thanks, i just bought the db8. how high is your mast? i am hoping 5 feet is enough.

iammiguel, my DB8 is installed in the attic. I needed a good preamp (CM7777) to help
compensate for attic losses. Since your putting yours outside, you might not need
a preamp. Hopefully your logistics will be good enough with a 5 foot mast. I would
try that first, see what stations you get and the signal strengths.

iammiguel, I am approx 5 mins south of you (Kennedy and Steeles - west of Kennedy in Peel Village). I have my DB8 on the roof approx 25' high with 3' CM tripod and 5" fence post mast. I have no preamp with a clear view south. I did need a CM powered splitter (see previous post in this thread) to get Global and CITY in stronger and not lose WUTV (29.1) etc. I have a 50' cable run to my grounding block. I would assume you can get CITY and Global fine with a DB (less wide of a beam) vs a 4228 with a wider beam as you are further back of the CN tower than I am. SaveandReplay I believe recommends a DB8 for our area.

Do you have a clear view from Buffalo to the CN tower?

I found that I had to point my antenna closer the CN tower than Buffalo to get all Buffalo and Toronto signals (approx 132 degrees on the compass). I am going to head on the roof again soon to point a tad closer to buffalo now that my CM splitter has improved signal considerably. I do pixelate a few times on WGRZ 2.1, 2.2, 2.3. So far I have not had to use a preamp, but not sure what the winter will bring. I did setup my antenna before tropo conditions.

I have read some posts here regarding a powered distributor amp and so I quickly went to home depot and purchased a cheap RCA one for $11.00 I quickly connected the device and I am finally getting all of the channels crystal clear and in HD. I couldn't be happier, I was getting really frustrated at the fact that I was not getting the channels that most were getting on this forum. Since installing the device, the channels have been steady and clear. I am beyond happy with the performance.

I recently purchased an 8 bay to take advantage of both the signals from Buffalo and CN tower.

Hi people this is my 1st foray into OTA and I have been reading many many pages and now am more than a little confused. :)

I live on the corner of Erin Mills Parkway and McFarren Boulevard.

I currently have:

Electronic Master DTV-5000HD, Tuner box
TERK Indoor HDTV Amplified Antenna

I can catch 6 decent HDTV channels with some cutting in and out with the antenna close to the TV. I have moved the antenna,tuner with a smaller TV one floor higher near a window and the reception was way better. I could then catch 10 digital channels.

My questions are as follows:

1. The Terk is an amplified antenna will an outdoor antenna (DB8/CM4228HD) without any preamp/amp outperform the Terk antenna?

2. I have been trying to decide between the DB8 vs CM4228HD. I have read many bad things about the new CM4228HD and have downloaded the Antenna chart where the DB8 is recommended. The CM4228HD looks like it performs better and specially on the VHF section. The only Canadian channel that might be on VHF after the switch should be Channel 9.1 ( I speak under correction here)

The VHF performance is swaying me towards the CM4228HD when my 1st choice was the DB8. Does anyone in my area have the DB8 and is able to catch Channel 9.1?

Thanks in advance

Habitat,

1) Yes, a DB8 or CM4228HD outside will massively outperform a Terk inside even without a pre-amp

2) 11.1 will also go to VHF. I was a bit worried about this too before I got my DB8 but the gain on both analog 9 and analog 11 are pretty good. I even got WHAM digital 13 the other night from Rochester. So it's true the DB-8 is not a VHF antenna but it probably good enough for 9.1 and 11.1 when they revert to VHF

Note that both CKVR will be on 10 and WNGS in Buffalo is on 7. We'll need to see CKVR in action to know for sure but for WNGS you really do need a true VHF antenna to get it since its signal is so weak.

Hope this helps.

El Gran Chico thanks for the reply.

Now just to wait for some feed back re: DB8 vs CM4228HD.

Habitat, I think you missed this post in the Antenna Chart thread: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=1272416&postcount=9. There is no reason to think that there are bad things about a CM4228HD antenna, only that it was not an equal or better replacement for CM's earlier 4228 antenna.

Habitat

There's not going to be too many people out here who have done the Pepsi Challenge with the DB8 and the 4228hd because they are both expensive and once you buy one of them, you're not likely going to buy the other.

Most people who have either antenna are satisfied with it.

The people at Save & Replay have tried both and they often recommend the DB8. If you go talk to them, they may have insight to share with you of other customers nearby you.

The 4228hd is tried-and-true in the GTA also. Plus the 4228 holds out hope that it could help a bit on VHF-high which might be a help in two months when CTV and CHCH go back to VHF on 9 & 11. The DB8 does not make such promises, but the DB8 is still a big piece of metal in the sky and if your VHF signals are strong enough, the DB8 will work, too.

Both antennas are excellent. I have a 4228hd on my cottage and it is doing a pretty amazing job for me in a deep fringe 2 edge situation.

You'll be happy with whichever decision you make.

Good luck!

Hey all, new to OTA, just cancelled my cable. I have 4 tv's (one is a monitor) and I am looking to do a setup to provide a signal to all of them. There is a ton of information on this site and I am looking through it, but am also finding that technology changes and some of the posts are not so relevant anymore.

Here is my tvfool (http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d001b3eb029d7e4) report. I didn't put a height in it as I am not sure what is possible for my roof, but the peak is easily 30' or more.

Do I need to worry about trying to get stations in the grey area? It looks like many of those networks are already available in the green, yellow and red areas. Of course I want them all, but is it really needed?

I am looking to go with an antenna on the roof, rotor, all the power and signal boosters needed, attenuators if needed, multi antenna if needed (local and deep fringe right??); cable into the basement and out to the rest of the house. The problem is...I don't want to do it myself. I don't want to mount the antenna, I don't want to run cable. After that, I'm good.

I will continue to read posts on which antenna(s), rotors, power and signal boosters and such are good, but a point in the right direction to get started with all this would be most helpful and appreciated.

Thanks all, glad to be onboard,
Kirk

Sorry to hear about your break up with Rogers Kirk. Only they will regret it. Forget about the grey stuff, efforts to get them will be hampered by the strong local channels. I don’t think you even need a rotor. Just point to east south east. I would bet AN 8 BAY (db8) will do the job. No preamp either. Do get a distribution amp if a 4 way splitter loses channels.

Hi Kirk,

I live not far from you at Bovaird / 410. I setup a DB8 and a CM 7777 in the attic almost
2 months ago and get 20+ reliable channels, more on a "good" day. I told Rogers to do
the same as you :) ...and i'm saving $100+/month ! :)
i think Wilspin is correct, if you put a DB8 or a 4228 outside, you won't need a rotor or
preamp.

Thanks for the advice. I did see Save and Replay come up a few times in other posts. I will stop in there and talk to them and see what solution we can put together. I will report back here after my visit.

Thanks,
Kirk

Yeah, my Rogers cable bill was going up to $160/mo. Decided to make the switch to OTA.

Ok, so I went to Save and Replay and Grace was amazing. We discussed what I was looking for and of course she has heard that many times before and advised as to what I needed to get it done right. She took the time to make sure I was happy and informed.

So I ended up with...

DB8 Antenna
CM7777 Amplifier
39" J Mount/Patch Kit
Ground Rod
Ground Block
8-way Splitter
70' Ground Wire
104' R6 Coax
Teminiators/Jumpers

Going to 4 flat screens, 3 with ATSC tuners 1 with XBox with a HDHomerun Dual that I ordered online. I would have gotten it from Save and Replay, but I wanted the new one. I know the differences are slight, but none the less, I wanted the new one.

So now I can't seem to get the Hamilton channels unless I jeopardize the strength of the buffalo ones (no thanks), and ION is somewhat unreliable.

Other than that. All is good.

Thank you all for the quick support to a newbie. I hope to spend many years on here learning and enjoying free tv.

Can't wait until the HDHomerun Dual comes in. I'll post again after that to share my experience with it.

Kirk

Congratulations Kirk, yes, Grace is amazing, a wealth of information, she
really likes to talk about OTA :) The one great tip she gave me was
to give up ch 26 (WNYB) and point the DB8 a little more east and all the other
stations will come in a bit stronger. I would have thought with a DB8 _and_
a CM7777 mounted outside that you would have no problem with CHCH, but
such is the case with OTA with so many variables.

Yes, ION is unreliable for me too, sometimes at 80% then nothing. Might
not see it for days, then it will suddenly appear. Is your 8 way splitter
a distribution amp ? I would think you would need some sort of dist. amp if
running 4 tuners ?

I also had NBC and FOX die on me for a couple of hours today. If I give up on 26 and point it more east, then I won't get 11 for sure. It was suggested that come September when analog is "turned off", all the other stations should come in better without the noise. The question is, what do I do until then?

Where in Brampton do you live? Do you get NBC and FOX consistantly?

No distribution amp. Was told that there is enough power and signal to power 8 tuners should I want to. Currently only have 3 working.

^^^^
If you're only using 3 sets, perhaps you should replace the 8 port splitter with a 3 or 4 port model. Those unused ports are consuming some of the signal.

I will be going to 4 next week and have plans to go to 6 later this year. Who knows, I may even want to add a couple more HDHomeruns. I have terminators on the unused ports.

Kirk,
I would not use an 8 way splitter without some amplification first. Each time you split the signal, the power on each port (connection) is less than half of the original power. Internally, your 8 way splits the signal 3 times to serve 8 ports, so you are getting less than 1/8 of the power from the antenna for each TV set. In more technical terms, each split reduces the power by about 3.5 dB, so the power at the output connections is 10 dB less than a direct connection to the antenna. The difference is about the same as a TV station reducing power from 100 thousand watts to 10 thousand watts.

If you haven't already done this test, I suggest that you try connecting your antenna directly to one television set and see what you can receive. If the antenna line can reach directly to the antenna input of a TV then you are good to go. Otherwise, you might need an F-81 connector to connect the cable from the antenna to the cable to the TV. Try a channel scan on the TV to see what you receive. You will likely get different results at different times of the day. Compare the results of the direct connection to the results through the 8 way. If you get more channels when directly connected to the antenna then you should consider a distribution amplifier or an antenna preamplifier.

George, I do have an antenna preamplifier (CM7777) hooked up. I was told by the installer (who was awesome BTW) that with the preamplifier I don not need a distribution amp. I will though try to hook it up directly to one tv to see if there is a difference.

Watching Wimbledon today and NBC was flicking in and out occasionally. Not too bad, but just enough to be annoying. Would love a way to get NBC and FOX in consistantly.