mnx antenna's can be bought locally check under dealer thread.

Even though the 4221 is rated for 45 miles in Markham and Stoufville its more than capable to pull in stations from Buffalo thats 90+ miles away.

A 4228 does have better gain.

You only need a preamp if your cable length is longer than 60'.

I picked up a samsung DTB-H260F yesterday and fired it up with my home made 4 bay antenna in my living room. I got signals on the following channels by rotating the antenna around.

5-1 - CBLT Toronto
9-1 CFTO Toronto
15-1 SunTV Hamilton
23-1 WNLO Grand Island NY
25-1 CBC French Toronto

I could get WUTV, WNED and CITY TV in analog fairly well but can't get their signals at all in digital.

What would be a good next step? Should I grab a longer length of RG6 and try my antenna on the roof, or should I quit messing around an get a channel master?

Also I should mention that I plugged the tuner into my cable (mountain cable) and get tons of channels... most are in 480i but I found a bunch of 1080i signals as well. I think it found like 300 channels but most of them are blank, any way I can get the samsung to properly recognize what is and what isn't a real signal? Also none of the info was coming across the feed either (channel name, program name etc.) Any way to get that?

thanks!

-mnx

Try placing your antenna in the attic, this should give you WIVB, WKBW, WGRZ (Maybe?), WNED, CBLT and CFTO.

It will be very difficult to get WUTV as they have a directional antenna and it doesn't cover Hamilton very well. CITY-TV will also be difficult to receive from your location as well.

i'm in the Brantford area on the 14th floor and have just purchased an indoor antenna. I am wondering what kind of reception I should be getting. I am facing northerly. antenna isPhilips indoor antenna VHF/UHF/FM/HDTV digital,(rabbit ears with uhf loop). right now I'm picking up, fairly well, 6 (global), 11, and 13

hey bigoranget,

I've read over your results a few times... My antenna must be crap, because I noticed you got WIVB and WNED with the simple antenna that came with the ATI card... I can't get either one right now with my 4 bay in the house... I'm starting to think a 4221/4228 would blow my homemade job out of the water...

I scribbled down my signals strengths (this is on a samsung htb260f)

5-1 CBLT 7/10
9-1 CFTO 4/10
15-1 CKXT 3/10
23-1 WNLO 2/10

Those were the best signals I could trying the antenna on various angles and holding it as close to the ceiling as possible (if I don't, the signals drop off entirely)...

I wish there was some way of testing an antenna before buying it... (my wife won't appreciate me buying something and not having it work... I told her I'd sell the samsung tuner if we couldn't get enough channels... ;)

cheers

-mnx

mnx, elevation(height) of where the antenna is positioned is one of the most important requirements in getting good reception.

The key into receiving strong and stable signals you need elevation and a pretty clear view of where the antenna is pointing towards.

Generally you will not get good results on the ground floor onless you live on right along a lake.

Good luck.

What would be a good next step? Should I grab a longer length of RG6 and try my antenna on the roof, or should I quit messing around an get a channel master?
-mnx

yup, you said it. high above roof and get a real antenna

I've relocated the posts about the home built antenna to the OTA Build-It-Yourself Antennas & Gear thread in order that the great advice, photos, and info will benefit more people:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=25677

We'll continue to discuss mnx's reception results and suggestions for improvement here.

We just moved to a new house in Stoney Creek, and I have a clear line of sight over the water to the CN Tower - I can see it if there is no smog! While we were waiting about a week for the cable connection, I put a old pair of bunny ears on our Panasonic 50" HDTV and was blown away by the number of channels I got and the quality. I cancelled the cable connection as I was pretty much getting for free all I ever watched anyway. Sure there are a couple of channels I may miss, but not for long.

Do you think that I could get a decent HD signal if I had a set top box?

Do you think that I could get a decent HD signal if I had a set top box?

You will get 18 or 19 HD and SD channels in SC with an outdoor antenna. Try a CM 4221 or 4228.

Newbie here in that same area, thanks for the response.

Stoney Creek OTAers would need a rotor for getting both T.O. and Buffalo, wouldn't they? The folks in that city should also read through the Niagara Peninsula thread just to get a bigger idea of OTA expectations.

if you have a good preamp, and your light of sight to Buffalo is good, you'd probably be able to pick up a decent number of the Buffalo stations with the antenna aimed in the direction of Toronto, or maybe aim it half way, like towards Kingston, and then see what you can pick up. You would certianly need a rotor to get every station though, FOX would probably require antenna aimed right at Grand Island

HI All

I am in Stoney Creek Fruitland rd area..Tonight I put up a 1483 Gemini "BQ Grill" outside on chimmney for now, facing north over lake ..Did an auto scan with built in atsc tuner in TV .Picked up 6 Hd Channels from TO, also a bunch of NTsc channels.Wow quality ....

Thanks to this forum, I cant believe how easy it is to receive HD .Next step is Rotor to see if I can get Buffalo stations ..


Paul:)

Panabrite, thanks for posting. Can you please post which TO stations you are receiving in HD? I live near you, and am debating if I should buy a tuner (Samsung) on my next trip to the US.

I receive:

cbc hd
citytv hd
ctv hd
sun tv hd 1 and 2
cbc french hd

omni 1 and 2 reg feed
tvo reg
global reg
chch reg

and a few others

Manually aiming to Buffalo I receive ,pbs stations in hd Fox and cw in hd

My set up is very primitive ,Painters stick on a 2x4 on the side of chimney.I am going to set up permanently this weekend with rotor ..My wife loves the look of my set up .It works though. I will and hoping to be able to fine tune reception with proper set up.

Thanks, panabrite.

A question for all - since CHCH 11 (hamilton) is analog only, that means I will need to have a VHF aerial correct? It comes in fine now on the bunny ears (we are maybe 2-3 miles to the tranmitter) but I was thinking of getting and installing a CM4228. Since that is UHF only, can I combine the two antennae somehow?

chch 11 will come in fine with a cm4228. the only channels u wont get r channels 2-6

From the Knowledge Base & FAQ, Post #1, item #8:Due to a quirk of its design the CM4228 (but not CM4221) is also a good VHF High band (channels 7 through 13) and FM Radio antenna, which is very rare in UHF-only antennas.Also don't confuse VHF and UHF with analogue and digital - they are different things. It just happens that most or all digital stations in a given area are in the UHF band, but they can also be in the VHF band. Similarly analogue stations span the VHF and UHF bands.

In your particular case you can have the best of UHF reception along with very good VHF-High reception, and you can hook up your FM receiver too, all into one antenna. Also because of your proximity to CHCH's tower you will probably pick it up loud and clear no matter where the CM4228 is aimed since it has good back and side reception lobes.

Greetings all!
I've been reading this fourm for a couple of days now and decided to give OTA HD a try! It's been years since I've seen an antena for TV, was about seven yr/old when I helped put up the last one and I'll be 40 this year.

My question: I'm located on the south mountain (Rymal & Upper Wentworth) and want to test HD signal, first with antena in the attic if good it go on a tower/rotor combo. Should I be looking at a 4bay bowtie or a yagi?

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

The delemma is that I'll be aiming so close to the transmitter on Stoneycreek mountain that Grand Island may be a no go. Any thoughts on this?

thanks,
Steve.