tks rob, when the guy installed it for me it was turned on the the combined... I have been deleting and scanning it but no luck, i think i will have 2 get the guy 2 come back and turn it a bit... tks for your help...

My line of sight to the CN tower is just to right of this building. I have Sony Bravia KDL-46V2500 and I bought a CM4221HD from Save and Replay. My channel scan with the antenna facing the CN tower from inside the apartment yielded only CFTO... I take it to the balcony and I may get CKVR, although that is a hit and miss.

Any suggestions on how to get more channels? (at least the ones broadcasting out of the CN tower)
That's really bizarre. If you can physically see the CN Tower from your condo you should be able to receive all the stations from it (everything but OMNI1, OMNI2 and City). The fact that your MacBook gets 17 channels suggests there's something wrong with your tv. Or a setting in the tv's menu is amiss.

barracudan, no amplifier on the line, right?

I don’t want 2 loose NBC. Should i get another 4 bay just to get CTV but then i have to use a splinter will it effect my present set up.

Hi AGL123,

Had a quick look at your TV Fool list looks you are doing very well receiving NBC with a path of 2edge (85 miles).

Here’s what I would do, first off I would highly recommend you add rotor. Then you won’t have to call the tech back to move it every time you need to tune in the station NBC, save yourself a lot of headache.

The down side of using a rotor is if you have more than one TV and someone else trying to watch another station she or he might not receive it. Another problem you might have to rescan your TV set as change the antennas direction in order to receive the stations this can be pain. Unless you manual enter channels via TV programming.

If you can live with the above deficiencies, I go for that. Another good thing is you will only have to deal with one single antenna and for the average person I think one best ways to receive most of the channels. This is almost full proof way since the CM 4228 highly directional it will work great with the rotor. It’s well worth $$ especially if you want to receive some of those distance US stations. Not only that you will tune in all the other local channels. A lot of folks are having trouble get CHCH 11 since the digital switch over a rotor would solve that, but looks like should be a issue for you.

I think you have the right idea combining a 4221 with you’re the 4228, but combining antennas can be quite difficult. Especially with airplanes fly above you as you noted can add other problems. If you do decided to try you will never regret the installation of the rotor it very useful tool when it comes to combing antennas.

Hope this helps a little.

A lot of folks are having trouble get CHCH 11 since the digital switch over a rotor would solve that, but looks like should be a issue for you.

Please Note: A slip on the keyboard "shouldn't be a issue for you".:eek:

No amplifier in my setup

.... it really is bizzare that I can see the CN tower and not get all the channels... I had tried an indoor TERK couple of months back which I returned since no channels were being picked up.... I thought something is wrong with the antenna when the CM4221HD picked up only one channel... but since my last post I have rescanned and picked up about 40 channels on MacBook in various rooms of my apartment (I don't get all of them in one location of course).... so really bummed out that there is something wrong with the most expensive equipment in the setup.... the HDTV

Edit: tinkered around with the TV settings and very happy to report that my TV is now picking up about 20 channels.... the setting was called 'Cable' which was turned on... turned it 'off' and the scan picked up way more that just CFTO which was all it got when it was 'on'... still not sure what this setting is for... will check the manual and post here if I have more info.... sorry for all the frantic posting :)... was just a case of RTFM I guess

You could very well have too much signal, or too much multipath for the one tuner to handle.

tinkered around with the TV settings and very happy to report that my TV is now picking up about 20 channels.... the setting was called 'Cable' which was turned on... turned it 'off' and the scan picked up way more that just CFTO which was all it got when it was 'on'... still not sure what this setting is for
The setting is used when you have an analog cable tv connection instead of an antenna. The frequencies used for channels 2-13 are the same for both cable and OTA. That's why you could get CFTO (channel 9) and sometimes CKVR (channel 10) and nothing else.

When turned off, the tv tuner will tune in all regular tv channels 2-69. I presume the tv scans for both NTSC (analog) and ATSC (digital) signals.

Glad to hear you got it working.

The setup is:
Modified CM 4221HD, Cheapo VHF/UHF/FM Antenna ($20 at Princess Auto years ago), CM7777 Preamp, Ideal 1GHz 4 way splitter, EchoStar (OEM'd Sansonic) converter, Pinnacle PCTV USB Tuner, Several FM radios. Pictures at http://dalimonte.ca/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=4703

Results:

2.1, 2, 3 - WGRZ-HD, -US, -RT
4.1 - WIVB-HD
5.1 - CBLT-HD
7.1 - WKBW-HD
9.1 - CFTO
11.1 - CHCH-DT
17.1, 2 - WNED-HD, -SD, -TH
19.1 - TVO
23.1 - WNLO-HD
25.1 - CBLFT-HD
26.1,2, 3, 4 - WNYB-SD, -HD, SD2, SD3 (Sometimes)
29.1, 2 - WUTV-HD, TCN
36.1 - CITS-HD
41.1 - CIII-HD
47.1 - OMNI1
49.1, 2 - WNYO-HD, Cool TV (Sometimes)
51.1, 2, 3 - ION, qubo, IONlife (Sometimes)
57.1 - City HD
66.1 - CKXT-HD
69.1 - OMNI2

Here is my TV fool:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d8387095858e6fa

I don't quite understand how I can get WNYB (26.1 - 26.4) religiously (pun intended!) without issue, but not receive WBBZ? WBBZ is a tad closer.

My location is listed below my handle, and I am using a ClearStream2 for UHV and a ClearStream5 for VHF. As I live in a condo with no balcony, my antennas are located indoors, facing out a southwest angled window.

WBBZ's tower is too low. It's mostly a height issue. They are only a few miles from WKBW's tower, but WKBW is approx 240 Metres higher, plus Hi VHF has a much higher noise floor to overcome for it to lock. You may indeed have what seems like a reasonable signal level from them but the SNR is too low. I get WBBZ at different times during the day but not as reliably as I'd like. With regard to WNYB they have one of tallest towers in all of New York state as well as height AMSL.

hello,

i haven't seen anyone post anything about their results with a cm3671 antenna here...i was wondering if i should just get that antenna, and be done with the 4 bay vs. 8 bay, should i get a pre-amp, etc. talk

yes, its more expensive, but if you get a cm4228 and add a pre-amp, its not much more

my question is, would it be overkill getting that antenna in my area? i'm at bramalea/bovaird

is it possible that my signal would be too strong and i wouldn't receive some channels?

I looked at your TV Fool report and I don't see any stations between real channels 2 and 6 that you need to pick-up. As such, getting a Channel Master 3671 would be unnecessary. I agree with your thought process, though.

I have done what you are considering. I started out with a 4221hd on my roof peak when I first got into OTA. But early this summer, I decided to put up a 30 foot tower and put up a Winegard hd7697p antenna.

It looks like the 3671 but mine only covers channels 7 - 69 so my antenna is much less wide than the 3671. One advantage is less wind load.

If you look at Stampeder's antenna chart, the Antennacraft HBU55 might be an excellent choice for you. Read-up on that one.

While you're at it you might consider a quality pre-amp like the Channel Master 7778 or a Winegard 269 and a rotor for occasional fine tuning when necessary.

Good luck!

hello,

i haven't seen anyone post anything about their results with a cm3671 antenna here...i was wondering if i should just get that antenna, and be done with the 4 bay vs. 8 bay, should i get a pre-amp, etc. talk


Have you tried the small antenna that I referred to you the other day? Didn't it work for you?

Thanks for the replies.

HWP, you're right...I never even considered checking which channels I don't need and making a decision from there...honestly, I only want it for the HD. I don't really care about SD channels, and having looked at the TVfool report, the lowest real channel with HD is 14 (Fox) and the highest is 66 (Sun), unless I'm reading it wrong. So if my reasoning is correct, I only need the UHF stations. So I'm thinking of going with what you suggested, or maybe just sticking with the tried and true CM 4228 or DB8 (and I can't decide between the two!). I just have to figure out whether I need an amp though.

AmowAgou, thanks very much for your suggestion. I did buy that antenna and tried to scan some channels from my backyard. I got a few (even NBC) from inside my house upstairs.

Granted, it wasn't as high as it maybe should have been (I didn't attempt to put it on my roof). I know I would have got some more channels had I done that, but to be perfectly honest, I didn't want to risk going with an unproven antenna (according to this site) so I could save some money. Once I had it installed, they said they wouldn't take it back. I could have tried to just scan while someone was standing on the roof with it, but it wouldn't take bad weather into account. So I returned it.

Having said that, is it more difficult to find a signal with antennas like the one you suggested, or ones like the CM4228 and DB8? I'd be lying if I said I wasn't second-guessing returning that product. My only worry is how far I am from the Buffalo stations (north Brampton - bramalea/bovaird area) and whether they would come in, especially in bad weather.

Thanks

You're reading it right but you missed several high-vhf channels that have HD - some of which you probably want.

You don't need vhf-low (channels 2 - 6).

You do need UHF (14 - 51). Sun will be gone by the end of October.

You probably need vhf-high (7 - 13)

7 WBBZ (HD)
9 CFTO (HD) CTV Toronto
10 CKVR (HD) CTV2 Barrie formerly /A\ Channel
11 CHCH (HD) Hamilton
13 CKCO (HD)

The antenna I sugested is a UHF + high-vhf combo and it leaves out the low vhf.

Good luck!

Getting strongest signal this morning 86% with perfect studder free reception.With the cold weather and tropo. over maybe it will stay good in the winter.

CKVR is coming in very strong this morning 86%.Now is a good time to try for reception in GTA.Even the guide data is working.

ROB50312 - Please keep us posted how you observation about cooler weather/lack of Tropo for CKVR turns out. Every day for the past week for me CKVR was constently just below the lock threshold, but a signal was alway there. However, I was out-of-town on Saturday morning so I missed the strong signal that you observed. I determined that for my set-up that the roofline of my house is slightly obscurring my line-of-sight to Barrie and I was planning on making a adjustment to fix that this afternoon. But it was too windy so I'll have to do it some other day. I have a metal roof so the roofline being slightly in the way is signiificant.

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GH10n3 - CM7777 - 3 Season CM rotor - 25 feet AGL

Living in bramlea area, near steeles + avondale.

I have a 4 bay Clone antenna bolted to my fence at 7 feet and am catching cbc, ctv, tvo, global ,city tv, sun , omni 1 and 2

CW from buffalo seems to be fade in and out depending on weather..


I am looking to catch Fox , cbs and nbc..
I dont want to mount the antenna on my roof and would like to mount the new antenna at the same fence height of 7 feet.

Any suggestions on antenna and which US channels i am likely to catch

Here is my tvfool report
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d60b5f505fbed48