Watching Law and order using SBGH OTA and it looks fantastic. 8:45 Tuesday Jan 13

OTA is in HD right now for Law and Order. Even some of the commercials are 16:9 not letterboxed.

Last night, the feed jumped to the Toronto local evening news around 9.30 and I called in to the CFCN number provided in the feed. They were receptive to my call and the feed was restored to Calgary shortly after.

After reading all this with great interest I figured I’d try having a look at CFCN’s digital ota channel for myself.

This evening I built a ramshackle DB4 antenna with some 14 gage electrical wire and a scrap of 1x2. I clamped it to my wife’s camera tripod (took a little heck for that), put it in the middle of the basement family room, pointed it (roughly) towards Signal Hill and connected it to the TV.

CFCN HD comes up crystal clear. A check of the signal strength shows 75%. No too bad for being in the basement.

... pointed it (roughly) towards Signal Hill and connected it to the TV.

Now if you point it to Coach Hill (a.k.a. Broadcast Hill) - where the transmitter is - and not to Signal Hill (where there are no transmitters whatsoever), you may get even better signal strength. :)
I recorded most of their yesterday's daytime schedule, and looks like CFCN is now as much hi-def as possible. They need to figure out the sound now and everything will be great. They experimented during the different shows - switching from 2.0 during commercials to 5.0 with only 2 channels active during the HD show. They started Regis with 15 dB lower sound, later bumped it up a bit. The worst part was Oprah, where they sent 2.0, but those were only the surround channels - Oprah fans wouldn't have been able to hear a word she said. Somenone needs to read the manual on how to map an incoming 5.1 to outgoing 5.1 sound and they are done. :)
The power also fluctuated a bit - went down to 93% from 98%, but later on maxed out and stayed at 100% for as long as I watched (no changes to my so called "antenna" setup).

CFCN-DT is coming along well, it seems. Testing is testing, so expect glitches and sudden changes.

For anyone building their own antenna just keep in mind that the best of them all is also one of the easiest to build, and you can read about it here:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=81982

as mentioned in the Antenna Chart:

Signal Hill, Broadcast Hill; I thought they were all the same hill.:)

Well it’s North – North West ISH according to my Google Earth Map. I made the best approximation I could while staring at the solid North wall of my basement Family room.

I’ll likely build a more upscale antenna and mount it to the chimney once all this miserable white stuff melts down a bit. There is a solid wall of 40+ year old coniferous trees to the North of our house. I’m wondering if they’ll be a problem.

We know what you meant. :) What is your neighbourhood and nearest major street corner?

We're in Cedarbrae, Soutland Drive and 24St SW.

Thx I put that on your first post in this thread. :)

Has any one had any results picking up OTA from Calgary in Strathmore with an outdoor type antenna in the attic. Not wanting to use one on the roof for asthetic reasons. Also could a person get the E channel out of Red Deer?

You won't get the E! channel out of Red Deer... But there's E! translator in calgary so you could get it

Thank you to DHC member gsjacobs (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/member.php?u=17692) for creating a Google Earth mashup of the OTA Stations In Calgary, as seen in Post #10 of the OTA FAQ:

Thank you to DHC member gsjacobs (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/member.php?u=17692) for creating a Google Earth mashup of the OTA Stations In Calgary, as seen in Post #10 of the OTA FAQ:
Your welcome. I'm new to this OTA forum (I mostly have been lurking in the BellTV forums.) But when I noticed that Calgary recently started getting digital signals OTA from CFCN, I really got interested and I've been reading through the FAQ and various other OTA threads. I'm trying to forumlate a plan for an antena but I'm still researching my options here.

Anyway, about the mashup file, I'm not sure that its complete, because I'm new to Google Earth mashup files (kml). I used the Post Transition data file from Industry Canada that was posted in the forum. (I see now that I've already omitted one transmiter from that data.) So if you're familiar with the locations of transmitters in and around Calgary, have a look at it and let me know how I can improve it.

I noticed that other OTA mashup files cover much larger geographical areas. After I have your updates regarding the Calgary transmitters, I'll go ahead and start adding the other antena's from in and around Alberta. But as far as I know (remember I'm a noob at this OTA stuff) there isn't much digital OTA to be had in and near Alberta. It might take me a while to include Edmonton transmitters in an updated mahsup file, though, because being a native Calgarian, and given the bitter rivalry between Calgary and Edmonton, and since we got digital OTA first, its my way of rubbing it in. :cool:

Long time lurker, first time poster.

Purely out of curiosity, I pulled a pair of old rabbit ears out of storage and hooked them up to my Samsung TV.

According to my TV, I'm pulling in 80 - 100% signal from CFCN, however it's only tuning to the physical channel 36.1.

I understand that CFCN is still experimenting, but I've noticed several people reporting that it's mapping to virtual channel 4.1.

Is there something that I need (or even could) do to fix this, or am I the only one not experiencing this?

I'm receiving CFCN just fine (79% strength, 100% quality) in my 3rd floor condo in Hillhurst (8 ave and 14 st NW) using the tiny antenna that came with the WinTV HVR-950Q connected to my PC

Too bad Lost doesn't start on CTV for another week and a half. Does anyone know if CFCN will have the superbowl in HD?

the game will be in HD for sure, and hopefully they have the audio fixed.

You will not see the american commercials, you can check out the simsub thread fro answers on that.

I do not get a signal with that antenna, but I am out of the city.

dbone its good that you're up on the 3rd floor for a bit better reception. If you want to make sure that you'll get proper reception year round you need to replace that little whip antenna with at least an indoor antenna model - see the Antenna Chart:

kennethm, is that a recent Sammy TV you've got? The remapping should be automatic but glitches in PSIP data have certainly been known to happen when stations first come up and are testing.

Thanks stampeder

It's only six months old, I picked it up back in July, and applied the latest firmware update back in December.

I've been following OTA HD in Calgary for over a year now and just discovered that we finally have one!

I would like to go out and get an antenna as soon as possible, this weekend hopefully, but I would like a bit of guidance on what exactly I should be getting.

I understand the DIY Gray-Hoverman antenna is probably the best reception-wise but it doesn't seem like an option for me because of it's size. I would prefer an indoor antenna but I may be able to tripod-mount an outdoor one as long as it isn't too tall or large (living in a townhouse in Shawnessy - James McKevit & Shawnessy Dr, SW). I'm not against building my own but would prefer something with better aesthetics if it's going outside.

Should I just go and get the $60 one from The Source?

Thanks