You can certainly get excellent results in Mississauga without a preamplifier, but it's been my experience that you're better off safe than sorry: in my case getting a preamplifier afforded me a considerable comfort margin when trying to receive WNYO, which would otherwise often cut out at certain times of the day and would disappear entirely if I rotated my antenna even the slightest bit.

Having a preamplifier also gives you more options if you want to split your cabling to a number of sets.

I'm looking at getting a pre-amp for my CM 4221 and was wondering if I should be looking at UHF only or UHF / VHF.All of the digital stations that are available to you in Mississauga are broadcast in UHF only. Therefore a UHF/VHF combo pre-amp is not necessary unless you wish to receive analogue broadcasts as well.

I've read much of this thread but haven't found what I'm looking for...

I'm in Brampton, Mavis/407 area... but in the back of Mahogany homes area, in a bit of a valley... I have no line of sight to anything, even Toronto radio stations have some tiny bits of static. :(

Any chance I'm going to get an HD signal? Anyone in this subdivision using an atsc tuner with success? Any way I can cheaply test out signal strengths?

Thanks

You are a few miles closer to Buffalo than me, and a few miles farther from the CN tower (Clark and Bramalea area for me) and I get just about everything with a CM 4228 antenna. If you have a small antenna, even a tabletop one, that you can take out on your roof, you can see if you get anything at all. I don't know the topography of your area, but you should still be able to get something.

Tom

Andrew (my name is also Andrew), do you live close to that new No Frills/TD Canada Trust/Tim Hortons plaza they're building right now?

If so, I have good news.

I live in that big white building right across the street from the Sportsplex. However, I live in the BACK of the building, facing the opposite way. I wish I lived at the McLaughlin Road South-facing side (facing Ray Lawson Boulevard), or the front, because then I would be able to get all the signals without obstruction. I live on the fifth floor.

Right now, I depend on those Holland Christian Homes buildings to get my signals, LOL. The signals from Buffalo bounce off the closest building, and into my apartment window, luckily! But they're significantly weaker than if I could've been getting them directly from the direction of Buffalo.

Anyways, I use a regular Zenith indoor antenna, and my TV's DTV tuner. It's a 37LC2D model.

Try changing positions. In my bedroom, where my computer and HDTV Wonder card are, I can barely get anything. But less than three meters away in my living room, and I get everything at at least 50% signal strength. Except MyTVBuffalo, that's a pain in the ass to get. I have to rely on the analogue channel 49 signal...

So try moving from room to room. Also, try getting a better antenna and placing it on your roof. If you're stuck using an indoor antenna like me, look up a Zenith HDTV Silver Sensor on eBay.

Thanks for the input guys... I have no equipment at the moment other than a 5 year old Samsung 30" widescreen and a couple year old optoma EP716 projector... was trying to see if it was worth buying the tuner and antenna.

I live inbehind the NoFrills, south west, basically the same elevation as the train tracks just west of Mavis on Steeles. I don't think there is anything for a signal to bounce off for me. But maybe a good antenna will still pull them in.

Maybe I'll try a PC card setup first.

Hi everyone,

I am just wondering if it is possible to connect 2 antennas together and output to one tuner. My situation is this, I live very close to the lake in Mississauga and right now I have one single antenna. If I point it more towards the CN Tower which is almost East of me I get all the Toronto stations. If I point more towards Buffalo to the South then I receive all the Buffalo stations. I would like to receive all of the above and thought if I added another antenna and point 1 to Buffalo in the south and 1 to the CN Tower I could get everything but I don't know what the feasibility of connecting two antennas together is. I am feeding a HTPC so I could add a second tuner or HDHomerun and have one tuner for each antenna but that is about another $100 or so likely. Any insight would be appreciated.

Also while on the subject, can you split the signal to multiple tuners with a simple splitter as you can with CableTV.

Kevin

http://www.tvantenna.com/support/tutorials/combining.html

This should answer that question.

That link talks about the Join-Tenna, which can only operate on one specific channel because it is a filter.

Here is a post detailing how to join 2 antennas for broadband OTA reception:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=615632&postcount=139

I am just exploring the possilbities of OTA high def, since we are thinking of purchasing a new 37"or 40" LCD TV for Christmas.

I already have the ability - in theory! - to receive OTA signals, but my limited experimenting was not promising. Our house is in Brampton, in the Vodden and English area.

My experiment was to purchase a cheap, amplified set of rabbit ears, and see what could be picked up when these were plugged into an ATI TV Wonder 650 card. The intent was to see if anything was available in my area, before spending the $$$ on an antenna and mount.

The test was done with the rabbit ears in a window that faces east (or actually North-East, given the direction that Harmsworth Ave goes).

The only thing I could pick up was some analogue signals, and they were very very poor, completely unwatchable.

Does anyone know if reception for OTA TV stations is realistic in my area? I expect I would have to go to a mount on the roof to get the antenna up a bit, but that seems like a rather expensive thing if done as an experiment!

Thanks in advance!

P.S. - I have done searches here, but am confused with what I found. Not sure of the elevations in my area, and not sure about other factors, so I am looking for any advice on what to do, and how to proceed. Thanks!

Well, you definitely need to be facing more South-East to get Toronto or Buffalo stations.

Agreed. I did what I could, but not even getting any channels at all makes me wary of moving further.

Or maybe the rabbit ears are faulty, but I have no idea how to check that....

You need a bowtie as opposed to rabbit ears for UHF DTV signals.

Understood.

What I was using was a Philips Magnavox indoor amplifed antenna model MANT400, that (according to the box) is good for VHF, UHV, FM, and HDTV. The box claims it amplifies up to 45db. It has two retractable 30" antennas, and a round UHF loop.

I would have expected to get some of the stronger VHF channels in the first 13 where I am, but the best that was seen was enough of an image to know there was a channel.

I've got some results to post from northern Brampton (410/Bovaird area)

My setup is a Channelmaster 4228, no preamp yet.
I'm getting these from my roof:

2.1 WGRZ-DT (NBC) - 47%
2.2 WGRZ-SD (NBC) - 50%
4.1 WIVB-HD - 52%
5.1 CBC - 90%
7.1 WKBW-HD (ABC) - 65%
7.2 WNGS - 65%
9.1 CFTO-HD (CTV) - 66%
23.1 WNLO-HD - 69%
25.1 CBLFT-D (CBC French) - 89%
43.1 WNED-HD (PBS) - 57%
43.2 WNED-SD (PBS) - 58%
43.3 WNED-Th (PBS) - 58%
57.1 CITYHD (CityTV) - 67%
66.1 - very weak about 33%

The thing that bugs me is I can't get Fox HD, but I'm getting SD Fox just fine... what gives? Will a preamp help with that? I guess at the very least it should boost the U.S. networks by 10% or so?

Hi,

I live near Mayfield - Cresthaven Road, Brampton. Which indoor antenna should I use? Is the Winegard Sharpshooter 3000 recommended or the Terk HDTVa would suffice? Where can I get them in Brampton? What others are recommended?

Mathew

The thing that bugs me is I can't get Fox HD, but I'm getting SD Fox just fine... what gives?

14-1 is directional to the south and 29 is not.

Which indoor antenna should I use? Is the Winegard Sharpshooter 3000 recommended or the Terk HDTVa would suffice? Where can I get them in Brampton? What others are recommended?Hi Matthew and welcome here. With over 550 posts in this thread there is a huge amount of information for you, so we ask that everyone with questions read through the threads for their specific areas and the threads for adjoining areas to get their answers, or at least best guesses. Let us know if you have questions after you do that. Also click on the links in this post because I've spelled out my antenna recommendations in detail:

14-1 is directional to the south and 29 is not.

Sorry, I'm a newbie to the whole OTA stuff, I just find it puzzling that the other 3 U.S. networks get captured by the antenna in HD, but Fox doesn't. Anything I can do from my side?

Understood.

What I was using was a Philips Magnavox indoor amplifed antenna model MANT400, that (according to the box) is good for VHF, UHV, FM, and HDTV. The box claims it amplifies up to 45db. It has two retractable 30" antennas, and a round UHF loop.

I would have expected to get some of the stronger VHF channels in the first 13 where I am, but the best that was seen was enough of an image to know there was a channel.


Don't think because you can't get anything using the MANT400 that it's hopeless... the MANT400 is garbage... a coat hanger would have worked better.

I'd recommend you call in the guys that did my Tower install. They were V & E Antenna... have them come over and do a site survey. They will climb up on your roof and test for signals with their equipment and can tell you right then and there what you can get and what kind of antenna you need.


From their site.....

HD Television
The Hi Definition world of television is growing rapidly from the stand point of cable tv and satellite. Very few people are aware that the traditional off air antenna can now bring in approximately 13 channels and this number continues to grow. Reception from Buffalo includes the standard 7 channels and in addition Think T. V. Canadian stations include CBC, CFTO, Sun TV and CITY TV . HD reception is picked up from an off air antenna and can work with either a newer television that has and HD decoded built in or an older set with a separate receiver.



A standard install includes:
• Tower or a tripod on the peak of the roof or a chimney mount
• Channel master 4248 High gain UHF antenna
• All required RG6 coax cable
• 1 in line ground block
• Set up and confirmation of signal
• 1 year warranty on all parts and labour
• A channel master 9525a roter and wireless remote (required in some parts of the GTA)


This system has proven itself from Oshawa to Milton and everywhere in between.