Can anyone recommend a specific brand of splitter w/specs? I'd like to take the RG6 from the antenna (RCA ANT-751) and feed 3 to 4 tuners.

I've been trying to research this online and there appears to be a number of different types and brands of splitters...I'm not clear on what I need.

thanks.

This is the one I've been using to feed my tv's and satellite boxes with OTA inputs....

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=03&p=CM3418&d=Channel-Master-CM3418-Distribution-Amplifier-(CM3418)&c=Amplifiers&sku=

Where I am on the North Shore there are the mountains and so the signal from Mt. Seymour has quite varied topography between myself and the transmitting towers: trees, buildings, the mountain itself, so currently with analogue I do get ghosting, but usually with the rotator I can mostly correct it; but still it does occur. So I'm wondering with digital, for the newer antennas available, would the CM4221HD have too wide a beamwidth for my location and not be able to handle multipath? But, on the other hand, an 91XG is a bit of overkill. 9 to 10 miles from Mt. Seymour, 48 miles from KVOS Bellingham, about 40 miles for CHEK 6, but 120 miles from Seattle.

I've set up a tivo premiere with an HD ready Panasonic and an old set of rabbit ears. I haven't fiddled around too much trying out all the channels as I'm mostly interested in watching the hockey on CBC without the fuzzy awfulness of Shaw cable. CBC comes in great late at night - I can watch the 10pm news in perfect clarity. However, come game time it's too unreliable to watch - lots of pixelation/stalling/drop-outs. I'm sure there's a rhyme and reason to the fluctuation in reception at different times of day - anyone care to enlighten me?

located with good view of the mountains!!

Thanks!

CBC and the other digital stations broadcast in the UHF. The loop or bowtie will give you the best reception. The rabbit ears, are best for the VHF lo-UHF analog. In my experience, a better location more than makes up for a longer run of coax.

During the last game, I had lots of dropouts and stutters. I have no idea if that is CBC's fault since I was having problems with the tuners in my HTPC and was fiddling with antenna position.

I've noticed even watching Hockey Night in Canada on CBUT analogue 2 that there are momentary pixelations on the screen. It would seem that CBC themselves has some intermittent issues in their digital transmissions and they are reflected when the satellite feed- which I'm sure is digital- is retransmitted by the analogue transmitter/translator. Some are to be expected with weather and environmental conditions. Purchase yourself a better antenna. One that is made for UHF signals. There's much info out there and here about which ones do a good job in various situations and budgets.

What I have noticed during the game as I have it on OTA 58.1 CBC and Shaw HD 209 at the same time is a lot of the break ups are happening at the same place during the game like it is the NBC feed that is having troubles and there are a few hick ups on the OTA side that don't seem to be present on the shaw feed but over all they seem to match eachother pretty closely.

Hello,

My first post to the forum. I've read through the instructions for new members, and through as much of the FAQ as I could before posting this thread.

First, here's my TV Fool results:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d03d902a2423e93

Here's the details on my situation:
I live in the Southeast Vancouver neighborhood of Killarney. I don't watch much TV now and would really like to save the money that I'm paying to the cable company for TV that I'm not even watching. If I could just get CBC, CTV and Global OTA, I would be happy. All I really need TV for now is to watch the local news.

I'm using an old rabbit ears indoor antenna. I know outdoors is far superior but that would require far more investment of time and effort than I've got to spare at this point in time.

I've got a newer Samsung on the upper floor that can receive CBC and Global with the rabbit ears, but it has a hard time receiving CTV. It had no problems getting CTV during the 2010 Olympics but now I just can't seem to get it anymore.

Downstairs is the TV I'm struggling more with. It's an older Sony Vega (KV32XBR400). It was able to receive absolutely nothing OTA with the rabbit ears. Then, I got myself a converter box (AccessHD, DTA 1030D) to prepare for the switchover to digital. I was able to receive 3 channels on the Sony after I installed the box between the TV and rabbit ears. One channel was CBC, the other two were channels I cannot remember as they weren't channels I cared about.

I would really like to get OTA working on the Sony as it's still a perfectly working TV. Getting a new TV would defeat my whole purpose of switching off cable to OTA - to save some money. I'm hoping it's just a matter of simply getting a better antenna or positioning the rabbit ears more precisely.

The TV Fool results I got look discouraging to me, but seem inaccurate. For instance, one of my relatives in Northeast Vancouver has a clear view of the mountains and gets many OTA channels no problem... yet his TV Fool results don't list many of those channels.

Is there a relatively simple way to get OTA to work on my Sony downstairs? I'm totally new to this, and reading the posts on this forum to try to find a solution on my own is making my head spin! Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks!

Welcome to the forum.

There are a great many people here who have vast experience on OTA. You say you have the old rabbit ears. Is it just the dipole- the two telescopic rods, or does it also have a round 'loop' part between them? Because for the digital channels, particularly in the Lower Mainland, you will benefit from the UHF loop. For some reason, TVfool has dropped the CIVT digital channel 33 from their TV signal analysis - it's the digital version of UHF 32 (CTV 1) and after the Aug 31st switchover the digital CTV 1 channel will switch from UHF 33 to 32.

You should be able to get the local channels from Mt. Seymour and Bellingham: KVOS, and KBCB (NBC shopping channel) with a reasonably good indoor antenna, provided you don't have any obstacles (tall buildings, hills, dense trees etc.) in your way. Also, it's possible with a low elevation of 10' that you might be in a dead spot for a reliable signal for a certain channel. Higher is generally better for UHF signals, but sometimes you can find a compromise spot that works.

Good luck. :)

archerotor: thanks so much for the reply. The information you shared is greatly appreciated - it will save me a lot of time and headscratching! It was also a relief to read through your post - it sounds like I should be able to get things to work out if I just upgrade my antenna a bit.

The rabbit ears I have just have the dipoles. I can borrow an antenna that is just a loop but I'll need to go out and buy one if it should be the dipoles and loop combined. Is just a loop sufficient, or do you recommend finding one with both?

I just tried out using the loop style antenna and was able to get 7 channels... 6, really - one of the channels was just black.

I'm already happy now because I am able to get CTV and Global. But, since I have to go out and buy myself a new antenna anyway (the loop one is on loan to me): should I just buy myself another loop-style antenna or is there another option that will give me better reception, more channels, etc?

Are the 6 channels you mention digital ones?

For Vancouver area digital there is CBUT "CBC" UHF 58, CHAN "Global" UHF 22, CIVT "CTV" UHF 33, CHNM "OMNI" UHF 20, CKVU "CITY" UHF 47 will be switching to channel 33 after the switchover so you'll have to rescan it, CBC which goes to 43, and CIVT which goes from 33 to 32.
Also, around Aug 31st you should be able to get CHEK 6, which hasn't gone to digital yet (49), as well as CBUFT "CBC French" (16) and CIVI "A Channel" (23), which is to be rebranded as CTV 2.
That's 5 Canadian ones now and 3 more around Aug 31st, plus the two from Bellingham: KVOS and KBCB. That would be ten, and plus KVOS is to have a subchannel that will broadcast KOOL music videos. So ten or eleven channels, however you look at it. You could pay a bit more and, if you have the room, set up a 4-bay outdoor antenna (that some people have success indoors) that would be superior to a UHF loop, but if the loop gives you the majority of local channels and they're stable then you don't have to spend that much money. A lot of the small indoor antennas have both the rabbit ears and the loop together.
Some people with more expensive outdoor antennas and preamps may be able to get some of the Seattle stations but, for most of us, that's a stretch.

Thanks again archerotor! I may be able to get all the channels that you list there... I didn't take time to move the antenna around to find the most optimal location. I appreciate all the help you've given! I'll stick with a cheapie loop antenna for now and upgrade later, should I feel a need to. Thanks!

origami:

downloaded the Antenna Chart so that you spend wisely
rabbit ears for VHF will no longer be needed by the end of the summer and are useless for UHF
Use the Search This Thread tool to the upper right beside Thread Tools and put in your neighbourhood name and/or local street names as search terms so you can compare with how others have done

Archerotor,
I will be pleasantly surprised if on September 1st Chek-TV is actually broadcasting in digital on channel 49 from Saturna Island. All I've heard is that when they switch to digital it will be on channel 49. Every other local channel has been broadcasting in digital for some time now.

I just wanted to add, to the person in Killarney: Depending on where you are in that neighbourhood, you may be near the top of Vancouver with the ability to receive both CDN stations from the north and USA stations from the south. But you may need to orient in different directions to switch between the two. Good luck with your antenna-buying, and I too recommend that you look at the antenna guide.

I have used a inexpensive Video A-B-C Switch to easily select between different antennas.

What antennas / arrangements do you have, Sandman905? What channels do you receive from the different directions? And if you use a converter box, what one do you have? I have a Zinwell 970A, but I don't have another to compare it to.

I've built a couple of McLapp M4 (4 Bowtie) antennas. I using one with a wire mesh reflector on Mayne Island about 15 feet up a tree aimed at Mount Seymour. I'm getting good signals with a Winegard Ap-4800 UHF amplifier from CBUT 2.1, CHAN 8.1, CKVU 10, KVOS 12.1, CIVT 32.1, and CHMN 42.1. CKVU is close to the edge and sometimes drops out. KBCB 24.1 (Shoppiing Channel) comes in clear. I can also pick up KBTC PBS 28.1 (K24IC), but with the antenna aimed at Seymour it isn’t reliable, so I’m going to try another antenna aimed at Orcas Island. I also get analog CHEK 6, but I use another antenna for a clear picture, CIVT 17 (A-Chan) and CBUFT 26 (French). I originally used a Zinwell ZAT-970A Converter with my old analog TV, but now go direct to a Sony HDTV.

At home in North Delta I’m using a McLapp M4 without a reflector and a 20db amplifier in my attic to get the local HD channels. When I was testing my antenna in different directions from my sun deck I was getting KCPQ Fox 13 all the way from Bremerton, WA and KBTC PBS 28.1 from Orcas. I use a DTV-5000 connected through an HDMI input so I can easily switch between my basic analog cable channels and the local OTA HD channels.

Thanks. I looked at trying my hand at building a 4 bay, but so far have stuck with my old "Antennacraft" VU-160XR. I've never been able to get K24IC. I wonder though if the Zinwell doesn't have a really sensitive tuner- but it does allow for manual channel additions. In reading online, I see there's lots of plans out there for antenna makers, and even people who have assembled some of the parts that have them for sale. I was thinking about a 91XG. I'll wait till the analogue shutdown and see how the reception is when some of the channels are reassigned and others finally are up and running.