Can you post a pic of your array?

Thank you so much for the excellent responses. I really appreciate it. I think now reading these posts I am more leaning towards the outdoor CM4221 antenna. Now I have to convince my husband to either install it or get someone to do it :). I definitely will post the reception results soon once we have it.

Thank you again to Bman72, 99gecko, Euphoricall78 and Stampeder.

Busybe

kooguy,

You're right about multiple TVs. For now there is just the one, but you never know, a few years down the road (more likely several, at the rate I get around to doing these things), a second TV might appear. The preamp would then be helpful in boosting the signal so that it could be split to the second TV. Hmmm... the second TV would likely have the tuner built in too so I wouldn't need a second external ATSC tuner :)

@ goforit - here is a pic of my humble setup :) I can't put anything outdoors right now, but have found my Sunroom to be the "sweet spot" for most reception. I'm actually shocked the rabbit ears pull in as much as they do. Here's the set up, with the CM4221HD mounted to an old CD tower, and the VHF rabbit ears behind them. (I took this pic when I received WICU for a little over an hour a couple of weeks ago....it peaked at 71% signal strength that night!)

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=228&pictureid=1186

And here's a logo shot that I got when I received it last week:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=228&pictureid=1185

I have a soft spot for WICU because it's one of the first channels I can remember DXing. When I lived in Scarborough as a kid, I was about 7 and was playing around with TV reception using the rooftop antenna that we had at that house (it came with the house when we moved in and had no rotor.) I was spinning the dial to Channel 12 and saw a commercial for "Our House" (I'm guessing it was 1987-ish) But what shocked me was when the voiceover said "Our House on WICU" It was one of the first times I realized you could get something "different" than your regular channels, since I'd only seen CHEX up to that point.

Thanks for the pics. I guess you used a simple combiner to input the 4221 and the rabbit ears? Did you ever explore the length of the ears and reception? My understanding is that hi VHF needs to be much shorter than low VHF- channel 2 the longest. I concur your feelings of youth and old-time TV: I remember putting little channel stickers on the rotor dial that sat atop our TV. The rotor dial would make this funny grinding sound. WICU channel 12 was rock solid for us in Hamilton south mountain. One night- we got a Pittsburgh channel- 11. At my location now- east Hamilton mountain, I get WQLN 54 (50.1) rather regularly, WSEE 35 also comes in with 2 sub channels- CW and WICU SD, but no 12 WICU.

Cheers!

I've moved some posts here regarding GarthJ's gear to keep the DXing thread focused on the results. :)

X4mer, are you able to get any consistency from WNYB. Its the only signal from south of the border I have issues with?

I don't pay that much attention to that channel, but I don't recall it to be missing at any time with my new setup, unless I had my rotor pointed elsewhere. It's definitely been in solid the last two nights.

Hi All,

Wanting to make the switch to OTA HD, just hooked up an amplified indoor Philips PHDTV3 for the first time in the family room (ground floor) and got the following on my first scan (Panasonic '09 plasma):

2.1 (WGRZ-HD @ 1080i) - 59%
2.2 (WGRZ-US @ 480i) - 61%
2.3 (WGRZ-RTV @ 480i) - 62%
4.1 (WIVB-HD @ 1080i) - 78%
5.1 (CBLT-DT @ 1080i) - 92%
7.1 (WKBW-HD @ 720p) - 84%
9.1 (CFTO HD @ 1080i) - 77%
17.1 (WNED-HD @ 1080i) - 79%
17.2 (WNED-SD @ 480i) - 81%
17.3 (WNED-TH @ 480i) - 79%
19 (TVO @ 480i)
23.1 (WNLO-HD @ 1080i) - 92%
25.1 (CBLFT-D @ 1080i) - 67%
29.1 (WUTV-HD @ 720p) - 84%
29.2 (WUTV-SD @ 480i) - 83%
36 (CTS @ 480i)
41.1 (CIII-DT @ 1080i) - 90%
44.1 (OMNI 2 @ 1080i) - 100%
49.1 (WNYO-HD @ 720p) - 45%
49.2 (WNYO-SD @ 480i) - 44%
57.1 (CITY @ 1080i) - 71%
64.1 (OMNI 1 @ 1080i) - 75%
66.1 (CKXT-DT @ 1080i) - 89%

This is facing south through a few tall deciduous trees, meant as a quick proof of concept. Any thoughts on the reception and would a CM4221HD mounted on the roof (which still wouldn't clear the trees) be the next logical step?

Thanks for any and all insights!

That's excellent reception with an indoor antenna, rodak, so with an outdoor CM4221HD you'd be doing great for more Buffalo signals.

Also right now there is a lot of tropo activity in your area so your results might be only temporarily high: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=26789

Hi ginsoaker, would you mind sharing your elevation? I'm south east side, and am pondering trying out OTA. I have two PC's with TV tuner cards that I can connect to but sadly my big Sammy DLP is a year too old for an ATSC tuner.

Hi,

Could someone tell if it is possible to get OTA in Keswick (North of Newmarket), My location is Crittenden Dr, close to Queensway and Ravenshoe and my elevation is 778 feet (according to Google Earth). I noticed that Newmarket and Aurora are higher than 900 feet (they cross my sight line to ZN Tower). Could this affect to get OTA for my home? have Somebody in Keswick already installed OTA and it is working fine?

Thanks

Welcome here, smuga68: use the Search This Thread tool to the upper right beside Thread Tools and put in "Keswick" as your search term to see a few posts about your location. :)

smuga68, you can go to www.tvfool.com and search your postal code to see what channels you can expect to get. You should get Barrie easily, but all of the Toronto and Buffalo are on the other side of the Oak Ridges morraine, so you may have limited success with the Buffalo stations. Toronto should be fairly easy to get.

Hello all... I have recently setup a CM4228HD antenna with CM7777 preamp at my home. It's on a 12' roofmount tripod, on top of my wood shed roof (total of 22' off the ground)... I have 30-50 foot trees on my property, about 200m deep directly in line with the CN tower... I have been only able to get 3-5 digital channels, depending on what time of day I do a scan. Usually :

5-1 (obviously)
9-1 (sometimes)
23-1 (50%)
25-1 (so what)
44-1 (spotty)

I will post pictures in the next day or so. But can anyone shed some light on how to get through (over) the trees, AND over the Oak Ridges Moraine without losing my sanity?? I do not want to put up a 60' tower.

Make sure you are pointing to CN tower directly. For me, a difference of a degree is having 5 or 6 channels or not at all. Have someone help you read the TV's signal meter of one of the channels you listed while you rotate the antenna. The goal is to make said channel stronger which would indicate that the antenna is more aligned. Then do a scan afterward and see if you get more channels.

Make sure you are pointing to CN tower directly. For me, a difference of a degree is having 5 or 6 channels or not at all.Thanks, I have been setting up this antenna alone... I will get my wife to call out the signal strength via cell phone...

what channel is best to "finetune" my angle to the CN Tower???

5.1 CBC??

I use City and CTV because they are more sensitive to the angle.

Mark1974, Im afraid that the trees will greatly reduce signal quality.

Make sure that if you did your connectors on the cable that the braided(ground) wire was not striped off.

Depending on how thick the trees are you should be able to receive more local channels.

Good luck.

rodak, how is the indoor antenna holing up?

See you on Tuesday. ;)

rodak, how is the indoor antenna holing up?

See you on Tuesday. ;)
Yaamon,

Nice meeting you and many thanks for the first-rate CM4221HD hook-up yesterday. We're very happy with the results. As you saw, the indoor antenna reception was surprisingly good, but the roof-mounted CM4221HD takes it to another level -- without the need for a pre-amp -- and feeding all 3 TVs throughout the house, using existing coax.

Here are the reception results with the new set-up:

2-1 WGRZ-HD (NBC) - 97%
2-2 WGRZ-US (Universal Sports) - 97%
2-3 WGRZ-RT (Retro Television Network) - 97%
4-1 WIVB-HD (CBS) - 94%
5-1 CBLT-DT (CBC) - 96%
7-1 WKBW-HD (ABC) - 100%
9-1 CFTO-HD (CTV) - 92%
11-1 CHCH-DT (E!) - 78%
17-1 WNED-HD (PBS) - 98%
17-2 WNED-SD - 98%
17-3 WNED-TH (ThinkBright) - 97%
19 TVO - Analog
21-1 WXXI-HD - 44%
21-2 WXXI-W (PBS World) - 46%
21-3 WXXI-C (Create/ThinkBright) - 47%
23-1 WNLO-HD (CW) - 94%
25-1 CBLFT-D (Radio-Canada Ontario) - 92%
26-1 WNYB-SD (Tri-State Christian Television) - 68%
26-2 WNYB-HD - 71%
29-1 WUTV-HD (FOX) - 100%
29-2 WUTV-SD - 100%
36-1 CTS HD - 49%
41-1 CIII-DT (Global) - 97%
44-1 OMNI 2 - 97%
49-1 WNYO-HD (MyTV) - 100%
49-2 WNYO-SD - 100%
57-1 City HD - 80%
64-1 OMNI 1 - 100%
66-1 CKXT-DT (SUN TV) - 97%