Thanks for checking in dav13. I was able to pull in Global Charlottetown with an indoor LPDA (Zenith Silver Sensor clone) when placing the antenna directly in a West-facing window from Charlottetown and the North Shore area of PEI. Reception isn't reliable with the antenna conveniently mounted near the TV in either location though. I built a 7" UHF loop to place in the attic but it didn't work as well as the LPDA. Neither of these places had what I would call watchable reception of 42 analog either, so this result is not unexpected. I think I'll need to build a GH or buy a proper outdoor or attic mounted antenna.

I just checked in with my brother, in a low area about 17 miles from the tx. I set him up with an 8-bay UHF antenna and preamp in the attic and peaked it for channel 42 analog last month. He was blown away with the quality when he first saw OTA HD just now. I'm expecting his setup to get bulletproof reception and will report back if it doesn't. The picture quality sure is a step up from fuzzy SD and makes the investment in a proper Rx setup worthwhile.

Channel 42 works fine with Window Media Center. When I was in North Dartmouth over the weekend I got good signal on 8.1 (you can almost see the tower over the treetops from there) but MCE refused to tune it. I assumed this was due to the issues discussed in navwizard's Global PSIP thread.

I noticed periodic clicking sounds on 42 during the 11 o'clock news last night. I thought this was a problem at my end but the same clicking was on Eastlink channel 6. I'm not sure where Eastlink gets their signal from and didn't think to check channel 6 while the transmitter work was underway.

Thumbs up for having the correct time in PSIP on 42. I hope to see a day or two of guide information soon as well.

It's too bad Industry Canada didn't grant higher Tx powers for our region, and that Global didn't ask for more power in their DTV applications, but so far for Charlottetown this is a big improvement over the weak analog signal.

I am in Hammonds Plains and can not get the global Halifax signal with an indoor antenna. (TV fool said it would probably require an attic mount to get it though)

Royce

Good Morning

Thanks for the Great feed back, Yes we did have the psip numbers wrong
in Fredericton and Moncton, we have corrected that. I am impressed with
the reception on some of the NB sites.
I picked up a converter for my sister who is in a basement apartment in Dartmouth that could never get the analog signal.
with only rabbit ears I was able to get a 65% signal and a watchable picture.
Saint John error log has only a few faults this morning, again it's just the bugs
that must be worked out.
Thanks again for your input.

dav13, here in liverpool, nova scotia, i cant scratch 1 percent with indoor antennas, any chance of it getting boosted by aug 31 or anything? or ic there are other towers by me? those will be going over to digital as well?

Liverpool is served OTA by the two local CBC and CTV analog retransmitters.

The digital tranmitters in Halifax are 67 miles away.
Global Halifax would have to increase their power on channel 8 almost a thousandfold for you to have a chance at getting it reliably.

tvlurker, would the re-transmitters be going digital as well? atm im only able to get cbc here, i can only get ctv (ch 6) enough to say something there, its with no color or sound and alot of snow. thanks , shawn

Shawn, the analog retransmitters on 6, 9 and 12 should stay broadcasting.
Depending on exactly where you are located in the Liverpool area, you may need a good outdoor VHF antenna to get CTV on 6 and Global on 9. According to TVFool.com, CBC is nearby on Great Hill, but the other two are 25 miles away in Newcombville.

Northside west in Fredericton is getting Global with awesome reception. No drops or anything yet.

The only thing that I see being a bit annoying now is that Zap2It seems to be blissfully unaware of the changeover here in Canada as there are no listings for the digital channels on their site and therefore for any of us that are using HTPC software. In the interim, I am just remapping them in SageTV so not a show stopper and certainly not something you guys can affect, at Zap2It that is.


Oh and Dan...

I finally moved my rather ugly GH v1 antenna to the roof so it is a full 25 feet AGL. I am getting a full 20% boost in the signal strength that the HDHomerun reports. I can also now reliably get Global out of Saint John when using the tuner in the TV. For whatever reason, it seems to be more sensitive than the HDHR by a wide margin. Maybe I need a signal amp...

On this section of the forum any outdoor OTA antenna is a rare and beautiful thing (preferably in direct the sightline of a CRTC commissioners living room window :-)

Those branded gray 18in Sat dishes all pointing to the identical point in the sky are plain boring along with being ugly and dangerous. Do you know they hoover $600-$1200 annually out of their owners pocket via their credit cards and cut the Feds & Provinces (except for Alberta) in for some of the $ action.

I'd love be somewhere down in southwestern New Brunswick with a mast mounted long range VHF-LO yagi aimed at WBLZ & WABI Bangor. It doesn't get any better then that in my DTV fantasy land.

Hi Shawn
Not much hope for you in picking up Halifax, but Global does have transmitters
in Bridgewater & Shelburne ch9 & 10 these well stay analog for now but
the plan is to upgrade them to digital in the second or third wave.
I don't know the timeline at this point as we are still busy with the 1st. ones.

Oh I hear ya robcreaser :p

I just hope my wife does not look up on the roof when she leaves for work this morning.

And to reiterate a question a page back or so...

Can anyone say/respond with experience as to if it is dangerous to add an amp to an antenna in an attempt to get fringe channels when one or more of your channels are already REALLY strong? Would doing so damage a tuner device?

In my situation, Global is only 9 miles away and TVFool shows a NM db of almost 50. When CTV is turned on, it is only 43 miles away and TVFool shows it with a NM db of 41.7. If I added an amp in this situation, would it over boost these two stations to the detriment of my tuner hardware?

The issue is generally not physical damage to the tuner rather possibly being detrimental to receiving additional channels because you potentially over load and confuse the tuner with too much good stuff (assuming a low noise amp).

I'm not sure where you are located and where your short range and long range stations are relative to your location and the antenna type your using (UHF or VHF or Both).

For example at my mothers place on Keswick Ridge I installed a long range VHF HI antenna + medium gain AMP aimed precisely to the north west to successfully get CH 8 and 10 that are 60 miles away on Mars Hill. I was easily able (without overload) to get UHF 44.1 (Global Fredericton) just south of the ridge from the "back side" of the VHF antenna.

I can't confirm it yet but I suspect that CBC Digital (now on 31) should also be OK because the distance/location/power are projected to be similar to Global.

My biggest concern is CTV Digital VHF 9 much further to the south but we can’t test that yet. To get digital 12 (Global) the other day (same hill as 9) I had to swing the antenna 180 degrees towards it. But 9 is on a taller tower with more power so I hope to also get CTV from the back side of the existing antenna negating the need for a rotor (or another antenna or more powerful amp :-).

I’m back in your area next weekend to do the post transition tests and will report the results and if more steps are required.

BTW.. Expressvu has already been canceled effective Sept 3 saving her $660 per year of ugly ;-)

Cool. Then I may order one up!!!

I am on the north face of McLeod Hill about 346 feet ASL so I have a REALLY good shot at 44.1 and currently can get CH 9 analog crystal clear. I can also get CBC 4 analog with a modest amount of snow. I can get CBAFT 19 for a joke and I can also get CTV Moncton Analog if the atmospheric is just right if I use my TVs tuner. (TV is a Vizio 37")

I am currently using a DIY Gray-Hoverman with no reflectors at all so that it is bi/omni-directional. I am off axis from 44.1 by about 20 degrees and it is having no negative effect on the reception so I could likely rotate it to aim directly at Mars Hill to see what happens. A few weeks ago I made sure that the cable (RG6) from the roof was as short as I could make it and that all connections had GOOD compression fittings installed at all connection points. So, for the most part, everything is banged right out. I even have the HDHomerun connected as close to outside as I could get it.

The one plus to using an HDHR is I can drag my netbook to the roof and watch the signal response in real time.

Key with the amps is getting them enough (low noise) gain to amplify. Channel 8 from Mars Hill is the real test but your just a couple of miles further back from them then Keswick Ridge. TVFool looks promising for WAGM depending exactly where you are on the hill. Im using a Wineguard 1713 ($50.00 at Amazon) for my installation plus the Wineguard 8700 ($36.67) med gain amp and of course 100% RG6 as short as possible pre and post amp. Less then 2 months ROI so far based on the $55 monthly expressvu sub ;-)

I am looking at the Winegard 8275 but it can be a few $$$ depending on where one tries to order it from.

Also, the NM db for WAGM for my location is reported at just under 1.0 so it could be a hell of a fight or need a reflector or other herculean effort that really would not be worth it to me if it would then get knocked out by rain or snow fade given the distance from here to Mars Hill.

Hello folks.
First off, it's great to see this very active DTV discussion in this part of the forum.
Now: Just a reminder that quoting the message preceding yours is not necessary. If you are quoting a message from farther back, please only use a snippet that helps place your own message in context. This all helps make threads easier to read.
Several messages in this thread will be edited.
Thanks and happy viewing!

Will the local evening news programming from CBC Halifax or CTV Halifax be in High Definition after August 31st?

Thanks

Thats the amp I'm looking if I need it. $46 on Amazon $0 Maine tax shipped to Houlton. If your high on McLeod Hill with a nice clean shot to Mars Hill then 8 should be ok. Did you map the tvfool "Callsign Lookup" using WAGM selecting Digital? It paints the top of your hill dark purple. Thats a really good sign. Transmitter is almost 150 ft on top of a 1000 ft hill. Where I live here in Ontario only the CN tower transmitters beat that height :-)

CTV Atlantic won't be in High Definition for local news any time soon.

Magnet, if you don't mind me asking, what do you base this answer on?