I have an old (circa 1990's) VHF/UHF/FM outdoor antenna--I'll post model and name if anyone's interested--that is for mobile homes, boats, etc., that I got from my dad a few year back for free (brand new still in the box!). It's encased in a plastic housing so it doesn't look like an antenna, more like a radar dome. Cool thing is it has a built in rotor and preamp!Hi Darkman, that's got to be a UFO antenna you've got, which will give you excellent reception outdoors in this case - I'm predicting 10/10 strength on your meter on the 2 digital OTA stations on Mt. Seymour once you've got it mounted about 3 feet above the chimney top.

Regarding the analogue stations, you will have hit-and-miss performance because UFO antennas have serious multipath interference problems. ATSC tuners can work around it, but NTSC tuners usually cannot. The rotor feature will help to mitigate some of those analogue problems. While I'm not a fan of UFO antennas I have to say that $0 is a great price! :D

Hi all, just joined.

CBC ch2.1 ~62% (93% max)
CTV ch32.1 ~ 55% (65% max)

Using a Hisense db 2010 HDTV receiver and a cheapo London Drugs VHF dipole antenna.

Welcome here - are you getting a constant, stable lock on both of them, or do they fluctuate in and out of locking?

First post ever.
Shout out to Stampeeder for keeping the thread going.

Ok, so I bout a viewsonice N3752 LCD tv with an ATSC tuner afew weeks ago. After watching the Canucks beat the Stars on monday, my buddy's like, why don't you go buy an antnna and see if you can some OTA HDTV so we can watch hockey is HD?

Just last weekend went to Best Buy and bought myself a Jensen Amped antenna for $53. It's got a loop circle thing at the base and two antennas stick up. Plugged it in and did the channel scan. To my utter Amazement, I got CBC HD!!!! I was blown away by the clarity, colour, and cut, opps, that's for diamonds. hehehe

The picture was amazing, mo better than DVD's. Then I did a search online to see what I can learn about this OTS HDTV bijness, and low and behold google listed this place as first place in the results. I looked at the northwest broadcast listinga nd discovered that CTV HD is available as well.

I moved my antenna around then did another scan, BAM!!!! BAM BAM!! CTV HD!!!!!! TADA!!! Watched an episode of CSI Miami the other night and it was freaking SURREAL!

Oh yes, the most amazing part about all of this is because I am living in a basement rental suite by 41st and main. the antenna is sitting on top of my fridge right in from of the glass slinding door. What's more surprising was that I have these two stacks of empty coke cans and somehow it helps to bounce the signals to my antenna better. I play with both antenna positioning and the coke can placement and now I get CTV and CBC pretty good. Stable enought o watch shows and hockey.

I know when I place it in one spot I can get super stable CTV or another spot to get stable CBC but right now it's abel to get both medium stability. When the fridge starts it causes the picture to be unstable momentarily.

anyways, imagine that, coke cans, basement, rabit ears. so blown away by HDTV.

Any advice on how I can get better signals?

Glad to see the great enjoyment you're getting! :)Any advice on how I can get better signals?If you haven't already read them, check out the links at the bottom of this post for more OTA ideas/options:

100% stable for CBC HD but CTV's signal could drop below 30% which could become unwatchable. But that does not occur on a daily basis.
Also, are there any local chennal that will go on air digitally soon?

Take a look here.

http://members.shaw.ca/nwbroadcasters/

Jaygeetee, I check Gord's site every day for his great news links. :)

Also Zire2.0 we have a thread here for general OTA station info in our area that doesn't get into specific reception results like this thread does. You can find it here:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=42734

Thanks all. Stampeder, with your set up how many digital station can you receive?

I'm trapped in between tall trees so depending on what type of experiment I'm doing its anywhere from 3 to 8 DTV stations. :)

See the "Pimp My Gear" thread for photos of my tree situation.

Hi all, keep up the good work Stampeder.
I am a long time lurker, first poster. I am at 37th and Knight, on the top of the hill. 2 weeks ago I cancelled my cable and installed a Channel Master 4242 VHF/UHF combo (http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/cm4242.html) in the attic.

Pointed generally at Seymour I get the typical analogue stations and CBC & CTV in HD. Not sure what signal strength I am getting, since Media Center only shows green bars. I am using the new Avermedia PCIe Combo card in Media Center.

It took me several days to clue in that HD is disabled in Media Center if you set your region as Canada. There are hacks around it. I am debating turning the antenna south to see if I can pick up PBS...not really interested in the other SeaTac network stations.

Anyone have any luck with PBS?

Hi rickbeec, that's an excellent combo antenna you bought. Every time I've driven past 37th and Knight I've thought that people along the crest of that hill would have perfect reception from Mt. Seymour. :)

Regarding the 2 PBS Digital stations from SeaTac, I would be very surprised if you got them without extreme hot weather tropo skip or ducting happening from down there. The analogue PBS on VHF channel 9 might come in with some graininess.

Rickbeec,

I am located just a bit further south than you at 48th and Knight with my Channelmaster 4221 (bowtie) pointed south and I can pick up PBS with no problems. It's not a very strong signal (45-55%) compared to CBS (75-90%) but pretty steady.

For my TV, anything above 30% is watchable. Even with my antenna pointed south, I can still pick up CBC via backdoor but cannot get CTV. I've purchased a rotor but haven't had time to install it yet.

Good luck getting PBS!

Greetings, all:

Just joined this forum today and wanted to share my experiences. I am located at the bottom of Mountain Hwy (almost at sea level) in North Vancouver.

With my SIRT-451 and a cheap set of 'rabbit ears', I am able to receive both CTV and CBC in HiDef and frankly, I am amazed at the picture quality! The only annoying problems which I would like to clear up is the presence of the 'rabbit ears' in my living room (looks kind of rinky-dink) and the fact that I have to fool around with the positioning of them for each individual channel. I know that the ultimate solution to the problem is the installation of a good quality outdoor antenna (with a rotor perhaps?) but I am unable to locate installers who still perform this service.

After phoning around to every dealer I could think of, I have the distinct impression that they think that anyone who wants such an antenna are idiots. After all, in this day and age with the availability of cable and satelite services, why would anyone want one? Well, after seeing and experiencing the quality of video with mere 'rabbit ears', I DO!

Hi and welcome here, wtaylor35, you can find what you need in the BC & Western Canada OTA Parts/Sales/Service/Installers thread:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=51079

Its a shame you didn't know about the OTA Forum sooner... :) Please take the time to click on the following links if you haven't read through them already:

Thanks for your help, Stampeder! Much appreciated!

Here's an update to keep this thread current:

After reading Stampeder's (and other's) posts about KVOS-DT on another thread, I decided to have a look-see. From my location at the foot of Mountain Hwy. in North Vancouver, I am now receiving a fairly robust signal on 35.1 (with minor occasional dropouts, though). Still, I find this remarkable as the higher elevations of the city of Vancouver are in the way! Perhaps a little more height on the antenna will improve the situation.
CTV and CBC are still banging right in at full strength, thanks to my new CM4228 and to Mr. 4DTV HD.

Hi everyone.

After some tweaking of positioning my Phillips MANT410 powered antenna now I can receive KVOS-DT, CBC-HD, CTV-HD and the shopping channel. Not bad for an indoor antenna.

I've managed to aim my indoor antenna in my downtown vancouver condo to recieve CBC-DT, CTV-DT, and KVOS-DT. I don't seem to pull in the shopping channel but I'm not too concerned about that.

Indoor ZSS clone:

W41st & W Boulevard(Arbutus) - Good for CBC. CTV has picture & sound but has occasional dropouts.