Little John you should normally get better signal on the roof. In Pickering your should get decent results no real problems with signals from the Cn tower.

Where in Pickering are you near Liverpool, Whites etc ?

When you say you are using a inline amp what kind is it ? Not a satellite line amp.

Also you may not need a line amp because your run is less than 50'.

Remove the inline amp to the antenna and see if you get better results and try and move the antenna for better reception.

Ps: The small sat dish 18" should have no affect on the antenna reception.

Yaamon,thanks for clearing a few things up for me.I was actually using a satellite in line amp(sorry new to OTA) but I removed it from my setup.I live between Liverpool and Brock on the Pickering Parkway.Iwas going to do some more testing today but as you know the weather right now is lousy.I will post back with new results once the weather clears up.Thanks again for your help.

Little John yes once the weather gets better you should get better results without the line amp.

You only need the sat line amp for your satellite if your cable runs is over 100'. If your cable run is shorter than that it's not necessary.

If you are using the line amp because some fta receivers power supply are weak, not enough to power the disq switch over long cable runs and also using the combination diplexers then use the line amp right after the sat receiver and then into the sat line going to the diplexer.

If you put the sat line amp in between diplexers it will affect the ota signal.

Hope the info helps. :)

300m east of Liverpool rd. in Pickering, looking for the direction to point the antenna, currently at 218-220 degrees.

Hi Louis,
I'm in Ajax. I have one antenna pointed south (180) for all the buffalo stations and the other antenna pointed southwest (225) for all the Toronto stations.
If you peak your antenna for best signal on WGRZ, you'll get all the other Buffalo stations.
Good Luck!!

thanks, got a Source $50 off rotor, put it up yesterday... now thinking pre-amp... i want it all, alll i said...

channel......... station......... %-Lock
02-01........WGRZ-HD.......... 68-L
02-02........WGRZ-SD.......... 68-L
04-01........WIVB-HD.......... 81-L
04-03........WNLO-SD.......... 82-L
05-01........CBLT-DT........... 90-L
07-01........WKBW-HD.......... 84-L
09-01........CFTO-HD........... 82-L
23-01........WIVB-HD.......... 83-L
23-03........WNLO-SD.......... 84-L
25-01........CBLFT-D........... 73-L
29-01........WUTV-HD............ 74-L
29-02........WUVT-SD............ 74-L
29-03........WUTV-EN-D........... 74-L
43-01........WNED-HD........... 74-L
43-02........WNED-SD.......... 74-L
43-03........THINK B-D.......... 74-L
57-01........CITYHD-D.......... 67-L

I picked-up signals on 40-1 to 3 at 82% but they failed to register? and on 66-01, 27-05 that also failed to register, any thoughts. I called Sals and ordered a CM7777 sig. amp. is there anything else, other that hitting very high sig. that i should expect to receive? I started like everyone else, looking for the basics, ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX.

I picked-up signals on 40-1 to 3 at 82% but they failed to register? and on 66-01, 27-05 that also failed to register, any thoughts....

CFTO channel 40-1 has a alias of 9-1 (analog station number) so no worries.
The only thing you are really missing is 66-1 which is SUN TV but its quite low powered.

thanks Dc... always wanted a SUN-D,
i only noticed 1 duplicate when click'n round..

Louis great results, by the way what are you using for a antenna.

Sorry if you said what model antenna I missed that.

A preamp like the 7777 should help if you have long cable runs that causes the signal loss. After you add the preamp if you find that some of the channels are pixelating you will have to add attenuators to reduce the signal.

You might have to repeak after a few days as we are having dx in the gta in the past few days, meaning you might lose the weaker signals from Buffalo.

Good luck.

Well i found the SUN-D, comes in very low with some PIX. The pre-Amp should take care of the problem. Hey Yam, i'm using a CM4228-1 (a little bent after the last storm ;) .

The cable run is 50' i don't think i'll need to pad the signal, but i'll wait and see.

I'm looking for a sweet spot where i won't need to use the rotor except to 're-tune' the signals ocassionally. I really had to play to get SUN-D signal.

I couldn't find the link to post my system under my name in the forum...
CM-4228
comming soon PreAmp...
Source rotor
bev-HDTV 6100-(8vsb)
Panasonic 1.2m HDTV 1080i
Sony 5.1

I just got Channel Mater 4228 from Sal's TV, and I'm getting the following channel:

02-1
02-2
05-1
07-1
07-2
23-1
23-3
25-1
29-1
29-2
29-3
40-4
43-1
43-2
43-3
57-1

I'm getting around 77-88% of signal on all the channels. Only of the the channels is 68% I think. And for 29-03 (WUTV-EN-D), all I get is static sound and blank screen, but the singal is at 88%. Is this normal?

Am I missing any channels?

Well comparing the two lists shows some diff, Sal's number is on the phone, called and left a message, i suspect the CM7777 is in. I'll pick it up Thursday have some beers collect the tools and climb to install it, do a re-sync and post the results.

p.s. this is leading edge, the transmitters are not always on, or carrier only.
World Cup in H-def was great...

29-3 all static is normal lately. Before that it was silent too :-)

You're missing 4-1,3, but you'll get the same thing on 23-1,3 for now - who knows once the CW network goes live in the fall. Also missing is 9-1 CTV, & 66-1 SUNTV.

Oops...I see you're getting 9-1 on 40-4.

Thanks for the reply.
So technically all I'm missing right now is SunTV. And possiblly 4-1, 4-3 in the future. Which way should I turn my dish to get these 3 stations? More to ward CN towner?

Hi douglas,
Sun-TV 66-1, is CN tower. Ch 4-1 is CBS Buffalo, so you may need to point more south. I'm in Ajax and i have my 4228 due south for best reception for buffalo. But then you may loose toronto stations.
So, if you don't want to compromise, you need a rotator or a second antenna.
CFTO 40-3 (or4), should be re-mapped to 9-1 but it depends on your tuner, some tuners have a hard time with CFTO's psip or channel ID.

Thanks Tom
I'll try to point toward south a bit more and see if I can pick up more channels without losing any. I don't think I'll get a rotator or second antenna for 1 or 2 extra channels. But when there is more channels available, I'll probably add second antenna instead. Rotataor cost more then a CM4228.

don't have 40-4 or 4-03?
these are the numbers on the test of the guy sitting next to me in school,
same as mine at the time ;) ....funny, i think he's a lawyer now...

WGRZ....... 2-01.......... 70-lock
WGRZ...... 2-02 ......... 74-L
WIVB........ 4-01......... 89-L
WNLO....... 4-03.......... 90-L
CBLT........ 5-01........ 80-L
WKBW...... 7-01.......... 90-L
WNGS...... 7-02......... 90-L
CFTO...... 9-01.......... 82-L
WIVB...... 23-01........ 78-L
WNLO..... 23-03........ 79-L
CBLFT.... 25-01......... 70-L
WNYB.... 26-01 ......... 72-L ***NEW??
?........... 28-01 ........... ?????
WUTV..... 29-01........ 92-L
WUVT..... 29-02........ 93-L
WUTV..... 29-03........ 93-L
WNED..... 43-01........ 93-L
WNED..... 43-02 ....... 88-L
THINK..... 43-03....... 87-L
CITYH..... 57-01....... 87-L
CKXT...... 66-01..... 70-L

what's missing???

28-1 is WUHF-DT FOX Rochester. If it comes in strong enough, it would remap to 31-1. They also carry a second subchannel -2, which carries THE TUBE; music videos, which appear to be uninterupted, & commercial free, from what I've seen so far. Don't know what value that can possibly offer to the station, as it makes no revenue for them.

If WUHF-DT is borderline coming in, there should be a chance at WXXI-DT PBS 16-X (remaps to 21-1,2,3,4), & WROC-DT CBS 45-1 (remaps to 8-1). Both of those come in far easier for me than 31-X, which rarely comes in.

Hello everyone. I found this forum through a Google search for "OTA Canada", and I've got to say it's quite a find! Just to reassure you, I've read all of the "read this first" posts.

I live in the Whitby area (eastern GTA) and I'm interested in setting up a simple OTA rig, mainly to receive the basic Canadian channels like City, CBC, CTV, etc. I get the impression that a good number of these channels are broadcast on or near the CN Tower, which is ~48km LOS from my house. I did a quick path-profile and, assuming the transmittier is near the top of the tower @ 500m, it would seem that I won't have any trouble signal-wise.

http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/7381/profileuw5.png

So my questions revolve around the type of indoor hardware I'm going to need. For example, I have a regular old PDTV, so I imagine that would require an ATSC tuner. Do you have any recommendations? I'm also planning on buying a new HDTV LCD, so I'm wondering if there are any caveats I should be aware of regarding their built in tuners.

Given my relative proximity to the CN Tower, and the apparantly clear signal path, how likely am I to get a decent signal with an indoor antenna? I'd like to avoid exterior hardware if possible. The Wineguard 9032 Yagi seemed like a good option if I'm forced to go with exterior hardware, but I'm concerned that perhaps the stations I want will be spread across VHF/UHF, requiring that I purchase a VHF/UHF antenna. What signals are available on or near the CN tower and which band are they broadcast in? Are there any recommendations regarding the feasability of interior antennas, and if it isn't feasable, what are your recommendations regarding exterior antennas in what I would consider non-fringe scenarios.

Lastly, I noticed that Wineguard's website doesn't seem to list the 9032 Yagi. Are they no longer selling this antenna? Either way, I hate importing things through customs. Is there a good GTA source for this kind of consumer antenna?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Andrew