The bearing to the Toronto channels suggests the location is in NW Brampton and not Mississauga, but based on the TV Fool numbers an outdoor antenna should be able to pull in everything from Buffalo (and obviously Toronto).

You'll have to look around your area to the SE to see if there are any tall buildings or trees near you which could block the Buffalo signals.
Thanks Mr_weather and Stampeder!

I'm glad to hear that an outdoor antenna can pull in everything in my location. Back to my original questions, is CM4221HD better or CM4228HD? Ok, I heard CM4228HD may be overkilled? but besides an antenna like the CM4221HD, do you think it is likely or unlikely that I will need additional equipments like pre-amp, amp, rotor?

Can someone please tell me what "stacked 4221HD setup" and "CM4221HD (with hacks)" mean?

Thanks a bunch!

Can someone please tell me what "stacked 4221HD setup" and "CM4221HD (with hacks)" mean? Yep, those are described in detail in the OTA FAQ, with links to pictures and discussions. :)

Check the threads in this forum for info on how to do "stacked 4221HD setup" and "CM4221HD (with hacks)"

The CM4221HD hacked will give you a wider beamwidth, meaning a slightly wider area of coverage with about the same forward gain.

The stacked CM4221HD method will give you a slightly longer distance on the forward gain, but you may lose some beamwidth.

The ganged CM4221HD method will give you a sytem wher each antenna point to a different tarket market. One could be pointed to Toronto and the other could be pointed to Buffalo. In a ganged system the Toronto antenna could be without a preamp and the Buffalo antenna could be amplified.

Search this forum for 'ganging and stacking antennas' for more details.

The CM4228HD 8bay design is bigger than the 4221 4bay design, but not necesarily better in all cases.

I would recommend sticking with the CM4221HD 4bay type antenna designs.

If Toronto signals are extremely strong without a preamp, then a preamp probably will mess with overloading the tuner. So, try a 4221 4bay, no preamp and see what you can get, and then decide if you need to try a preamp.

I've being following this thread for awhile now, I currently reside in Brampton, I've made my fair share of homemade coat hanger ota antennas, i've gotten some okay results i guess, am gonna be buying Multi-directional 8-bay Eagle star pro antenna, i've readed the this antenna is clone off a channel master. I thought about buying the 4228hd but funds are limited right now, and this why i have decided to go with the eagle star pro, there's some folks in my neighborhood with ota antennas, some with winegards and others with rounded oval looking ones, ive notice that not all are pointed in the same direction the winegards are pointed towards SE 129,130 degrees and the others are pointed NE.

I have a clear view off north east but south east is a bit obstructed by the side of my roof and the wall, to get a absolute clear view i would have to mount this puppy up in the roof.

Mr. Oso, there are lots of people from your area in this thread so use the Search This Thread tool to the upper right beside Thread Tools and put in your local street names as search terms so you can compare. If an antenna is not on the Antenna Chart I would not buy it. :)

Wow that was fast thanks for the quick response a'l look it up right now.

Mr. Oso
I am at Bovaird and Dixie and I can help you with any questions you have about the antennas and how to setup. I did a ton of reading on this forum and thanks to everyone here, I am beyond happy with my setup and I am currently getting 20 channels all in HD.

My setup
CM4221HD
On my roof, which is a semi detach Approx 30 feet
Tivax HD converter box

Thanks for offering, I never got a chance to buy the antenna today, am hoping to get it tomorrow. I know height is your best friend in the ota scene, the truth is that i don't have a latter big enough to get on the roof, so am gonna try and use a J pole from a satellite dish which is 9, to 10 ft from the ground.

You can search for "J-mount" in this thread and get a ton of info about whether it is the best (safest) option for an OTA antenna:

OTA Mounts, Towers, Rigging Hardware (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=29559)

Well i got the antenna up last night played around with it abit, i got 18 hd channels some were weak though so i thought i move over to a different place. I move it this morning i would say its probably 15ft up in the air in backyard i was able to 22 channels the signal was coming in very strong, here are channel am getting.

WGRZ-HD DTV2-1
WGRZ-US DTV2-2
WGRZ-RT DTV2-3
WIVB-HD DTV4-1
CBLT-DT DTV5-1
WKBW-HD DTV7-1
CFTO-HD DTV9-1
CHCH-HD DTV11-1
WNED-HD DTV17-1
WNED-SD DTV17-1
WNED-TH DTV17-3
WNLO-HD DTV23-1
CBLFT-D DTV25-1
WUTV-HD DTV29-1
OMNI2 DTV44-1
WNYO-HD DTV49-1
CITY-HD DTV49-1
OMNI1 DTV64-1
CIII-DT DTV41-1
CKKT-DT66-1

I was also getting Ion, Ion lifetime and qubo is a really nice channel i was getting this three about 45 minutes ago with good signal but some how there gone now i went out to see if the antenna had move but it hadn't so i tried to tweak a little with no luck i can't seem to get them back, a'l try scanning later on this evening hopefully a'l get them back.

hi all, new to the forum and just about 1 week old to OTA!!! guess u can say im a little late :P.

anyway, 3 days ago i saw a youtube video of the DIY coat hanger antenna and tried to give it a go at home and found that well, after 1 hr of hard work it works and is a tonne better than staring at a blank screen or having to stream bad quality hockey games from my pc. I built the Coat hanger antenna with a balun i acquired from the source, i am located in mississauga ontario bordering oakville, major intersection Thomas and Tenth-Line. Currently i have the coat hanger antenna mounted on an 8ft pole i think slightly above my fence pointing South-East i think and am getting 5(5-1), 9(9-1), 11(used to get 11-1 but not anymore for some apparent reason), 19, 25(25-1), 36, OMNIs-HD, 57(57-1 Poor reception for HD one though don't know why, however was getting it before) and Global (global HD)

with this given id like to get buffalo channels soon because the NBA finals are aired on ABC and i would love to watch it on my brand new sony bravia in HD. My family is basketball crazy and it hurts and strains our eyes (not to mention quota) to stream off internet!!!!

Basically what im trying to get at here is, what is the best antenna i can build at home or DIY antenna (preferably outdoor for aesthetic purposes) to receive those channels. Id like to start on the project today.

also id like to add, my backyard neighbor has this massive looking antenna on the fence (pointed south i think) its white and its about ohh i dunno about 3-4 ft id say with 3 or four sets of rectangular boxes with horizontal grills on top of which are whisker like extensions similar to my coat hanger model!!!!

I apologize for my lack of OTA antenna knowledge or terminology, I am just describing it from a lay man's view and from what i can see.

for the past couple of days this site has done nothing but help me in the most insightful ways and any help is greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance
cheers

Hi, welcome to OTA. There's a ton of information here. The best place to start is a quick read of the stickies at the top of the forum. A good sticky to start with is -

OTA FAQ & Knowledge Base
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=41102

In the Research and Development forum:

Best Do-It-Yourself OTA Antenna
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=119489

The Gray-Hoverman antenna is popular, relatively easy to build and there are lots of members that use it.

A quick read through the above threads should get you started in the right direction. The first link (OTA FAQ) has pictures of Gray-Hoverman antennas that were built by forum members.

Our members voted WPXJ (ION) from Batavia (on 23.x remapping to 51.x) as by far the toughest Buffalo area station to get:

Hardest Buffalo OTA Stations To Get In Golden Horseshoe? (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=120780)

Check out these DIY designs:
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=119489

It sounds like your neighbour has build some form of the Bi-Quad design.

Also,.. go to tvfool and run yourself a report [and post a link to the report here so we can offer suggestions to suit your location] to see what stations are available and what direction(s) you'll have to aim your antenna towards.

Some are quite simple to build and some are quite complex and much larger.
Everyones needs are different, so you'll have to read through the thread for your own area to see what others have accomplished and then decide how much your willing to try.

I would recommend building a basic Gray Hoverman design or the small Stealth Hawk and then go from there with other designs or investigate some of the 7-51 antennas that are currently available from retailers. It's much more fun to build some of the DIY antennas found in the link I've provided at the top of this post.

Hey guys thx for the quick replies, i went ahead and built an m4 homemade. initially had starter coat hanger now have a m4 sort of.. antenna

i used all the same stuff from the original antenna except my connection between the nodes and balun is a copper wire extracted from spliced power cable lying around.

i went to tvfool and found out my directionality stuff....umm im pointing it south-ish right now and i got pbs and wnlo as my only buffalo channels but for some apparent reason lost city hd and global hd and ctv hd!!!!!! still have cbc hd though

maybe i need to get a signal amplifier any suggests???

my current antenna spec is (7 x 8 1/2) without a reflector yes its 7 instead of 9 b/c i could not find extra coat hangers... !!! umm i cant remember anything else right now cuz im watching the Habs and Philly game (not much of a habs fan but like em over Phily haha.. ill post more info after

thanks for all the help guys

alright so canada is out of the stanley cup chase (sigh).. besides that---ok so ive done some twisting n turning on the antenna yesterday night, and found a slight difference in channels i picked up, currently its pointing SE i believe and im picking up 13 analog and 13 digital. Better than 10 and 10 from the old shitty design.. still surprised that a antenna under the Very High Performance classification renders only 3 extra channels (although i was able to pick up 1 if not 2 buffalo channels PBS-1-2-3) but lost global HD which kinda sux because i liked some shows on global. However, my main thing here is to get ABC for the NBA finals. And i've come across this weird thing, again i want to apologize if my terminology or knowledge base is amateur, but as i was scrolling through channels, one night OMNI hd was actually displayed as ABC at the bottom of the screen. and now channel 52 is a little bit grainy but at the bottom of the late show with david letterman i think displayed ABC is this common or just mixed signals

P.S: also am thinking of buying a 10 dB signal amplifier from the source

thanks to everyone for their replies, been great help

You'll probably have more success following the antenna plans/dimensions more closely and putting the antenna up higher. Just clearing your fence really isn't that high. Using tvfool/google maps will make you more aware of any buildings locally that would be blocking any signals from Buffalo.

as i was scrolling through channels, one night OMNI hd was actually displayed as ABC at the bottom of the screen. and now channel 52 is a little bit grainy but at the bottom of the late show with david letterman i think displayed ABC is this common or just mixed signalsIt would had been the CBS and not the ABC logo... OMNI must have just not blurred it out...

Also, you can get a rotor to help solve your situation. Its not uncommon that depending on your location, you need to move your antenna and pick one up but then drop the other. Alternativly, you can stack your antennas. Check the site, lots of discusison on both motors and how to: for stacking...

am thinking of buying a 10 dB signal amplifier from the sourceBefore you buy anything please go through these steps in the following link so that we can help you better and you won't waste any of your time and money, especially on an amp that might be too noisy to help:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=1082124&postcount=72

I had WPXJ come back just a little over an hour ago the signal is weak but it will have to do for now, its still watchable.