Hi, I've been reading through this thread and decided to install a OTA antenna on the roof.
I am in Oshawa, Thorton and Gibb area. Just west of the civic centre.
I have a channelmaster 4228 and a 4221 clone. I have tried them both on the roof and can't get global, city or suntv.
I am using a samsung 260 receiver.
I have the cable going from the 4228 to a 7777 preamp,
then to a Eagle aspen satellite switch. It then splits off in 4 and gets diplexed to 4 samsung receivers.
I checked tvfool and it gave me the directions of approx 190 deg. for buffalo and 246 for Toronto.
I can get the buffalo stations no problem. I can get Omni2 Ok (about 6 bars).
I have also tried the 4221. I can get Omni 1 also with the 4221, about 4 bars.

With the 4221. I could get global and suntv and city in the house (although not stable.)

Anybody can help with some suggestions on what else to try?
keeping in mind, I've been going up and down the ladder for 2 weekends...lol

I've also taken some shots for the view through the antenna

http://s345.photobucket.com/albums/p383/viglnt2000/antenna/

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

You should be receiving Toronto stations with no difficulty at all, even when aimed at buffalo..
Ours isn't aimed by any specific degree, just trial and error
But with such a high, clear view from the antenna, you should have no problem.
Basically, point the antenna due south as the road goes (i.e. if your house faces east-west it will be parallel with your street, if faces north-south, it will be perpendicular to the street)
Once it's pointing towards the lake, turn it maybe 10 degrees towards TO and you should be in the general area.
Is the antenna on a mast or roof? (or is next to the roof?)
That would make things much easier for aiming-no need to climb up and down-Someone can monitor signal levels on the tv below and tell you if its getting better or worse as you move it.
This is speaking for a 4228, of course.
If you plan on using both antennas and combining (can be tricky), you'll want one pointing directly at buffalo and one at T.O. (it's not straight west, its actually southwest as the lake curves a bit towards T.O)

I thought I should be receiving TO. I originally had it pointed at 190 deg... I get buffalo great. But no TO. I have to turn it to 246 deg to get omni2 and cfto but they come in at 5 to 10 bars.
The antenna is on a mast attached to the side of the house. It extends about 7 feet above the roof.
I was planning on using both antennas, But I have only 1 antenna hooked up at once. I was going to lock in the antennas first on their own. Then eventually merge the feeds once I got the proper signals.

DearRicky, thanks for the compliments ;) glad you are enjoying your ota setup.

Did not realise you had posted as I have been busy at work.

Remember with the rotor setup you can swing your antenna slightly more west for a better lock on Chch.

You have great results from your location with the antenna position towards 180'. Try 185 to 190 for a stronger Chch.

viglnt,
Have you tried it without the preamp? Start with 1 tuner, get your signal tweeked before you distrubute to multiple sets.

Here is a thread about pre-amps making things worse.
"I think I am dealing with trying to pick up digital stations that are still at very low power in a sea of high power analog signals"
http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=15396

I have the 4228 pointed west of buffalo and the 4221 pointed south of toronto. Combined.
I threw the pre-amp in the garbage and got a cheap DISTRIBUTION amp to feed 4 tuners.
Good Luck!!

Tom,
I'll try it. I tried adding 6 and 12 db attenuators but not much difference either.
I will have to try removing all switches one at a time and see any one is causing problems.
thanks, to everyone so far.

Ok, I'm still not getting any luck.
I disconnected the 7777. Pointed 4228 at about 190 deg. Signal was down across the board. Still no global, omni1 and 2, city or sun.
I also disconnected it from the eagle aspen multiswitch. The signal was a bit better, But still no TO stations.
Right now, the cable is going from the antenna to the tuner. I am using those little connectors that are female on both ends to join the cable. The length is approx 60 feet.
I'll try point straight to CN tower to see what comes in, But after that, I'm not sure what else I can try.
The cable is all brand new with compression fittings.

The fact that you get buffalo stations fine means the cable is ok - those are the weakest stations ("in theory" :p)
I think you may not be pointing the antenna west enough to get Toronto in the side reception lobe of the 4228. If you've seen the diagram of the 4228's lobes, you will know what I'm talkin about. Toronto might be within that trough between the lobes, resulting in low/no signal for some channels.
If you can, try to "mark" positions so you know which one worked and which one didnt - or measure the angle, however you're doing it.
I would get one angle straight at buffalo, another straight at TO, and then slowly "sweep" the antenna across from buffalo, until global, etc come in, Then check your buffalo stations for signal, etc.
(this would require a signal meter or someone watching the tv for when the picture comes in)

Recneps,
I think I understand about the side lobes. But, I've also tried pointing the 4228 at just TO, and still not getting the channels. I tried with the 4221 and I was able to get a weak omni1 but nothing higher.

Recneps,
I think I understand about the side lobes. But, I've also tried pointing the 4228 at just TO, and still not getting the channels. I tried with the 4221 and I was able to get a weak omni1 but nothing higher.
Ok that is a much bigger problem.
When pointed directly you should get it no problem (I could pick up T.O. standing inside in the middle of my room - walls, trees, everything blocking it.
If it's not working up high and open like that, pointed @ T.O., it suggests your receiver is the problem. Do you know anyone else with a receiver you can borrow?
(Or you said you had 4 boxes? Have you tried one of the other ones?)
It could be a problem with the newest stations and their PSIP - global's right now we know is iffy, and SunTV is hit and miss, the omni's could be as well.
I'm fortunate to have a pc tuner, so I can tweak values as needed and can generally keep the channel, even if the channel changes something and goes offline for others, I can still tune it. (Unless it physically stops broadcasting/whatever)

This would also explain why you can get the buffalo channels and not some of the Toronto ones.
(You do get CTV, right? CityTV.. I have no explanation for why that one is off.
It could also be something totally unrelated, like local RF interference on the higher channels - global, suntv, city, omni are all at the top end of the spectrum)

Yes, I have 4 receivers, and I did try another one. I will try all 4.
I also got the toronto stations from in the house. When I first bought the 4221 I just hooked it up in the living room. and I got TO stations, watchable most of the time. It is the same receiver I am using for testing. As for interference.... The Civic Centre is just east of me. Also south of me there is a powerstation, probably about 3 blocks down. But not in the line of sight of Toronto.
The only other option I can think of is to redo the compression fittings one at a time.
If that doesn't work, I'll have to live with no TO stations.

viglnt2000 you should be able to pick those channels up! I'm just a stones throw away from you on Gibbons. For some reason global and sun are farther west then citytv and chch. If you install a rotor you will find them.

This truly is a mystery.
I'll also add to not bother redoing the cable connectors - if they were faulty, you wouldn't receive the weaker buffalo stations (unless there's interference only on the ch 50+ frequency range, which would be highly unlikely)

It's also a mystery to me!:)
I've installed satellite for friends and relatives, even an OTA antenna for someone else. I'm at a loss. I guess, I can sit up there on the weekend and slowly pan across an inch at a time until I find something.

Hi everyone;

I moved to Oshawa about 2 years ago and am happy to say that I am finally having my OTA antenna and system installed in a few weeks. I have been looking into this since moving here from Uxbridge. The very idea of telling Rogers to take a hike makes me laugh. Most of my friends think i'm crazy for getting rid of cable and the 400+ channels of knitting Rogers has. I would much rather have 20 - 30 channels of free HD uncompressed than 1000 channels of sub par HD. I guess it comes down to what type of person you are...Do you prefer Quantity or Quality? I'll take the quality HD for a price that makes this Scotsman cry.

PR.:)

Viglnt2000 have you looked at the analog uhf signals.I would try analog 57 and adjust antenna position across the roof for a perfect picture;no ghosting on analog 57.

Over the weekend, in between the rain, I tried to tweak the antenna. I am able to get about 5 bars on citytv, and 1-2 bars on omni1. omni2 i get about 6 bars also get cfto at about 5 and cbc comes in at 10 bars.

Still no sign of global. I had global from in the house but can't get it with the antenna on the roof. I even tried using attenuators, from 6 up to 12. no improvement, just loses omni1 and citytv gets harder to hold.

I must be in a bad reception area because, from what I have been reading people from Oshawa/Whitby have been getting better results.

rob50312,
Thanks, didn't think about that, I may give it a try, just to see what I get. But, it wouldn't be any different than what could be received on satellite, that's why I didn't look at analog signals.
I might try and see if global comes in on analog.

thanks,

vig, did you go to tv fool and see what the position is for T.O. from your location?
I saw your pics, that's some view. Don't know how or why you can't get what you want.
As for Omni 1 & 2, I don't understand how you can get 2 different strengths from the same crappy station. Ted, what a joke!

lw84no1,
yup, that was one of the first things I did!:)
It has me baffled too!
As for the omni's, yeah the least you would think, omni1 would be easier to get.

Hello everybody,

This is my first post and I just wanted to know if anyone else is having problems lately picking up canadian station like global, city or omni.

I used to pick them up with the antenna facing south towards buffalo, in the last let's say 3 weeks I cannot pick up canadian stations, it's like they have changed something on the station.

Am I the only one with the problem?