NO its not possible in Saskatoon, its too far from the border. You might have luck if you were interested in moving to estevan, but even that might be iffy. Check TV Fool to see whats available in your area.

Anyone have any updates on when Global Winnipeg might fire up their digital transmitter?

I recall reading that were targeting this fall -- but it is now late November and I have heard nothing lately about it.

Each of the Canadian TV networks has a transition status thread, so in Global Winnipeg's case you'll want to read through the following one and check it periodically:

Global Network DTV Transition Status (https://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=128235)

Hopefully before year end, but theres no way to know for sure. Haven't heard anything. I'm sure once things move along someone will post something here :)

as an aside, I saw rca digital converter boxes for 25% off at the kildonan place superstore yesterday.. wonder why they're not selling!

My mother in law has rabbit ears right now, and her reception is brutal now that she moved into the city (Winnipeg).

Since Digital is on it's way, what advice can you guys provide? She really can't afford to pay $36 a month for basic cable, especially since she only had 3-4 channels for all of her life, she wouldn't really care about the extra channels.

If I was to get her an antenna, that would:
a) be good for current UHF (6-cbc,7-ctv,9-global)
b) be good for future HDTV over the air
and
c) be good for Digital TV signals when they become available (with digital box)

What would you guys recommend?

Outside mounting is fine and the budget is say $100ish.

Thanks in advance, I'd hate to buy something that would be obsolete in a year.

A low-medium gain VHF (2-13) antenna pointed SW is what I am using right now. The one and only UHF channel (35) comes in fairly well as the signal is fairly strong where I am. My problem channel is 13 which is noisy even if I point the antenna directly at the transmitter. I might have a local noise problem of some sort.

Try to stay away from anthing that looks like a flying saucer. My experience with such an antenna on the roof was pretty bad.

When CBC (ch3, ch6) finally gets around to doing the digital transistion then you will be able to use a VHF-high (ch7-13) antenna instead. If the receiver is close to downtown and south winnipeg you will probably be not need anything else to get the UHF channels. Otherwise a UHF/VHF-high low-medium gain antenna could be better...

As always, a link to the results of putting a postal code into tvfool (http://www.tvfool.com) could help here...

Wow, thanks for the input, she's in south st. vital.. near about a block or 2 north of the perimeter... (if that helps)

I'll review the other links you gave..

OK, here is what I got when I put in the coordinates for South St. Vital:

TVfool for South St Vital (http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d81a36726d1e859)

The major issue here is that ch7-35 are more or less at right angles to ch3-6-9-13. That is the reason that high gain antennas might not work all that well here. If you pick one group of transmitters to aim your antenna at then the other group would probably suffer. Since ch7-35 are quite strong you could try a higher gain antenna aimed in the ch13 direction and hope you can get ch7-35 off the side.

The signal levels are pretty high.I am surprised that rabbit ears do not work, at least for the 4 strongest signals. Since the location is almost out in the country you might actually be able to make something like an amplified antenna work well enough (flying saucer). How sensitive is the target viewer to ghosting? Some people do not care all that much.

Can you run your cable first and then take the rabbit ears outside or even better on the roof? When looking for antennas remember that you need something that can work from ch3 to ch13 (and maybe 35).

After the digital transition ch3-6-9 are going to move downtown to UHF transmitters. That gives you a new exciting direction to have to think about (north). If I was in your situation I would do whatever was least work/cost for now with the understanding that you might have to redo it in .5-1.5 years. After the transition the ghosting issue mostly goes away so that might actually simplify things for you.

See the links at the bottom-right of this post for the Antenna Chart. See the Rules of the Forum (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=3746) to understand why posts with retail links have been edited or deleted. Also see the following thread for "Where Can I Buy?" posts: OTA: BC & Western Canada Parts, Sales, Service, Installers (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=51079)

cheers

Referring to the provided list: The Winegard HD7078P looks closest to what I am doing now. The UHF part is really just pointless boom length for now. After the transition the VHF-low elements will become useless. At any rate it is not available local to Winnipeg as far as I know. In fact the list of equipment providers does not list any Winnipeg retailers at all unless you count Princess Auto. They have some rabbit ears.

The HD7078P is not shown on the Winegard web site by the way.

I wonder if a CM 3016 would work well in this location. It might not be a real high gain antenna, and there fore might have a good chance at picking up off the side. I have a similar antenna to this except mine doesnt have the reflector piece, and I think mine was an old antenna craft model from Radio shack, but it picks up off the back side. here is a picture of antenna I'm using: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=1113002&postcount=294

I just noticed this today on Shaw, CKND-HD winnipeg is now available on Channel 211. This is the first local OTA HD station in Winnipeg. I wonder, are they broadcasting ATSC over-the-air now too? I should try it with an antenna and see.

I just gave it a try with a UHF antenna. Apparantly CKND-DT is supposed to be broadcasting on UHF Channel 40 but I can't pick anything up with an indoor UHF antenna. Maybe they aren't broadcasting OTA yet or maybe I need an outdoor antenna. I've had no experience with OTA HDTV so far so I dunno. I did a channel scan specially on DTV UHF Channel 40 on my TV's setup programme which has a built-in ATSC tuner.

I just noticed this today on Shaw, CKND-HD winnipeg is now available on Channel 211. This is the first local OTA HD station in Winnipeg. I wonder, are they broadcasting ATSC over-the-air now too?

It is unlikely. Most stations provided a cable feed first and then setup their OTA transmitter later.

I noticed CKND in HD on MTS a week ago. I checked Zap2it and it was listed just as CKND (same as channel 12) not as CKND-DT. I would agree with Roger that they've probably got a fibre link to the Shaw and MTS head-ends and aren't OTA yet.

I just checked Zap2it for Shaw Winnipeg and it's not listed yet.

I checked Zap2it

FYI, Zap2it is not a reliable source of station status. From my experience they tend to be a month or more behind reality.

They do have fibre and HD going into their building now.
They're going to be firing up their transmitter atop the old Canwest building soon.

Mike FM they must be feeding CKND-HD into Shaw Cable from Global's Calgary master ops centre, I guess?

As of today CKND-dt is on the air. Channel 40.1 mapping to 9.1 hd and 9.3 sd.
Im in west Winnipeg signal strength is 95%.

Cool thanks for the info, I'm gonna try scanning it on my TV. I'm in the Garden City/West Kildonan area.