My goal is to receive WIVB 29 Buffalo or a Fox afilliate for NASCAR in HD.

Yes, U'd get buffalo and toronto stations, but not at the same time.
A rotor would fix that.
I'm a big NASCAR fan too!! Theres only a few more races on FOX. Then ESPN and TNT have the mid season. BUT, all the Chase will be on ABC in HD, and you should get that OTA.

I'd suggest the 8 bay antenna.

Thanks Tom.F.1,
The 8 bay bowtie is fairly large I assume, is it shipped small enough to fit through a standard attic opening?
I was looking on Wade antennas but don't see any dimensions for their products listed. I also am assuming that you saw that I first want to try it in the attic.

-Steve

Steve, there are posts about fitting a CM4228 into an attic in the CM4228 thread:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=41990

A standard 4-bay reflector antenna is about 30"h x 20"w so a CM4228 is about 30"h x 40"w.

Thanks Tom.F.1,
The 8 bay bowtie is fairly large I assume, is it shipped small enough to fit through a standard attic opening?
-Steve
No, sorry, missed the part about the attic. The 4221 doesn't have as much gain as the 4228, plus the attic will reduce signal, so buffalo reception will be iffy. Fox is iffy for most of toronto, but you may do well from the mountain in hamilton if you have the height.

P.S. If you try the 4 bay in the attic and find out you need a little more signal, you can add a second, combining 2 to make your own 8 bay.

^^ you have to find out for yourself, it's always different, and depands on your location, height, antenna, tuner...etc

sometimes the best location is a compromise of somewhere in between. From where you are, the Buffalo stations are going to be much weaker, so if you aimed your antenna at Toronto, I doubt you'd get any Buffalo Stations. You should be able to get CBC with a number of antena positions, just because it should be very strong in your area.

Thanks for the reply Stampeder, Will read that post.
Tom, I think I'll do well. I tried a test with a desktop amplified antenna from the Source (Rad-Shack pn:1501880) at ground level in my living room aimed
roughly south east and the results were fair:

CBS Buffalo HD
CW 23 HD
WNG? HD
CBC (HD spotty)
CFTO (HD spotty)
One other HD ( don't remember)

I'll try to raise this test ant up to the second floor and post the results.
Lucky for me, if I walk one block to the south-southwest it's all down hill to Lake Erie. I'm at about the highest point on the escarpment.
-Steve

I'm at about the highest point on the escarpment.How some people would kill for that! :D If you put up an excellent antenna on a rotor you may be surprised what comes in when you swing the rotor around towards the U.S. (no guarantees at this point, though) and especially during high tropo and ducting events, if that interests you.

Stampeder,
I can get my hands on a CM 4228 tommrrow. I'll hang it in my attic and see what happens (roughly 24' high). I think a tower may be in my future....
-Steve

I know, basically nothing about over the air. I'm just wondering if anyone can tell me if its worth it to go OTA in the city of Brantford? How many channels I would pick up? How much does OTA equipment cost and will I get HD channels? Is it something I would use in addition to Rogers or as a replacement? If in addition, how would it save me off my Rogers cable bill?

Welcome here Terry Fraser - I've moved your post into the thread for your area, where you will find lots of posts to gather information from, starting at Post #1. Afterwards take a look through the threads for your surrounding areas.

Please click on the links in this post to get up to speed on the OTA Forum, its 2 sub-forums, and its many thread topics:

Hello there; have an HD ready TV and a Samsung STB (with ATSC tuner) to feed the OTA signal to it. Dying to finally experience true HD as it's meant to be seen.

In the wintertime, out of curiosity I briefly tried a cheap RCA indoor antenna with minimal results; resigned myself to the fact that have to go with outdoor antenna, but to be honest I didn't really tinker that much. Don't want to go with a tower type setup, just something to attach to the side of my chimney (on a one storey house).

I live in Waterdown, smack dab in the middle between Burlington, and Dundas. I am on top of the escarpment while Dundas and Burlington are below. Is this an advantage to me over them?

Any suggestions as to particular antenna setup, and what would I expect reception wise, i.e, would I get either Toronto stations, or Buffalo, or both?

Thanks in advance, this site is the best for newbs like me!

ya your in a pretty good spot, you should have no problem with the grand island buffalo stations (PBS, FOX, CW, MYTV) and you should be able to get the South Buffalo stations too if you have a good line of sight.

Toronto should be easy, just get a 4221 or a 4228 and aim it straight across lake ontario, and you should pick up a good amount from Toronto and Buffalo.

I ended up getting a 4BT-1483 and mounted it to the top of my chimney on top of a 10' post. Haven't really fine tuned anything yet, but am pointed slightly North of East towards Toronto and am getting 10 stations (will list later when I have a chance). Funny thing though, get more Buffalo area stations than TO, even though I'm pointed more towards CN tower.

Here's my question. Which route would be better; I purchased a 2nd 1483 which I have yet to install. My intent is to point one towards Toronto, and have the other pointed towards Buffalo and have them linked via combiner. An extra antenna is much cheaper than a (good) rotor, so it was suggested I go this route instead. Would I expect to get the max. amount available from both directions, or might I not get many more than I'm getting now (or if I just point 1 antenna in a happy place to get, say 15 channels.

I'm going to play around with the one antenna for now. If it's not worth putting the other one up I will take it back.

T-pup combining antennae is not as easy as using a combiner.The signals from one antenna can cancel out the signals from the other.You can run two wires and use an A/B switch to select which antenna you want.

So we have cancelled cable to save ourselves some money and recently purchased some cheap Philips antenna and can get 2 channels perfectly - CHTV (11) and CTS (36) this is expected as they are Hamilton based - playing around a little last night and moving it to the attic - I was able to get CTV (75%), Global (75%), FOX (80%) - If I returned this cheapo antenna and upgraded to an amplified version will my chances of better reception increase? Last night was stormy too - so who knows why I was able to get these channels. I know I'm at a disadvantage being in the valley. Also where is the best place in Hamilton area to purchase quality antennas??? I am still learning about OTA - I've even impressed my husband with the knowledge I've learned here - thanks in advance:)

Hi Maasive, sorry, but living in the valley you need to give up on the idea of using an Indoor antenna of any kind. Follow these links for further information, including the Knowledge Base and FAQ's list of threads that answer your questions:

It's me again - I am looking into outdoor antennas now - living in Dundas Valley, it's my only option. I was wondering if anyone has had any luck with the Winegard PR4400? I can get one from the States and with our dollar being so good - the exchange won't kill me.

Maasive, the Winegard PR-4400 is a reasonable alternative to the CM4221 or the Delhi 4BT-1483.

The problem is that you are in the Dundas valley, so you don't want anything other than a CM4228. Period.

A PR-4400 or other 4-Bay antenna might be a waste of your money when you need maximum signal-gathering capability in such a location.

Hi all,

Just bought a Samsung 4061 and have been eager to try OTA HD.

I live in Aldershot (west burlington, elevated above Hamilton bay) and will be erecting a 30-40' tower at the side of the house.

I know a CM4228 would be the best antenna to get, but i'm thinking, with my location, i'm wondering if a CM4221 would do what i need it to do (which is grab as much of the Toronto and Buffalo stations without having to mount a rotor). Also, the 4221 would allow me to do an attic mounting, versus a tower mounting.

Also, is a preamp, like a cm7777 titan really necessary? Is there something similar, yet cheaper? I'm trying to do this being budget-minded.

I've been lurking in this forum for about 3 months now, and the wealth of knowledge here is staggering.

Thanks for any feedback forthcoming.

i bet any preamp would do, and if your cable run isn't long, it may not be necessary. But a station like WUTV from Grand Island is very weak towards this direction, and I wouldn't be surprised if you needed a cm4228 with a preamp to pull it in.