Nope - ION is hit and miss now. I have an original 4228 aimed exclusively for Buffalo - with a slight turn toward ION. It is pre-amped with an Research Communications 9254 and all other Buffalo stations are nearly 100% reliable year round.

ION is the thorn in my side now and I have been searching for another original 4228 to stack - but nobody seems to want to part with one...

ION is hit or miss right now for me (Brittania and Erin Mills Parkway). It was coming in a little bit last night but not consistently. Last fall I upgraded my antenna to a Winegard HD-8800 which apparently is tweaked for maximum gain around the lower end of UHF (about perfect for ION which is physical channel 23).

Everything else is coming in fine. Even got some London stations last night (Sun analog and A-Channel) after rotating the antenna to about 240 degrees.

hey Mr. Weather,
was the SUN station you picked up last night pointing towards London the digital one on RF 19? If so, cool pick up it has a low powered transmitter.
Analog power house CFPL on channel 10 is pretty strong so that is not a surprise.
I chose the DB 8 but realized below channel 20 on the UHF scale it drops off considerably is its strength. On the plus side during the summer months and tropo season I can pick up an ION station on RF 23 from the Cleveland market with it. Occasionally when I point the rotor towards Buffalo market RF 23 will remap to somewhere in the 50's and it is an ION station from there.

welcome to the ota rcamoore.i just purchased a rca cant 1650 a few weeks ago myself,and even though the amp that came with it was garbage,i purchased a motorola bda s1 amp,and it works fabulous.with your location and a good amp,you shouldnt have any problems getting gta and western new york stations.

hey Mr. Weather,
was the SUN station you picked up last night pointing towards London the digital one on RF 19? If so, cool pick up it has a low powered transmitter.
No, it was the analog one on 51. I wouldn't have had a chance with Sun digital because channel 19 around here is TVOntario (CICA).

City-tv on 31 was very clear but I normally don't have a problem receiving it anyway.

CFPL was unique to see because my antenna isn't really designed for VHF-hi.

Incidentally, I was also picking up (albeit very weakly) channels 29 and 42 from Oil Springs. Must have been an opening to the WSW the other night.

Occasionally when I point the rotor towards Buffalo market RF 23 will remap to somewhere in the 50's and it is an ION station from there.
That is WPXJ out of Batavia, NY. It's an ION station with three sub-channels.

Geez all you people with your good catches.
Am I like the only one here not benefitting from the warm weather?

WGRZ is still out (cold now not even a blip it got even worse....). I got like 2 blips of ION and that was it. WNYO for a couple seconds fell like a rock.

And now CITY is starting to give me issues with occasional pixelation.

I noticed my antenna is now tilted horizontally about 10 degrees. Could this be it? I don't understand. How can my tower be tilting this way? If this keeps up, my tower will be like the leaning tower of pisa within a month. Does horizontal tilt affect reception that much? I mean the antenna is still pointed in the right darn direction.

On another note, I can't even get CKVR using a dipole antenna in the upstairs bedroom. Maybe my location just sucks.

And now TVFool is giving me more gain for WGRZ if I have a lower antenna? What is this nonsense?

Suggestions? (sorry for my frustration right now)

Don't despair- tropo can work the other way too- really bad reception days which I noticed today for my location- the regulars are all at lower strength.
RE tilting- some DHC/OTA members have suggested that tilting your antenna slightly up towards the transmitter is good, might be a thread on it in the research area.

ahh haha.

i meant it was tilting sideways, not forward/up. is that bad? i read somewhere about polarization that went right over my head. could that be it?

everything is back to normal as it seems (for now), though i wish this winter would stop wreaking havoc on WGRZ. If I peak it for WGRZ I'll probably lose CIII and CKXT. I shouldn't be complaining though, all the other south BUFs and even 26 are booming.

I'm guessing my preamp is doing no good sitting 30 feet down the line....

Well, I lost WGRZ months ago. Then again, I'm living in a house made of steel using an indoor antenna :p

i meant it was tilting sideways, not forward/up. is that bad?Yep, it can be, so I've answered your questions about that over in this thread in Post #58 so that all our members will benefit:

Tilting Antenna for Better Reception? (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=106196)

That would explain.

Do you think if I get it back to horizontal, that should fix things with WGRZ? Should I peak for WGRZ right now?

How much improvement would I see if I moved my 7777 the remaining 30 feet to the antenna.

I would wait for all this crazy mid-winter tropo to end before doing any antenna repeaking, but getting that antenna horizontal is important because as it tilts it loses gain on all TV channels. As for the preamp, it is always best to mount it right up at the antenna. It might make the difference on getting some iffy stations.

Surprisingly the tropo hasn't really impacted my locals. The local reception here is stable, probably because i'm sitting at a lower elevation. The only impacted channel was ironically WGRZ (which actually would have seen a benefit from this tropo mess) :P

The most I ever get from Tropo events is usually just the Rochesters and ION.

I bought a 42" plasma and am looking at OTA. A shop on Matheson has an antenna that has two movable panels , one can be aimed at TO and the other at Buffalo. Made by a company called Eagle Star model 6308.
I'll ask my questions here, can I install this thing in the attic?
Will I need amplifiers and what kind are reccommended?
An exterior mount is possible here but I'd like to try it out of sight. Also daughter is in a townhouse and no dishes/antennas allowed.
Thanks for the help.

Hmm, then I certainly wouldn't go for their biggest model.

If you can, go for a Channel Master 4-bay (CM-4221) antenna instead. They are a trusted brand. There should be one in Sayal Electronics (in that same plaza).

EagleStar is iffy, but for me works just as great. I have the 4-bay model of the EagleStar (53-6305) and I can pull in every channel except ION (which appears in the spring/summer anyways).

Your probably at a higher elevation than me so it's better. I'm by the lake in Clarkson. You should definitely pull all the channels with the smaller 4-bay antenna than with the massive 8-bay (which is more directional anyways).

Plus the 8-bay might not fit in the attic, the 4-bay should. It's only half the size.

Do try for an outdoor mount though, Attic installations can cause problems with multipath inteference and such.

Best of luck!

Hi guys! I've been reading the forum for a bit but am very overwhelmed by all the info :o

It's all houses around me and open fields!

I have a very basic question: I just want to watch the Olympics on CTV so would any cheap rabbit ears from Walmart be enough? I really don't care about any other channels as I watch my shows online ;)

Thanks for any help!! I know it's such a newbie question but I don't know ANYTHING about antennas and TVs :p

Yes, if you're not looking to invest a lot of money CFTO should certainly watchable from your location using a basic indoor antenna.

Hi! I am new in this forum and newbie with OTA stuff, is there anyone here live near my area who have an OTA, i would like to know how many channel do get in the area? and what type of antenna do you have? I am trying to figure out if I would go with OTA if signal is good on the location else i might just end up subcribing to cable provider :(

thanks.. hope someone can give some info

Hello lokuswarn and welcome here. You will find all the info you need for central Mississauga by reading through this thread and following the great advice here in the OTA Forum before buying anything.

Hi! I am new in this forum and newbie with OTA stuff, is there anyone here live near my area who have an OTA, i would like to know how many channel do get in the area? and what type of antenna do you have? I am trying to figure out if I would go with OTA if signal is good on the location else i might just end up subcribing to cable provider :(

thanks.. hope someone can give some info
I've installed for clients in your area and regularly get 17 digital channels and 6 subchannels. 3 subchannels are useless repeats.
Roofmount antenna is required.
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3dc72371aa0c3fdd