Don't omni1 and omni2 broadcast off the same tower? if you get one shouldn't you get the other, I have omni1 but no omni2,

If you read back in this thread you will see many people have difficulties with OMNI.2. Although they are transmitting from the same tower (same antenna actually), for some reason OMNI.2 is much weaker than OMNI.1. It may be somehow related to its higher channel number, or it could be something wrong with the transmitter itself.

wow thanks for the info, i'm gonna go look up what a GH is, i have no work during the winter and like to take up hobbies during this time haha, thanks again

After looking up city bylaws it is allowed but I want to get something up temporarily to see if I get any better reception. I'm currently looking at the Philips 50db indoor antenna from Factory Direct and the Terk HDTVa antenna. The Philips appears to be onmidirectionals whereas the Terk is directional (kinda reminds me of some spaceship or something ...). I've seen a lot of people use the Terk as an indoor solution but not much on the Philips at all.

gnelkos (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/member.php?u=79183) you can find out about GH antennas in the OTA FAQ Post #12: ------------------->

After looking up city bylaws it is allowed but I want to get something up temporarily to see if I get any better reception. I'm currently looking at the Philips 50db indoor antenna from Factory Direct and the Terk HDTVa antenna. The Philips appears to be onmidirectionals whereas the Terk is directional (kinda reminds me of some spaceship or something ...). I've seen a lot of people use the Terk as an indoor solution but not much on the Philips at all.

I don't recommend amplified indoor antennas. The amplifier is usually of poor quality and will almost always make things worse. It also is not omnidirectional. It is a loop antenna for UHF and rabbit ears for VHF both of which are directional. I actually don't recommend any of the antennas currently available from Factory Direct.

Ahh I wish I had gotten around to reading that earlier, I had the itch to test it out anyways to see what I could pick up and maybe it was the fact that the antenna this time was placed at the front of the house which faces East I found catching a lot more analog signals (HD was the same being able to pick up all Ottawa signals using the RCA omni and the Philips directional). A few of the analogs were watchable but not without a bit of tweaking.

I was managing to pick up a kingston station tonight along with the usual suspects (CBC, Global, CTV, TVO, City, etc) but not without fighting with the antennas.

I was managing to pick up a kingston station tonight along with the usual suspects (CBC, Global, CTV, TVO, City, etc) but not without fighting with the antennas.

That Kingston station was probably the relay transmitter CKWS-TV-3 on channel 36 not far away from you in Franktown.

Ahhh ok makes sense. So if I'm trying to get the local stations on an acceptable viewing level (comparable to regular cable) is that even possible with an attic setup or perhaps an outdoor antenna that can be mounted against a wall?

Here's my TVFool

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3db32ba57b2e6942

From looking at this it makes sense that I can catch all of the digitals save OMNI1 in HD.

For analog it's suggesting that an indoor should be able to pick up most of the SD stations with a line of sight however I think that may be a problem as my house is almost in a rolling plain of sorts and we're on a lower part. What would be the best setup to go with seeing as how an attic setup will probably give me at most an extra 10-15ft (if that) in extra elevation in comparsion with trying to set something up on the front of the house which faces in the general direction of both sets of towers.

I believe my loaner GH8 (powerful UHF anenna) is back here in the garage now, if anyone else around Ottawa wants to take it for a spin.

Bells Corners. Fold-down rear car seats or a roof rack required.

;)

As I mentioned in an earlier post awhile back, I live in the market on the 12th floor facing north west.

Here is my TV Fool report:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3db32b2398ec8ba0

As I'm in an apartment, I'm limited to indoor antennas. And it's been said several times that amps indoors are useless. I can get the CF stations with a paper clip. I get no HC digital stations and the analogs, although the weak signals are picked up, are unwatchable.

Based on my TV Fool report, is there one antenna that can get all the stations from both transmitters or do I need separate antennas?

Also someone had suggested a high gain antenna. What are some suggested makes and models?

Also, is there anyway for me to receive the 1edge or even the 2edge or tropo stations?

Thanks in advance.

rmchahn I have bad news for you. If your apartment faces northwest then it is on the wrong side to pick up anything from Herberts Corners. All those TV fool results for HC you need to drop by about 20 dB since the concrete of the apartments blocking your south facing view do about that much damage. Worse, the metal in the building and reflections will multipath the signal - which looks like scrambled or ghosting images in analog, and looks like a black screen in digital. Also not good is the fact that you probably have line of sight to nearby Camp Fortune. The signals from that site will overload any kind of amplifier you could put on an antenna, which would only make the situation worse.

What you need is a high gain frequency specific yagi antenna with no electronic amplification. You would need to aim it in various directions until you get as clean a path as possible to HC.

>>Based on my TV Fool report, is there one antenna that can get all the stations from both transmitters or do I need separate antennas?

No. Well maybe if you get lucky in the pointing of the high gain directional yagi

>>Also someone had suggested a high gain antenna. What are some suggested makes and models?

Homebrew is best. Buy a piece of 4 foot long 1/2 inch diameter wooden dowling at home depot as a boom, then figure out which channel you want to focus on and drill holes along the length of the dowling according to a yagi calculator (I'll try to find one). Then obtain some of the kind of hard copper wire that is used in electrical wiring from Home Depot. Strip off the insulation so the clear copper is showing. Cut individual lengths of copper according to the yagi calculator very carefully (within a few mm of what is recommended). Then insert them into the holes you drilled in the wooden dowling. Use a loop at the end of a piece of coax as the driven element. Then aim the antenna while the TV is on channel 65 (or whichever channel you chose). Watch for the snow to disappear and the ghosting lines to fade then try Omni 2 on UHF 66.

OR ask mlord politely if you could borrow his GH8.

>>Also, is there anyway for me to receive the 1edge or even the 2edge or tropo stations?

Not unless you move in to your neighbor's apartment facing south.

Homebrew is best. Buy a piece of 4 foot long 1/2 inch diameter wooden dowling at home depot as a boom, then figure out which channel you want to focus on and drill holes along the length of the dowling according to a yagi calculator (I'll try to find one). Then obtain some of the kind of hard copper wire that is used in electrical wiring from Home Depot. Strip off the insulation so the clear copper is showing. Cut individual lengths of copper according to the yagi calculator very carefully (within a few mm of what is recommended). Then insert them into the holes you drilled in the wooden dowling. Use a loop at the end of a piece of coax as the driven element. Then aim the antenna while the TV is on channel 65 (or whichever channel you chose). Watch for the snow to disappear and the ghosting lines to fade then try Omni 2 on UHF 66.

Hi GerryB,

Is this homebrew what you use to be able to catch all those US stations?

Thanks,

Yep, he's very active in the DIY antenna world, and you can read about a wide variety of homebrew antennas in our Antenna Research & Development (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=186) forum.

That would be off topic for this present thread. :)

>>Is this homebrew what you use to be able to catch all those US stations?

Yes all my DXing is done with a single antenna maximized for channel 35. It is nothing more than about 9 properly placed strands of hard copper wire each less than a foot long along a 2 foot boom. I did build my own low noise preamp for about 10 dollars worth of stuff though

I believe my loaner GH8 (powerful UHF anenna) is back here in the garage now, if anyone else around Ottawa wants to take it for a spin.;)
Hi mlord
If you don't mind I would love to try it out... and to take a good look at the build for when I get round to making my own!

I'm in Kanata. My TV is in a second floor room in a house. The antenna is placed indoors, close to a window facing North. I just simply plugged in a AM loop antenna from my compact stereo, similar to this one:

http://www.seishinshokai.com/img/aiwa-am_loop_antenna.jpg

I can get these HD channels quite stable right away:
4.1, 9.1, 20.1, 20.2, 27.1

No 66.1 though, so I bought RCA "HDTV optimized indoor antenna" and tried it out. Surprisingly enough the result is worse than my AM loop antenna - only have 4.1, 9.1 20.1, 20.2 but 27.1 is most of time down.Those AM loop antennas are not designed for OTA reception, but as I've said many times in the past, I'm delighted when someone gets OTA reception that is satisfactory to them. Since there are excellent antennas that are designed specifically for OTA TV reception in almost any situation it is best to go with what is known to work. That RCA indoor antenna is not one of them. :)

Hi mlord
If you don't mind I would love to try it out... and to take a good look at the build for when I get round to making my own!
As I (apparently forgot to have) said before. PM me if interested.

Cheers

Mmm.. Today, I'm seeing perfect picture from Global6 here, but no sound on one tuner, and badly broken sound on the other tuner.

I wonder if "Live FM 88.5" has recently bumped up their power level or something? Audio for Global6 is at 87.75, so there's less than 1Mhz of separation there.

With our FM radios, we do get perfect sound for Global6.. maybe I should put an FM radio into my Myth box for the audio track.. ;)

EDIT: Okay, it's back to "normal" again now. Actually, better than normal. Both tuner cards now have perfect audio and video for Global6. Go figure.

Hi,
I am hoping to set up a single antenna in the attic of my 3-STORY townhome to get the channels I'm interested in.
Getting both OMNI's as well as CBC HD and CTV are key.
I am thinking CM 4221HD. The 4228HD will not fit into my attic, plus I believe it is too directional.

My TVFool: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3da65388cd3ce90c

- Is the 4221HD suited to this? (See above for channel priorities).
- Please see TVFool image below where I edited out stations I'm not interested in.
- How to aim, like in the image? (Superimposed OLD 4221 overhead radiation pattern) Looks like rear lobe may pick up CF? Concerned about CTV.
- Would an amp be needed? Cable run will be 50' RG-6 down to a "Home Director" box in basement where it is split. Then 15' RG-6 to TV.
- Any possible chance at WWNY-DT (7.1) at 183 degrees? TVFool says Tropo so I assume no.

Notes:
- Being a 3-story house, I have higher elevation than almost anything facing south; I can pretty well see the horizon towards HC.
- LOS towards CF is not as good, terrain slightly uphill with trees ~400 yards away at same height and higher

Thanks for any help.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=429&pictureid=1958

Hi,
I am hoping to set up a single antenna in the attic of my 3-STORY townhome to get the channels I'm interested in.
Getting both OMNI's as well as CBC HD and CTV are key.
I am thinking CM 4221HD. The 4228HD will not fit into my attic, plus I believe it is too directional.

My TVFool: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3da65388cd3ce90c

- Is the 4221HD suited to this? (See above for channel priorities).
- Please see TVFool image below where I edited out stations I'm not interested in.
- How to aim, like in the image? (Superimposed OLD 4221 overhead radiation pattern) Looks like rear lobe may pick up CF? Concerned about CTV.
- Would an amp be needed? Cable run will be 50' RG-6 down to a "Home Director" box in basement where it is split. Then 15' RG-6 to TV.
- Any possible chance at WWNY-DT (7.1) at 183 degrees? TVFool says Tropo so I assume no.

Notes:
- Being a 3-story house, I have higher elevation than almost anything facing south; I can pretty well see the horizon towards HC.
- LOS towards CF is not as good, terrain slightly uphill with trees ~400 yards away at same height and higher

Thanks for any help.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=429&pictureid=1958
It's worth a try. You probably won't get SunTV unless you put the antenna on the roof, or point the antenna towards CF.

You won't get WWNY channel 7 with a 4221, and crtainly not in the attic, which generally adds 10 to 20 dB attenuation to the signal.
CTV analog will probably be a problem in the attic, but you won't know without trying.

However, according to TVfool, you should be able to get PBS with an antenna on the roof. You may also get WWNY's proposed CBS/Fox repeater (WNYF-LD) from the same tower as WNPI in South Colton, if you put the antenna on the roof. (It should come in at about 10dB lower than WNPI)