I just installed a 4221HD on my attic, and I'm very disappointed. It is performing at the same level as my homemade, very simple antenna. I can get all the Toronto stations, including CHCH, but I'm getting 0 US stations. I don't believe this.

Any help? I bought the 4221HD, then just attached a cable to it.

Chengbin did you find anyone else in this thread nearby you who gets the U.S. stations with an attic antenna? I'd like to know if it is possible from there.

ggjr it sounds like the satellite cable is probably damaged, cut, or otherwise unable to deliver any signal. Can you test with new RG6 coax?

I have a flat roof, but I did not mount it correct yet (eg on a pole), so it is lying on whatever that's on the roof.

I'm about as south as you can get (2km from the lake), and there are people in this thread that lives 10-20km north from me and gets all the US stations just fine. I've even seen some people getting US stations indoors. I will look at if there are anyone near me that are getting US stations, but right now I'm gonna play around with positioning some more.

I thought your antenna was inside in the attic, but it is up outside on the roof?

It is outside on the roof, but it is placed right on the wall so it would not fall over, which is like an attic antenna (or am I wrong?)

Hello stampeder,

I will test with a new cable directly from antenna to tv during the next few days. Once I try, I will let you know.
Thanks

Hi all,

I thought that I would relate my recent experience. First of all I have pretty good reception with my 4221HD (hacked) but of course could not pull in WNGS. After reading HWP post's who lives further North than me I realized that I should make an attempt at this station.

I by chanced picked up a nextstep (or whatever its called) I think distribution amp (as it is not a pre-amp up at the antenna, it was on sale and I figured that I might as well try it, and then I built are real quickie bow tie 2 bay (from Mclapp's designs) for VHF with no reflector. I did not have a uvsj combiner so figured for the heck of it I would connect the two with just a normal combiner.
My surprise was no end the first night when not only WNGS came in but a lot of my other stations came in even better including ION and rochester. The next day they were gone (except for ION) so I figured this was a good tropo day. I put on a reflector 15 inches back of the bow tie and WNGS occasionally would come in. Sometimes my TV can't lock it but will show the signal at 0 then 20 then 70 then back down again.

I have a condo right in the path of wngs although it is only about a couple of stories higher than my roof and a number of house down from me and I read that Vhf signals have good defraction (can't remember if that is the correct word) i.e. they curve over buildings better.

Anyways I have decided to wait until the change over before experimenting anymore. When that happens I will take my laptop up to the roof hook up to the antennas separately and look for sweet spots, I will also go get an usvj combiner as well.

I am thinking about either building a 4 bay vhf and combining with a usvj combiner, or a GH with narods or just buying a yagi for vhf-hi (the only issue with that could be aiming as 11 will go back to VHF and it is not in the exact same direction as WNGS.

Here is my tvfool report

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d3e472c377bec5b


Anyways if any of you have suggestions or ideas please feel free to share.

cheers

I have a question about the status of CFTO 9.1 in Toronto. I'm able to get CFTO analog (9) clearly, and my TV (a relatively recent Toshiba LCD, model number 46XV645U) finds a station on 9.1 and reports a very strong signal but is all black and no audio.

I'm using a 4bay, bowtie unamplified clone antenna. It's mounted outside at approx 4th story level which is above most the roofs of most neighbouring houses and buildings and there is a clear shot to the CN tower. It's aimed practically straight at the CN tower.

I saw the same phenomena with a cheap philips indoor antenna. 9 (analog) comes in fine, 9.1 (digital) shows maximum signal strength on the TV, but has no picture or audio.

Currently the DTV stations I'm picking up are:
CBC - 5.1
ABC - 7.1
CHCH - 11.1
SRC - 25.1
CTS - 36.1
Global - 41.1
OMNI2 - 44.1
MyN - 49
CityTV - 57.1
OMNI1 - 64.1
SunTV - 66.1

Also, for reference, here is my TVFool.com results: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d3e472c2c85ff53

Anyone have any ideas on what might be causing this or how to fix it?

I've seen some discussions earlier in this thread about CFTO, is this what that's referring to?

When was the last time you did a rescan with the TV?

Sometimes this clears up issues like this.

But...

If the TV station has munged PSIP issues, then things can get worse... :-)

Just checked. With the CM4221HD indoors, it's rock solid on the Channel master converter box. On a set of rabbit ears on the spare 19" Toshiba panel, it's just tickles the tuner, which before it was rock solid. Had a blast of sound, but didn't see any picture. Hmmm... Something's strange somewhere. All the other CN Tower stuff is at their normal levels on both TV and converter box.

Cameron

I've been rescanning periodically today and yesterday as I installed the antenna and tweaked its direction. It always finds the channel and shows strong signal, but it's always blank.

I'm going to grab a converter box sometime in the next week, but until then I don't have any other devices to try with. The Toshiba tv is the only DTV capable tuner I have right now.

Just tweaked bunny ears on the Toshiba panel, and 9-1 DTV does indeed have a picture and sound, but is weak, but do have a solid lock. Once I did that I lost CBLFT 25-1, which was solid before. :-)

I'll have to carry that panel in here where the CM4221HD is and run the tests again....

Cameron

Just tweaked bunny ears on the Toshiba panel, and 9-1 DTV does indeed have a picture and sound, but is weak, but do have a solid lock. But is it worth playing around now when they are changing their frequency down from 40 to 9 in three weeks?

It seems like 9-1 was acting up yesterday for me too. I think its just a side effect from the tropo we are experiencing and also the thunderstorms.

I did an update scan to see if TVO would show up (didn't) and got some other new channels.

8-1 (45-8-1) WROC Rochester
21-1 (16-21-1) WXXI Rochester

Hi everyone. I'm about 100 feet up, and in front of my balcony is Downsview Airport, so a nice big empty field. With the CN Tower 9 miles away, I want to attempt to get Grand Island, and maybe even ABC/CBS/NBC (and whatever else is down there... The replacement for WNGS looks intriguing).

I have one TV. It's only a few feet from my window, and that window is over the balcony so a flat coax might find it's way into this setup since I doubt my cabling will exceed 20 feet.

So... Is it possible to get the Buffalo stations and Toronto on the same antenna? Is the CN Tower going to kill my Buffalo hopes?

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d3e47998a6b1667

PBS and CBC on exact same angle. My map is worse since I am far closer to CN Tower. In Downsview, you may be lucky and not need to worry about overload from the CN Tower.

You may not need a coat hanger to get CBC, a paper clip will prolly do.

PBS should be a piece of cake too with a 4-bay antenna and a 2-bay seems to have very little less gain at half the size. Prolly will work with your FM tuner adequately.

A pre-amp adds nothing unless your cables are long or TV poor. If you have many splitters, a 8-db powered splitter is a good idea (AKA distribution amp).

With a high-quality tuner and FM yagi antenna, you might get PBS-FM or even FM-HD. The antenna much further away and not on a high tower. Dunno why.

Ben

You may not need a coat hanger to get CBC, a paper clip will prolly do.

Oh wow! Unfortunately, not CBC but I got a few channels here. Guess this'll do for now! How I bend the paperclip seems to determine whether I get CFTO or Global. And I get ghosting, so I'm guessing I could be SOL by next month. This is pretty funny though. I have CFTO, Global, the Omnis, City and TVO (Sun TV bounces on and off).

But back to business: What on or off the chart should I be leaning towards? Because the long distances look like they could cancel out the CN Tower, and vice versa. And it's for a condo balcony. CM 4221HD or Antennas Direct DB-8 seem like some of the top choices on the grid. Anyone have any experience with the Lava HD2605 and 2805? Reviews I see are either 5/5 or 0/5 and nothing in between.

(BTW, you call it PBS, I call it Fox... Fox has the Simpsons and according to the Simpsons, PBS has Betty White stalking me :D )

Anyone have any experience with the Lava HD2605 and 2805Lava antennas are infamously poor so they are never recommended at this site. See: OTA Clone, Coat Hanger, and Junk Antennas (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=106108). If it is not on the Antenna Chart I would not buy it. ;)

New guy here:
Been using a YAGI roof antenna about 8 kms from the CN Tower but pointed at Buffalo for about five years now. Last year, my brother installed a signal amplifier and, despite being down close to the lake, I get most US networks in HD pretty consistently.
So, earlier this spring CITY HD and then, in July, CBC HD started dropping out and finally disappeared. I had no idea what was happening (no answer from CITY or CBC when called) until I called the government toll-free number. They gave me a list of all the Toronto moves and changes, including several HD stations moving channels/frequencies, and told me to rescan often.
CITY obviously wants to push you to Rogers Cable (I actually use Shaw Direct, which doesn't carry CITY in HD) - check out the "perhaps it's time to consider digital cable" message on the Rogers site when you look up the broadcast changes - but what's with CBC? There has been no info about the change.
Am I missing stuff that was posted here?