Fox on 14 and MYtv 34 definitely are the hardest to receive to the North because of those directional transmitters.They are fine for me in North end of Mississauga.Mytv the weakest.I think its possible for you to receive Fox-dt in Georgetown.

Ancodia, where are you located in Georgetown?

I am in the south end of Mississauga at Winston Churchill and the QEW. I am using the 1501880 indoor antenna from The Source and receive:

Fox
CBC
The CW
ABC
CBS
CTV
PBS
City

I'm in northern Brampton and can confirm to having same problem using a CM4228 - I can't seem to get Fox HD (14.1), weirest thing though is I get analog Fox just fine (video/audio/color). I get all the other stations I should be able to get (CBC/City/CTV and the other 4 U.S. networks), although Sun (66.1) tends to drop out in the evenings.

I have a 4228 at Clark and Torbram, and I can get FOX no problem. The two I can't get are CFTO and NBC.

FOX, PBS, CBC, CITY, CBS and WNLO all come in perfectly.

ancodia

I've been trying to get 14.1 (FOX), 34.1 (MyTV) and I'm completely stumped on why I can't recieve these channels. I get 32 and 43 with no problems (also on the Grand Island Tower).

I can receive 32 and 43 no problems with my POS old indoor UHF antenna so they must be really easy to pick up.

I have done my home work and can not decide between the CM4221 and CM4228.

Also have you had to use a rotor to pick up the Toronto channels as well as Buffalo?

Last but not least do you think it is necessary to have a pre-amp for a single 80' run of cable?

svtcanuk, for 80' of coax you need a preamp. Without one your signal will suffer due to lots of line loss. A preamp will raise the initial signal strength to make up for the losses at the other end.

See Posts #401 and #579 for 2 other people on Sandalwood.

Thanks for the info regarding the pre amp. For my reception the CN Tower is 22.5 miles/36.5 Km due east and Grand Island Buffalo is 65 miles/105 Km SE of my location, in your opinion am I better off with the 4221 or 4228, and in addition to that the 7777 or 7778? I am concerned about too much gain from the local Toronto signals while trying to pick up the Buffalo ones.

I had read both of the posts you eluded to and unfortunately the one closest to me approx 2 km away was using a indoor antenna and the other is too far away (10.5 Km NE) to yield similar results. I may be wrong about this, I am new to the world of antennas so 10.5 km may be minuscule in the grand theme of things, would this distance have a great impact on line of sight? If not I will contact the member for more information.

The only problem with the 4228 is that its beamwidth is much narrower than the 4221. That's the flip-side of having a higher gain antenna. The result is you may need a rotor in order to watch both Buffalo and Toronto channels.

My closest major intersection is Erin Mills Parkway and Britannia. I have a 4221 (no preamp) mounted approximately 30' above ground pointed ESE. I'm able to receive most (all?) of the digital channels out there from Buffalo and Toronto.

I think that's the way to go then, svtcanuk: put up a CM4221 with a preamp due to your long coax length. :)

That's good to hear, since the 4221 is less than half the cost. The only variable left is the pre-amp. I'm a little confused because the place I'm looking to buy from has the 7778 for about $20 cheaper than the 7777. Is the 7778 not the better amplifier or are the extra 3db of gain in the 7777 what make it worth more?

Something that I have yet to consider when asking these questions is that better or worse may be different for each application, if this is the case please feel free to tell me so.

better or worse may be different for each applicationYes, see Post #2 in the Knowledge Base & FAQ. ;)

Now if the sports networks would only broadcast OTA...

The US stations brodcast plenty of HD sports content ota.

Hello everyone, I bought a cheapy outdoor antenna from dixie and matherson and spent the next few days reading the posts here, after all that reading I thought I would have no problems so I went ahead and installed it myself. I mounted the antenna at the side of my house about 16' up so about the second floor of my house and pointed south-ish towards Buffalo, there are no tall buildings in the way just 2 storey home across the street. I'm using a Panasonic plasma with built in tuner with 75' of RG6 and after setting everything up I did my scan and these were found.

5-1 at 60% to 65% (clear)
23-1 at 65% to 70% (clear)

and that is all I get, I did try turning the antenna and a rescan like 4 times and the only other one that it would pick up is the french channel. Can anyone please tell me what am I doing wrong, I've read of people putting their antenna on a chair in the front porch or inside their house and get more channel than me :(

Thanks in advance

IS300:

It would help if you told us what cheapy antenna you bought. My guess is, that's the weak link in your setup. Also, with a 75' cable run, are you using a preamp?

Hi Cyclism, I bought an AT-MB04 uhf 4bay outdoor antenna ( made in China ) and I'm not using a preamp, I used a 25' cable from antenna to a grounding block and 50' to my tv.

That antenna is basically a clone of a CM4221. It may look different but the principles are the same and the CM4221 is a great outdoor antenna.

IS300,
more info needed please. Based on your location and as you described it, you should be able to get much better reception than what you are.

For comparison, I was setting up a new tv I bought for my in-laws a few days ago, and without any antenna I was able to pull in 5-1 and 9-1, using just a 35' coax cable that was running out to an old dish (disconnected). This was in east Scarborough, but you get the idea.

I know you already answered some of this , but just for clarity:
Is your home on a rise or depression? Are there any nearby forested areas towards the broadcast stations?
What kind of cabling are you using? RG6 is required.
Is it new cabling or is it being re-used?
Is it one length, or have you connected up multiple pieces, and if so have you checked all the connectors for watertightness, and fray strands of shielding.
Did you make your own f-connections or did you buy cables with the f-connectors already crimped on?
At 75' your are definitely approaching the need for a pre-amp, but even without, you should be getting more than what you are.
Are there any splitters/combiners, diplexers, simple connectors, grounding blocks etc. in your line? (these have been known to be faulty before)
Are you using the balun (matching transformer - in simple terms changes the cable from older style twin lead (which your antenna feeds output into a f-connector which the cabling uses) that came with your antenna (if it came with one), or are you using an older one?
Have you tried using Google Earth, or any other on-line tools to determine your best aim?
Have you tried aiming directly at Toronto to see what you can get? If you can't get a majority of the Toronto stations when aimed directly at TO, then something is definitely wrong.
Have you tried scanning for analogue channels? (this can be a BIG help in determining proper aim in the GTA).


Try posting a picture of what your antenna is aimed at, and/or of the surrounding area, and/or of the antenna itself. Not everything is as simple as it first seems. Numerous times a newly ordained OTA'er has had problems, then posted a picture of their set-up and the veterans here have instantly seen the problem. A picture speaks a thousands words.

We're here to help (well I'm absent more often these days, but the regulars are, and they sure know a few tricks), so don't worry, your reception should come in okay.

cheers, :D

I have a feeling the shielding may be touching something and that's why his reception is poor. At one time while I was testing for ota (when I first joined here), I had around 100' of coax all rolled up. I did a scan and found nothing. It turned out the one of the connections I made was loose and the wire was shorting out. Once I fixed it and did a rescan I eventually found all the Canadian stuff (after turning the antenna in the right direction)... and CBC 5.1 was at a constant 100% (it's the strongest signal in the GTA), and that was while the antenna was inside the house with 100' of cable.

Could it also be that the balum is bad?

There must be some weird atmospheric stuff going on because out of nowhere my crappy indoor antenna has picked up a few new channels. I now get

2.1/2
9.1
36.1
40.1

on top of what I already had

4.1
5.1
7.1/2/3
23.1
43.1/2/3

Has anyone else experienced this? I can't wait to see what the CM4221 will do when I pick it up tomorrow.