Hi,

I'm in Bowmanville, close to the zoo. I have Bell Satellite TV for 2 TVs in our house and am tired of the HIGH cost. I have a new LCD HD TV for the bedroom that I would like to hook up to an antenna, probably placed in the attic because I don't see how we could attach one to the exterior because there is no brick chimney and the top half of the house is vinyl-sided so we can't attach anything to it (can we?).

I had a 4 year old little "digital" antenna* from Radio Shack that my son used in college, that I attached to the new TV and even tried it in the Attic but got only 5 extremely fuzzy channels; they were so bad you couldn't stand to watch them.

Before I invest in a more expensive antenna such as those sold by Durham Radio in Whitby, I am wonder if anyone can tell me that I will receive "some" channels for sure OTA. Are there any areas of Bowmanville where the reception would be pretty limited?

I figure if I do get a new antenna and it works well, then I can pare Bell Satellite down to the bare minimum and maybe use the 2 sources in the house.

Thanks for any info.

Lynn in Bowmanville

Welcome here! Use the Search This Thread tool to the upper right beside Thread Tools and put in "Bowmanville" as your search term and you'll find previous posts from where you live so you can compare. :)

You should check the other areas of the OTA forum. There are suggestions for what antenna to get, suggestions for mounting antennas. Lots of info to help you make an informed decision. Have fun reading.

Lynn go see bill at Durham TV in your town. He is down across from the Hotel on baseline(in the Christian book store). He has an 8bay CM4228 something or other on a 100' tower that he will demo for you.

Cooltv is on fox 31 rochester today on sub 2

Wow no one has posted here for a while. No Channed 4 from buffalo, hear they are down for repairs. 31 Rochester is a real pain to get right now. Antenna has to be bang on. No tropo from Syracuse 3, 5, 9, 24,68 for over a month now, see you next spring.

No TV today as Hydro has the juice off so they can replace stuff. My genny is not big enought to power TV and Fridge/freezer/internet

Got some snow yesterday. Good time for fireplaces, Windows 7 media center, 2 tuner cards 2tb storage and X box to feed them to the TV.

Hi i am about 20 KM from Bancroft and about 5 years ago when we moved here from the city we had to use the roof antenna that came with the house for about 2 to 3 days, we had no idea how to make it work cause there was no controller box or anything, just 2 wires coming in, one of which was for the signal and the other im guessing to power and move the antenna, anyways long story short, we no longer have satellite for tv and wanted to try and get this thing working or find out what our other options are for free tv. i entered my info into the page before coming here and it appears i can only find a few channels but can only get 1 in right now, my buddy climbed the tower and manually turned the antenna so we get channel 2 in on the tv but its pretty fuzzy, heres the link http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...81a3f9b8cfcaa6

After many days of research and many home made antennas out of speaker wire and coat hangers we have come to the conclusion that we need a booster, now i wanted to know with a booster will that make the picture of the 1 channel we get better? or will the booster give us more channels? as i can see in the link of channels i should be able to get i can see where only a few db's from zero and with a booster of 12db gain wouldn't that mean it would make some of the channels that are in that number range be able to show up in my list of channels i can receive now?

socrates, your TVFOOL link was truncated, and thus doesn't work...

I'm familiar with the Bancroft area, as we have a home up near there. Channel 2 Global (Bancroft) should be coming in solid at that range.

Please fix the link to your report, and we'll go from there. My initial though is that you may be missing a balun or matching transformer between your makeshift antenna and the TV. Please explain exactly how you've setup everything between your TV and the antenna.

Heres a pic of what it shows :)http://i1099.photobucket.com/albums/g383/crittercountry/Matts%20Pic%20Storage/Radar-All.png

The antenna is pointing at channel 2 and its fuzzy, we dont have a pre amp or what ever its called i dont think, we also have no control for it,we just wanted to know if i buy a booster will we get more channels or will it just clear up this one? we could also just use it on 1 tv and skip using it in each room, that way it would look better right?

Generally the preamps dont help much with low VHF 2 to 6.For it to be any use i would have to mounted at the antenna.I would suggest installed new coaxial RG 6 cable and matching baluns from antenna straight in to TV .

Actually i just got back from town and picked up a 20 dollar 24db video signal amplifier and hooked it up and now channel 2 comes in almost perfect, just the tad bit of static AND we gained channel 19 which is cbc but it looks like garbage, might move the antenna so it points directly between the two stations and get them both in ok :) thanks for the info :)

Socrates you are in the middle of nowhere. That’s rugged country up there. How old is your stuff, Twin lead or coax cable? Most installs up there would have a rotor; a preamp/booster combo (one on the mast and one inside the house plugged in the wall) Antenna type would be helpful to know too.

Ya where out here, kind of spooky at first ;) we used to live in the city of Burlington for most of my life but now were out here....thanks to the wife...anyways its just a Twin lead but sometime this week were going to replace the wire with cable wire to increase the signal....about the antenna all i know is that i can see a yellow box up there that the wires are coming from, the other wire is a power wire with 5 smaller wires inside, so is that just for the rotor or is that for another pre amp? and whats the difference between a pre amp and a booster? is what i bought a booster or preamp? its a 24db inline amp.....i think i can get a pic of my antenna ...

Heres 2 of them

http://i1099.photobucket.com/albums/g383/crittercountry/antenna.jpg

http://i1099.photobucket.com/albums/g383/crittercountry/antennabox.jpg

As you can tell....it looks in bad shape, the rotor im 100% is useless now cause we have manually moved it and we could hear the gears crunching away lol, anyways let me know if you can give me any info on what kind i have ,vhf or and uhf? and if i can get better picture and more channels with a newer one? thanks again :)

You will get used to the quiet. It’s going to be tough with that equipment. That antenna looks VHF only, comments anyone? Twin lead wire is problematic, dump it. That ‘box’ on the mast looks like is ½ of the preamp kit. Do you have the other half in the house? I can’t see getting that setup working without spending money. You will be lucky to get a few channels. The 5 wire is rotor control.
Ultimately you need new antenna, preamp and rotor if you want all the channels on your TV fool list. Most likely you have rolling hills and forest all around you so antenna height is a factor. Try raising your antenna on TV fool lookup to 100, 150ft, until you get LOS to some stations instead of edge. No, you won’t be putting up that tower but that will give us an idea of your terrain. If you want some US channels in the summer time (see tropo forum) get a directional deep fringe antenna. I like separate VHF and UHF antennas but they do have combos too.
If you can’t do all this;
Start by replacing the cable with coax RG6. You will have to eliminate the ‘box’ (this may cost you some signal if that box is actually pre- boosting it) or buy transformers for it and keep it. You will need one for the antenna too (300 to 75 ohm) the problem with transformers is they cost you loss of signal for each one you insert in the cable run so choose which way to go carefully.

It’s Tough to decide where to point. I would say best bet is south east for 2, 4. Fix the rotor at some point in the future. I have actually disassembled, lubricated and freed up some seized up ones. New is always better.
Check the site forums for the pre amp /booster discussions. Also read up on UHF antennas, you need one for sure.
Remember out here in the boonies we are deep fringe for just about anything except the local repeater transmitters. So we need too max out on all the equipment to get results.
Good luck and don’t fall!

Afterthought; you cannot insert a transformer in between the 2 components of a pre amp/booster. If you are using coax, transformers can only go on the input side of the preamp. you may have to dump the 'box'

It’s the middle of winter here and we struggle to maintain watchable US TV. No compromise position will work this time of year. Antenna must be pointed directly at source or you get breakups. Current channel lineup Digital
Buffalo
2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 4-1, 7.1, 17.1, 17.2, 17.3, 23.1, 49.1.49.2
29 is no show this time of year.
Toronto, Looking forward to digital transition and power increase in TO.
5-1
Batavia
51-1, 51-2, 51-3
Rochester
8.1, 10.1, 10.2, 13.1, 13.2, 21.1, 21.2, 21.3, 31.1, 31.2.

Now Analogue;
Peterborough (local)12, 18, 27, 54
Toronto 5, 9, 19, 41, 47, 57, 69

Apparently I am the spokesman for this thread. Nothing new here, steady as she goes. I know there are more of you out there, I see your antennas!

The reception is affected by the flurries of late. Minor breakups on those less than powerful US stations.

My uncle lives near Lake Ontario near the entrance to Presqu'ile Provincial Park.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3dda32e77e1fc9a4

Is there anyone out there who can share results and experience?

I was considering a single antenna solution for US digital stations. Pehaps a Channel Master 4228hd with a 7777 pre-amp. Aimed at somewhere between 185 and 202 degrees according to the compass.

Here is what I would hope might be his reception results:

8.1 CBS WROC Rochester rf45
10.1 NBC WHEC Rochester 10
10.2 Weather WHEC Rochester 10
13.1 ABC WHAM Rochester 13
13.2 The CW WHAM Rochester 13
21.1 PBS WXXI Rochester 16
21.2 PBS World WXXI Rochester 16
21.3 PBS Create WXXI Rochester 16
23.1 The CW (HD) WNLO Buffalo 32
31.1 Fox WUHF Rochester 28
31.2 The Cool TV WUHF Rochester 28
46.1 My TV Rochester WBGT Rochester 40
49.1 My TV Buffalo WNYO Buffalo 49
51.1 ION WPXJ Batavia 23
51.2 qubo WPXJ Batavia 23
51.3 ION Life WPXJ Batavia 23

So far just focusing on a single-aim, single antenna solution to dip-his-toes in the OTA water. Free HD is pretty impressive. Later on, we could look into the Canadian channels as well but then we're getting into rotors, overload, VHF antennas, towers/tripods, etc.

By the way, are 4228hds successfully being used in this area to receive the VHF-hi channels from Rochester?

Your experience, or opinions are requested.