Judging by the response I am getting on the pic I supplied, it does not sound like the 2 that I have are true 4221's.

I will have to post a pic later today of mine.

Regardless, they are in decent shape, just need some TLC and they are good to go. These ones have the older style (round tubular) Baluns on them to, not the "box" ones that are on my CM 4228.

I have read that they are better.

it does not sound like the 2 that I have are true 4221'sThey are probably Delhi 4BT-1483s, which are almost as good as the original CM4221s. Where did you get them?

Is your CM4228 an original model or is it a CM4228HD (newer model)? If it is an original one, just look at it closely and you will be looking at 2 original CM4221s joined side-by-side together by Channel Master.

I believe the 4228 that I have is the newer era.

As for the others, someone locally was selling them and I picked them up. Just wanted to see if they performed better together over the single 4220 that I had up there already for the TO stations.

Tried to find a pic of the Delhi 4BT-1483s that you mentioned. Cant find one on the net to compare to the ones I have.

With the mild air and the melting snow, I find that fringe reception from 50miles+ has diminished. Has anyone else noticed this over the past 24hours ?

misty, hazy, low cloud, fog,.. <-- our OTA enemy

Reports from the Tropo/DXing thread, guys (and gals) are getting some crazy, sic results due to the unusual warm weather. Real hard to get stations are coming it very strong (at least in the evenings).

Hello all,

I'm the guy who had the Terk omni in my attic and got 22 DT channels. I just returned my Terk since after many trials, I could not obtain Global, Fox and CityTV.

So I bought two CM4221HD from save and replay (really nice guys btw). and mounted them in my attic for now (until the weather is better and I get on my roof). I pointed one 4221 towards the CN tower(51 degrees) and the other towards buffalo (about 140 degrees). I managed to get 24 DT channels including CityTV(57.1) and Omni ( 64.1) which I did not have before but Global (41.1) and fox (29.1) still elude me.

Now here is my question: after looking at tvfool transmision tower info, I noticed that CityTV is actually transmitting weaker than Global! So does anyone out there know why I am getting City but not global???

Here is some extra info:

I am getting Global analog crystal clear at 41.
I do not have any preamps, or distribution amps.
My two antennas are about 2 feet away from each other
I live in Waterdown.

Input anyone?

That is awsome for an attic install. Please report what you get when you have that setup mounted above the roof.

If you have more than a 30ft cable run from the joiner to the TV, I would borrow a pre-amp or a lineamp/booster and give that a shot. It will either make is worse or make it better or do nothing.

Question: are the cable lengths from the antenna to the joiner exactly the same lengths. [I'm guessing that global may be a multipath problem]

@ota_canuck,

Thanks! I guess I am really lucky in regards to my house positioned up on the escarpment.

Both cables are identical lengths (the save and replay did them for me so I trust him :))

I was thinking about the CM3414. Like I mentioned in my previous posts, I tried the CM7777 and the Winegard 8780 (I think) and did not get any good results. I believe it was due to an overloading issue. Like goforit, I am pretty close to the CHCH tower so it is difficult for me to amplify weaker channels without over amplifying CHCH. So the next step is to try the CM3414 and see if things improve.

I know am pretty spoiled right now with all the channels I get but I really really want global in HD before the olympics!

@decarius: An antenna's gain varies from channel to channel. It could be that your antenna has less gain @ channel 65 (Global) than it does at 53 (CITY).

And isn't CTV the official (English language) Olympics station?!

Decarius,

I get global with my attic install and I live down in Hamilton Centre my 4228 is aimed at the CN tower, I don't get any Buffalo stations but I do get Global. I do have a cheap amplifier that isn't recommended by this forum without it I can't receive Global. Global for some reason really takes some fine tuning to the aim of the antenna.

Did you try the amps with the new setup on just the Toronto aimed antenna? CTV is the Olympic station.

John

I lost 5.1 (CBC) sometime last week, but just noticed when I tried to watch the hockey game on Saturday night.
I'm just west of Brantford.
Also, I picked up a Fox affiliate on 66.1 out of Erie.
Nice trade off I guess.

@Video producer,

No I didn't try any amps with my new setup. I brought back the ones to the store. I might give it another go if the 3414 doesn't cut it (the guys at the store might think I'm a real freak buying and returning things all the time!)

And yes, you guys are totally right, its CTV not global oups. But the wife wants global for House MD. Not sure if there are any other channels that show it (besides Fox which I don't get either)

@Jase88, thanks for the input, I didn't think about the gain at the antenna. I bet I'm really close to getting Global so maybe an amp will work. Will keep you guys posted.

An amp can make a big difference!!

I just installed a CM-7777 pre-amp last week on the mast of my 4228 pointed at Buffalo and saw very good results.

CBC 5.1 came back last night.

I got Global! I installed a pre-amp (it was the Antra, 27db at 2.0 Noise) for my attic setup and got it! now all I am missing is fox and and should be golden but I wont even try that until I get on the roof this summer.

Also, I will post about my crazy adventures with finding the right PC tv tuner in the the ATSC tuner forum. Suffice to say, they don't make it easy for you to get OTA and clear QAM on Windows Media Centre!

Good news, did you try the amp on the antenna facing Buffalo just for the heck of it to see what happens?

John

Actually, that's not a bad idea. Right now I have 2 stacked 4221HDs (one pointing to CN and the other towards buffalo) and my amp is right after the splitter joining the two. I'll disconnect the CN one and only amplify Buffalo and see if I get fox.

If by any chances I do get fox, what would be my next step? I know that the pre-amp essentially splits its effectiveness in half since I have to antenna. Would that mean I would need 2 pre-amps?

Hopefully the antennas are not close to each other- should be 25" away from each other on the vertical- otherwise the antennas will interfere with each other/compromising signal.

My antennas are not stacked vertically. They are side by side. I put them at the highest point in my attic to get maximum signal. They are litterally 2-3 inches from the roof joists. They are spaced 3 feet apart to make sure they do not interfere with each other. I didn't want to stack them vertically since I would lose a good 4 feet of height for one of them.

I'm not sure if you can call my antennas stacked since they are not on top of each other and they do not point in the same direction. I thought that would be ganging. I read the post in the FAQ but then I got some conflicting response at save and replay from what I understood from the post.

I have a question for you guys. I was wondering if my antenna positions are optimal.


Right now, I have this:

CN


Buffalo
\
___ \



Would I be getting more signal from Buffalo if I had this:


CN


Buffalo
\
\ __


I'm just wondering if the Buffalo antenna might be blocking the CN antenna from valuable signal in my current setup. Thoughts?

oups I guess my little ASCII drawing didnt work.

this is what I meant:

CN

_ \ Buffalo


and

CN

\ _ buffalo