Thank you to those who were helping another DHCer, but now after 21 posts of that I've removed them as off topic because he's been asked to read another thread that has all the info he requires.

Again, thanks.

Ok. I would like to thanks Stampeder and Yaamon for their help and sorry for any trouble I may cause in this fourm. I have now mount my Chnannel Master 4228 to my chimmy today. I now get the following channels

2.1-84%
2.2-84%-SD
4.1-98%
4.2-98%
5.1-89%-DT
7.1-98%
7.2-98%
9.1-92%
23.1-98%
29.1-98%
29.2-98%-SD
43.1-95
43.2-95-SD
43.3-95-TH
49.1-89%
49.2-92%-SD
66.1-87%-DT

What is the intials stays for? I know SD is standard definition, what is DT and TH?

If it rains or snow storm how much would my signal drop to?

Oh ya.. I lost 57.1 .. dunno why...

TaGY2K, do not move your antenna its dead on for reception.

Just try and rescan City if you are getting Sun that strong City should be there.

Excellent signal strength and results you got there. :)

With your signal strength snow storn will not really affect your signal nor rain. What seems to affect signal is heavy fog with light rain with a few distance stations.

Nothing for you to worry about.

i don't think it's supposed to be TH it should be TB for Think-Bright, which is another PBS channel, mostly childrens programming.

-DT just stands for Digital Television. Alot of stations just tack that on to the end of their station to differentiate it from their regular analogue station.

ie NBC Buffalo Will say CHANNEL 2: WGRZ, WGRZ-DT

oh.. well .. I just did a re-scan and got City..
and CBC french

25.1 -36%
53.2 -56%
57.1 -56%

I don't really care about those channel anyway ....

I would like to thank Yaamon and stampeder for their help and support! :)

TaGY2K you are welcome.

Ok, so after much ado...I got my install.

CM 4228 on a tripod on my roof.
Install went less than perfect.
First, they didn't bring a tall enough ladder (they needed a 40 footer) so we had to wait until another truck came and brought one by. Plus they charged me $75 extra. It also reduced the amount of daylight to work by.

They setup the CM4228 on the ground before going up. Here's where it gets uncomfortable.

I mentioned that I had asked for a rotor. They brought out the CM7521A reluctantly, commenting "you won't need a rotor". Then they told me that the install of the rotor would add about 4 feet in height to the mast. When I looked at it I said "that can't be right. The mast can't be that high close to ten feet since there will be too much load...can't be right".

They insisted, and so I reluctantly agreed to not have it installed.
They then told me that they don't "ground". The cable feed itself is a ground.
So, while we were waiting for the ladder, I called the Boss of the shop and mentioned the rotor and ground.
When the ladder truck arrived they proceeded to attach the ground wire..but they ignored the rotor. I hesitated, but thought I might not need it.
Well, it's all up on the roof now..I get about 8 stations, all between 75-91% power.
29-1 Fox
5-1 CBC
25-1 CBC French
23-1 The CW
7-1 ABC WKBW (kinda spotty reception)
9-1 CTV (CFTO)
57-1 CityTV
66-1 SunTV

Less than stellar. I get no 2-1 NBC (WGRZ), or 4-1 CBS (WIVB) or even 43-1 PBS.

I am going to ask them to come back and install the rotor (which they want $250 for)..but they might give me a hassle, or charge me $$$ for a revisit. They said they'd have no problem coming back to "re-aim" the antenna...
Cost me $600 incl tax..with no rotor or preamp...

I am feeling somewhat perplexed and regretting my decision....:(

Mik

wow .. $600 .. ..it's cost me like $160 .. where abouts are u located?

I am between Spadina and Avenue...just about Eglinton near Roselawn..

Mik

Mik ouch $600.00 ;) May I ask how did they end up charging $600.00. You could have got a tower setup for that price.

What is a CM7521A do you mean 9521a ?

I did not realise thay they were going to charge you that much :eek: and I just lost confidence in them as installers if there are saying you do not need to ground the coax line.

Technically what he said that the cable is a ground is correct. It grounds to your receiver on contact. But... the purpose of grounding the coax line before it enters yours house is to prevent static/electrical surge from travelling down to your line and then passing the voltage to what ever is connected damaging that unit.

Mik let them come back first and try and realign the antenna your antenna needs to point more east for you to get Nbc and Cbs. But you might have problems with City depending on your current signal strength.

What is your signal strength on Fox. Weird that you do not get Pbs but can get Fox.

I would let them do the the rotor if the realignment does not work and you should not have to pay that much extra $250.00 is a bit too much.

It was $550 for the CM4228, tripod and all the install (cables, etc).
Plus $75 'cause they had to get a 40-foot antenna.
The ground is a 12-guage copper wire attached to the leg of the tripod, and terminated at a grounding block on my Hydro Electric outdoor meter.
Fox is about 75 %.
They didn't even have a compass to align the antenna...:(
M

No compass they must be experts :rolleyes:

I use a compass to get a general idea of where the antenna should be pointed.

Then I connect the antenna to my meter and setup for Nbc first and then Fox. The meter that I use can display 6 channels at a time if I need to.

If your Fox is only 75% and you have no Nbc then if you swing your antenna more east for Nbc you will most likely lose Fox and City.

The rotor will come in handy you mean the 9521a right ?

hehehe ... I use my compass and pointed to 160-170 to get fox cause that is the only channel I care about it b/c of 24. I didn't even look where the CN tower is..... I did all this by myself ....... went down the ladder in the house and I got 29.1 at 95% .. but didn't get 2.1 ....I was still very happy with the results... next thing I did I went up back up marked it where it was before I moved it and I move it ..to tried to get 2.1 but I gave up on it couldn't get a signal so I move it back to where I marked it and did a re-scan and I got 2.1 at 87%.

Wow... MIK that is unbelievable...

Imagine if we had to pay everytime a contractor brought the wrong tools to a job site....

I am not sure if it is against board rules.... but I would definitely want to know who the installers are. If it is against board rules can you PM me?

I find more and more as the we spread the word of OTA people are asking me for referrals etc.

I would hate to give them the name of a company with this type of customer service.

I would have figured at $550... they are making good money. Take away $150 for the CM4228. another $50 for the Tripod Another $25 for cable and misc. (I think I have estimated on the high side)
That is still $325.00 for Labour!

I am all for people making their money! But that just seems to excessive for me!

Maybe as part of any new forums we can have a DEALER COMPLIMENTS/COMPLAINTS section.

Just curious what was the "commitment of work they would do" what about warranty?

Good luck to you! I hope that they try to do the right thing for you!

The installer said you dont need roof sealant so he did not use any.:o All he used was rubber washer with the lag bolts/screws. :confused:

I use sealant on the screws threads and after its screwed into the roof I seal all around the base of the tripod mount so no water(snow) can seep under the base and over time leak through.

By that installer methods, I guess I have been wasting my time using roof sealant etc. :confused:

Oh I have to add this guys you no longer have to worry about trees and the leaves. He told Mik that dont have to worry about trees and leaves, they do not affect UHF reception.

I wonder why in the spring-summer my parents reception goes down 10-15%. At my parents house where I mounted the antenna the trees are a good 10-15' taller but a good 35' away. Hmm so if its not the leaves that made the signal drop in the spring and return back in the fall it must be the heat from the summer sun.

Can someone post up a complete list of HD and DTV channels in the Toronto Area?

I just want to make sure that I'm not miss out on something.:rolleyes:

Thanks

TonyV:

Check post #282 and #283 in this thread.

Whew.
After two visits from the installer, I am finally getting content. (See my previous posts for my misadventures with the installer.)
Last Thursday I had the 9521A rotor installed, plus a proper coax line grounding block. In addition, they applied roof tar sealant around the lag bolt heads on the tripod mount.
Everything seems to be working now..here's my results. (TV is a JVC061FH96 ATSC tuner built-in.)

Station Pre rotor @ 180' Post rotor @ 160'
NBC wgrz 2-1 nil 74
NBC wgrz 2-2 nil 74
CBS wivb 4-1 nil 63 (spotty)
CBS wivb 4-2 nil 63 (spotty)
CBC cblt 5-1 94 86
ABC wkbw 7-1 74 77
wngs 7-2 74 77
CTV cfto 9-1 94 92
CW wnlo 23-1 71 77
CBC cblft 25-1 82 82
FOX wutv 29-2 74 86
FOX wutv 29-1 74 86
CITYcity 57-1 85 82
SUN ckxt 66-1 90 84

As you can see, by moving my antenna about 20' more south-eastward, I improved my reception of all Buffalo stations, will negligible effect on Toronto.
My only problem is CBS wivb. I got it ONCE on Friday night..since then the signal is too weak to receive. I've tried moving the antenna to no avail..
I also still can't get PBS no matter what I try.

I suspect I may need a preamp. From the antenna, the coax runs about 80 feet into my house, the gets hooked up to my distribution box where it runs another 40 feet likely to my TV..

Comments?;)

Mik

Mik glad that you are almost there, yes with 80' plus your additional 40' you need a preamp and losing precious signal strength at 100' of cable its down 5.75db.

The installer should have known that a preamp in your case would make the difference.

So if you decide to get a preamp installed is he going to charge you big $$ again should have gotten it down at the same time as the rotor.

What you can try yourself is get a 10db indoor and place that at the end of the 80' connection. That might help with Cbs and possible Pbs.

Weird that you get such strong signal from Fox and at that position no Pbs ??

I am not having them come back up to install the preamp. They'll charge me an arm and a leg, I bet.
I was eyeing that Klitz preamp, to install at the end of that 80-foot run. Klitz claims they are very little noise..
Unless I can get a cheaper brand at Radio Shack or somewhere to test it first.
Else, I'll have to source someone else to go back up and install a preamp on the mast..
Mik