I currently have a older chimney mounted, Log-Periodic Dipole Array (LPDA), 39 element Vee-type outdoor antenna, and I'm wondering if given being 200 feet up the mountain in West Van on the North Shore and having Mt. Seymour 10 miles northeast of me what type of antenna would be best for those conditions: the Corner reflector Yagi type, like the Winegard 9032 or Channel Master 4248/3023, or the multi bay bowtie type like the Channel Master 4228HD or 4 bay Channel Master 4221HD. I've done a lot of reading and it seems the Winegard gets it's highest gains in the channel band that will soon be dropped: 50-69. (It's going to take some time before a new generation of Yagi's are optimized for channel 51, as opposed to the current channel 69.) And yet the newer 4228HD has it's fair share of engineering shortcomings, and isn't as good for overall UHF gain as it's 4228, made in the US predecessor.

I have my old antenna on a rotator. So I will be able to turn it.

Since I'm not in Vancouver, but on the same side as the transmittor, I'm more on an angle from it- I can see the lights on Grouse Mountain but, because of tall conifers in a local park east of me, I can't see the lights on Mt. Seymour. I'd like clear local channels and would also like to get channels from across the US border again. With the Winegard 9032, a deep fringe area antenna, is this still usuable, being only 10 miles from the towers on Mt. Seymour, but more distant, maybe 48 miles from KVOS? I don't know for sure if multipath would be an issue for local reception.

Just curious about opinions and experiences here, or with similar geography.

Thanks.

In your situation I would remove the rotor, aim and lock your big VHF/UHF antenna at SeaTac (it would also get Bellingham and Victoria on its forward lobe) and install a CM4221HD 4-bay aimed and locked at Mt. Seymour, and then combine them (https://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=675713&postcount=16). :)

Thanks Stampeder

How high can an antenna like mine safely have it's mast go above the chimney without putting too much stress on it in the wind, and not requiring guy wires? We sometimes get some strong winds in Winter. I have it on a short mast right now, so it's only about two feet above the top of the chimney, but about five feet above the highest point of the roofline.

Thanks.

A couple of general rules of thumb that are easily messed up by local situations:

with a free-standing (non-guyed) pole on a secure mount you can usually go up to 10 feet total height
for a tower you can usually add 20 feet of tower section(s) above the highest support point

Again, just rules of thumb that do not apply to all situations due to such concerns as antenna and gear weight, wind load, etc.

Please read through the following thread for a ton of much more accurate info:

OTA Mounts, Towers, Rigging Hardware (https://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=29559)

Thanks Stampeder. I thought it was about 10'. Thanks for the links.

Hi everyone,

I'm on Davie facing across the street towards the mountains. I have a Silver Sensor antenna, but am having no luck getting the digital OTA stations from Mt. Seymour. Any advice? It would seem I don't have a horrible line of sight, but there are likely a few buildings in the way.

Is it an amplified or unamplified SS? My Philips SS clone is useless without the amplification, but once I turn it up, I can get good signal on the CDN channels.

It's unamplified. I've never had to amplify it in other cities with the sources a lot further away, but I guess there's a lot of interference here in downtown.

Ahh okay. I have slightly less than a direct line of sight from my place in East Van. If you can't get anything to work, you may want to try an amplified model.

Brad Smith, you might need to try aiming it at nearby tall buildings and running a scan to see if you get a lucky signal bounce. In downtown areas I also try angling the antenna up a few degrees at a time to see if a bounce can be found that way off of different buildings. Are you at or near ground level?

I'm on the 5th floor of a 7 floor building. The buildings across the street are 5 floors and 7 floors respectively. I'll play around today and see what I can get.

Hi - I'd very much appreciate some help setting up our first OTA TV set up in Vancouver, as we're having some challenges.

OUR SITUATION: We're half a block north of Douglas Park, so just a row of houses ~ 80 feet to the north of us, then a row of tall trees & then the open space of the park, so although our apartment is on the ground floor, the living room window is north facing, giving us peekaboo north shore mountain views.

TV fool says we should get 5 HD TV stations from Seymour ~ 9 - 10 miles to the NE with an indoor antenna (we're renters, so outdoor/attic antennas not an option, and we'd be happy just getting the 5 HD channels and not fussing too much to try to get the analog ones).

We bought an RCA antenna that looks like a flat black box - multidirectional with an amplifier and hooked it up to our Samsung digital TV.

OUR PROBLEM: We've spent hours trying all sorts of positions and directions. When we do pick up the HD signals, we get amazing quality, but the antenna seems very finicky and we can't seem to find a spot that picks up all 5 HD signals at once (e.g. we'll get CBC and Omni, but lose Global and CTV or vice versa, and we only managed to get City with me standing on a chair holding the antenna in the middle of the room - which is definitely not going to work!)

OUR QUESTIONS:
- Is this just a dud antenna or is this normal for our situation?
- If we need a better antenna, where do you buy one in Vancouver (we've just tried big box stores) and what would you recommend for an indoor antenna (a friend in Kits says he gets 6 channels clear as day with just old rabbit ears so I don't know why ours is so finicky - definitely doesn't seem to live up to the multi-directional claims.
- Do we need to do something more to complete our OTA set-up that I don't know about? - I admit to being a complete TV dummy - I can barely work the VCR, though we did figure out where to re-scan for stations in the TV Menu, so we've rescanned after numerous relocations of the antenna box with no success.
- The TV is located diagonally across from the north window, but a few feet away from the electrical panel - could that be causing problems?
- Would it be better to get a longer (coax?) cable and set up the antenna in the window (we did try moving the TV and antenna together in front of the window and it was somewhat better but still spotty).
- If we want to hook up the kids' TV down the hall, do we just buy a splitter and run a long cable to it, or is it more complicated than that?

Woudl appreciate any help at all tha you techie wizzards can offer!!

Thank you!!

Clueless in Vancouver

Hi, definitely that antenna is a dud for you. Is an outdoor antenna a no-go? For the best options please see the Antenna Chart:

I use a large antenna indoors 4228 why strata bylaws, does it work oh ya very good I have used a smaller clone type version of the 4221, did it work yup and less cumbersome to hide.
I get the best results right infront of the window. My wife tolerates this most wivies will not but she loves the reception and I promised as 2011 comes and signals get stronger I may be able to go smaller to a 4221 ( real one )
Even with out a pre amp the 4221 clone I have is sensitive to locating all chanels in one direction ( Pre amp Lessens the sensitivity for me in my location ) The larger 4228 gives me distant stations that is the real reason I don't use a 4221 clone ( the smaller type ) You mentioned getting a cable coax well get a good peice rg 6 not the 50 foot version at the dollar store for 4 bucks that will set you up for failure right from the start.
And It does take time to locate rescan over and over but once you find the good spot find a way to make it able to stay it that location ie: some kind of bracket or stand assembly.

BINGO!!!

Found the Terk HDTVa Indoor Antenna at The Source in Brentwood Mall today (after trying two London Drugs outlets that didn't have it).

Came home, plopped it on the north-facing window sill in our ground-floor basement apartment (cunningly disguised behind the curtain - after all, I'm the wifey & looks do matter!), connected the wires to the TV, rescanned and we now have all 5 HD Canadian channels AT THE SAME TIME in glorious clear HD, plus Channel A and French CBC in analog - no fiddling, no fuss.

We're not even bothering with the US channels since we're just north of the crest of the hill and an outdoor or attic antenna are not options, but this will do us just fine.

A BIG HUGE THANK YOU to Stampeder and others who contribute to this Forum for helping us get this organized - your advice has been excellent!

Hubby just got home from work and is extremely impressed - especially since I needed help working the VCR just a month ago!

Next step... figuring out how to split the signal and get it to the kids TV but I'm going to enjoy my handiwork before tackling that one!

Clueless in Vancouver

Well done Dawn123 :)
A splitter from London drugs should do fine and a good piece of RG6 cable to run to the other Tv do keep in mind the splitter will give less signal to each Tv so I hope it is good all around for you and it all works but again well done on the first one working. Let us know how the next tv goes.

BINGO!!!

Next step... figuring out how to split the signal and get it to the kids TV but I'm going to enjoy my handiwork before tackling that one!

Clueless in Vancouver

since the signal for the k24ic repeater is strong enough, you get a lot of kids programming from that station (morning and afternoon)...i know my kids love both the kids programming in cbc and k24 and like you mentioned IN HD!

oh yah...go Canucks go

So I'm about 10km away from Mt. Seymour. I'm in Lynn Valley in a basement suite with no windows facing the mountain. I have one very small one facing the opposite direction just above ground facing the neighbouring house.

For awhile I could pull in CTV, Global, and City fine - and CBC sometimes. But it seems now I can't get City for the life of me, and when I do happen to find the perfect orientation, I get nothing else. I'm using a kind of crappy RCA antenna (cant 121). My silver sensor clone gets absolutely nothing in this suite unfortunately.

Any thoughts? Would I have better results if I built a little bowtie antenna from coat hangers and fit it in there? I imagine the signal is strong, but I can't manage to get everything.

Thanks!
Kyle

since the signal for the k24ic repeater is strong enough, you get a lot of kids programming from that station (morning and afternoon)...i know my kids love both the kids programming in cbc and k24 and like you mentioned IN HD!


Thanks to all the mods/regulars for all the useful info in these threads.

tvfool results here:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d3cf4e92a7a838f

vancouver cambie&16th area

i've got my DIY M4 bowtie clone (10" whiskers) with about 60% signal strength across all the local channels. basically the same result as using bunnie ears sadly.

but with the bowtie was able to pickup analog ch 6 in addition to the other channels.. not really watchable, but at least shows the antenna has better receiver qualities.

what would it take to get those extra few US channels such as 12.1/24.1? for the kiddies?

already attic mounted (~20ft).

would a signal amplifier work or would i have to move to a SBGH/DBGH type antenna and outdoor mount? wifey would prefer the attic as it's not visible to her or the neighbours.

i think you just need to point it correctly as the m4 is more directional...i had an m4 and now an older variation of the stealth hawk and i get much better results with that one...