Or a chimney mount if location is good. They start at around $12 and should be as solid as the chimney.

Some say the effluent is harmful - sooner or later - to the antenna. I'm not sure if modern furnaces are as bad as earlier ones.

The picture also looks like an eaves mount would work although maybe 10 feet is pushing it.

I don't know why the local dealers have only heavy iron masts. There are aluminum ones that stick together at 9 and 4.5 feet. Not as stiff as heavy steel but still plenty stiff. Saves maybe 10 lbs, guessing.

B.

gimpota,
Have a look at post #1973 (page 132) of this thread for an indication of how the CM4221HD may perform for you. The member writing it is probably pretty close to where you are located. He also tested some other antennas – see his subsequent posts.

Hi - is there anybody else no longer picking up 17.1 (PBS) in downtown Toronto?

Thanks.

Hi - is there anybody else no longer picking up:
17.1 (PBS)
29.1 (fox)

in downtown Toronto? These used to be sure things for me (Bathurst/Dupont) but PBS is not coming in at all and Fox is really bad.)

Thanks.

Hi,

I am in Brampton,

I am getting 17.1, 17.2, 17.3 and Fox (29.1) without any problem. Lots of tropo going on these days. May be it is the culprit for loosing those channels for you.

Thanks

Definitely check for tropo.

CBC faded to ziltch during Corrie at 6:30p last night. Normally I'd suspect the CN Tower falling into Lake Ontario being the cause as that's what it'd take to kill off CBLT-DB Toronto from here. :-)

First time I've had tropo do that much damage to CBC...

Cameron

I lost 17 WNED PBS and 29 WUTV FOX earlier today too. Tropo was strong, which I find plays havoc with the Buffalo channels. I was getting 54 WQLN PBS and 66 WFXP FOX from Erie instead. More or less back to normal now.

Hi all, first time post so forgive my noobness and please don't hesitate to correct me or ask for additional information if need be.

I'm in a CityPlace condo on the northwest corner of the 18th floor. I don't have los to the CN Tower nor are there any tall buildings north of me to get a decent bounce reflection off--just wide open rail-yard directly below me then north of that low-rise condos. (Side note, when trains go by my signal gets very weak or cuts out altogether other than CTV, thoughts?) Immediately west of me is a new high-rise that I might be able to receive bounced signal off. Looking southwest I can see the water/airport and if I poke my head around my balcony and look east I can see the Skydome but not the CN Tower.

Here's my TV Fool Signal Analysis result.
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d073b49f06ed64a

I just got a new Sony led tv and picked up a crappy flat multi-directional amplified RCA antenna from Best Buy. I have it sitting near my north facing window with the amplifier plugged in. Without it I only receive about 3 channels at a time, CTV, Global, and OMN. With the amp, I can get about 7 including CBC, TVO, and a couple religious ones. If I'm lucky I somehow get PBS and CW from Buffalo. Based on what I'm picking up and the quality of the signal when channels do come in, I don't believe I'm suffering from overload or multi-path.

I've spent as much time as I can reading the forums and searching for answers and can't find anyone else in a similar situation to me, ie no los to the CN Tower and no buildings to bounce off. I'm thinking of upgrading to an outdoor antenna and looking for suggestions. It can't be massive as per condo regulations. I'm only considering amplified antennas because my RCA does much better when its "amp" is plugged in, please comment if this logic is flawed. I've narrowed my choices down to the following:

Winegard: MS1000, MS2000, MS2002, FVHD30, SS3000
TERK: HDTVa
Channel Master: CM3000

I'm leaning towards the MS2000/2 (not sure if these two are different) and placing one of these multi-directional antennas on the corner of my balcony with the hopes of picking up signal from around both sides of my building ideally the CN Tower and Buffalo. I'd love to get 25-30 channels, but would really just like to see some significant improvement from the RCA antenna.

Please comment, thanks so much for any help. I'm very close to pulling the trigger on a Winegard and returning the RCA, just want to confirm with some experts if it's worth it.

Cheers

Also consider an Antennas Direct Clearstream 2

I've read some great reviews about the ClearStream2. Although it has a very wide beam width of 70 degrees I don't think that will be wide enough for my needs.

I want to place it on the corner of my balcony and aim it back to cover both sides around my building. I'm thinking an antenna with a beam width of about 120 degrees (or greater would be ideal) or a multi-directional one I can precisely aim instead of an omni-directional. Unfortunately all the multi ones I've seen are quite large in comparison to the "disk" style omni ones.

I'm not an expert on onmidirectional antennas but my gut tells me you might be better off with an antenna that is good for a 120 degree swath, vs. an omnidirectional antenna that is equally poor in all directions.

The nice thing about the cs2 is that it is known to be a quality outdoor antenna, but it is small enough, attractive enough, and has no sharp points to poke eyes out. So it's also excellent to use indoors or on a balcony.

I currently have a CS2v on my roof-peak mount and it works better than I thought it would. I still use my old roof peak mount to experiment with other antennas than the one on my tower. My CS2 mounted on the roof peak of my two-story house gets every channel from Hamilton, Toronto, Buffalo, and Batavia except for WBBZ. But my antenna points south and has a clear line-of-sight LOS.

Hey neighbor. I'm in that cluster of condos in a NE facing unit at about the same height. Luckily for me, my balcony is on the east side though and since it sticks out a couple feet from the wall, I have an angle south to aim down towards the lake.

I have a CM4221 (without an amp) and in your situation I'd consider getting that. It is probably one of the cheaper outdoor options at about $50 so it won't be too pricey to try out. With my line of sight to the lake I am able to get everything easily - I even get CHCH consistently with only a UHF antenna which judging from what I've seen in reports here is rare. (Though CHCH was a bit of a challenge - I had to experiment with many different locations on the balcony before I found a spot where it came in). Currently the antenna sits in the corner of the balcony wedged against the glass railing, the wall, and a brick. It looks sort of ghetto but it works.

I've also done a bit of testing with the antenna in my kitchen (north side, well away from the east wall) and while I don't remember the exact results I remember being amazed that basically my entire channel list was still intact. So you may get lucky and find a sweet spot on your balcony even if it's on the north side if you spend some time playing around with the aim/positioning.

My channel list for reference looks like this:
2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 (weak signal but only drops if the antenna has moved), 17, 19, 23, 25, 26, 29, 36, 41, 47, 49, 51 (about 50% of the time in summer, never in winter), 57, 69
The only things I'm missing are: 67.x (which I doubt I could snag without a large VHF antenna anyways), and a more consistent signal on 51.x ION (which I'm guessing it is being partly blocked out by a building in front of me).

House in middle Toronto with 35 foot chimney mount antennas for TV and FM.

Went from CM4221HD 4-bay to CM4228HD 8-bay. Clear improvements on CTV (in the high VHF band, nasty guys) and CBS-4. Still insufficient for NBC-2. On bad nights we sometimes lost PBS and others for periods but I suspect we are better off now for all Buffalo stations. Some big trees in line of sight a few houses away - winter is better reception for us.

I have a longish RG6 lead at about 70 feet and don't like the thought of a pre-amp. So I'd say it is definitely worthwhile to buy an 8-bay kind of antenna instead of a 4-bay kind. There's no substitute for moxie in the antenna.

PBS 94.5 FM-stereo improved moving from 4-element to 10-element. But FM-HD kind of worse because my Sony tuner is doing more jarring switching from stereo in and out of HD instead of just rarely switching into HD (the Sony lacks an HD-defeat switch).

Ben

Hi all,

Been interested in getting into OTA for a while now, and think I'm ready to make the plunge and ditch Robbers.

I'm located in upper Bloor West village area, bordering the Junction (Runnymede and Dundas St W). We have a small bungalow that has a fairly unobstructed view South towards the lake. I am planning on mounting to our chimney (roughly 20ft from ground level), but have been receiving mixed advice regarding which antenna would be best suited for my location.

I have been recommended one of these four:

CM 4221HD
CM 4228HD
AD DB4E
AD DB8

My TV Fool report is here (http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d67d9013ff91ef7). Would a 4-bay be more beneficial than an 8-bay, as it would provide a wider beam of reception?

Hoping that someone in my general area can provide some advice/feedback on what worked best for them.

Thanks in advance and looking forward to learning more about this stuff :D

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'll post back here what I decide to go with and the results. Hopefully I'll see a drastic improvement over my current RCA antenna.

Cheers

Would a 4-bay be more beneficial than an 8-bay, as it would provide a wider beam of reception?
Hi Jacque, Although the 4 bay has a wider beam with, the side lobes of the 8 bay are located in just about the right place from where you are. Your tvfool link didn't work, but i looked up runnymede & Dundas.
I'd go with the DB-8 from where you are, it's much better for the long distance buffalo stations.
And you need as much height as possible. Good Luck.

Thanks for the suggestion Tom, much appreciated. There appears to be an OTA group buy happening that I may participate in, if the price is right of course. They are offering a CM 4221HD. You think this would be a noticeable difference vs a DB-8 or 4228HD?

You think this would be a noticeable difference vs a DB-8 or 4228HD?
you'd only notice a difference on the longest distance stations.
you'll get occasional dropouts, with weather you don't even see.
When its foggy over the lake, you can lose all the south buffalo stations.
ABC, NBC & CBS are what i watch, so i'd want the higher gain antenna to get those better.

If you lose channels you like to watch when your favourite shows are on you'll be cursing the day you saved $50 by buying the wrong antenna. The price difference you're likely going save is likely less than one month worth of a cable bill. I encourage you to choose the right antenna to maximize your reception potential. Good luck!

Thanks for the feedback guys! I will post back with my results when I've got everything installed :)