I ended up trying placing my indoor antenna upstairs and have managed to get some of the signals. They are not all that great but I am getting the CTV digital signal at 40%. The picture looks quite good on the 32" tv but not sure if I had a stronger signal whether it would improve. Is the main concern about a higher strength would be for poor weather conditions.

Also, can I distribute this signal throughout the house with some sort of amplifier. The indoor antenna is already amplified. Presently I have SC and don't know whether the ota signal can be sent on the same cable going in the opposite direction to feed the other tv's.

I would like trying one of the antennas mentioned in the chart but think I'm not capable of climbing a ladder to the roof with an antenna so the indoor seems to be the best for me.

I don't think picture quality will improve if signal gets stronger. Unless you don't get picture properly(like green boxes, etc.)

BigBelly, with Digital OTA TV you get either a perfect picture, a pixellated picture (chunks go missing momentarily), or no picture at all. If you're getting the first with no dropouts then you are good to go regardless of what the TV says.

Read through the OTA FAQ because you're inquiring about things covered in it: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

xraycat, there are several Calgarians in this thread from your area so have a look through this thread and then post any questions. ;)

I received a reply from Global Calgary and they are targeting to start OTA HD transmission in May. There wasn't any other details.

Also keep in mind that Global won approval to put their temporary transitional DTV broadcast antenna on top of their studios over by Barlow Trail and Centre Ave NE rather than up with their analogue antenna on Signal Hill. This might pose an aiming problem for some Calgarians trying to get both with one aim setting.

So I went to Walmart tonight and bought a pair of $24 Philips Rabbit Ears with a UHF loop just to see what I could see (like bear that went over the mountain). And guess what it works, I can pick up CFCN HD no problemo. I was quite suprised because I am down by the 22x, a good 20+kms away. Analog signals are completely useless down here but this digital seems to work great.

If all the locals went HD wouldn't have much need for any paid TV signal provider anymore. Most of what I watch (like 95%) is American mainstream network HD programming almost all of which is on CTV and GLOBAL. If Shaw is going to be forced to SIMSUB and compress the crap out of it then one might as well use the free superior OTA signal.

We could see a real resurgence in the sale of rabbit ears. Great thing about a digitial signal is that is doesn't need to be blasting in and perfect like the old analog. No endless adjusting of the antenna to get rid of noise and ghosting.

I'm delighted whenever someone gets satisfactory reception but I don't recommend rabbit ears, as you can see on the Antenna Chart. Back to Shaw Cable discussion here, as the OTA Forum is the place to discuss antennas. :)

Now that sounds like it’s going to complicate things a little. That would put the Global broadcast antenna about 45˚ east of CTV from our perspective in the SW.

From the very limited amount of reading I’ve done so far I don’t think a single fixed antenna is going to suffice.

Now that sounds like it’s going to complicate things a little. That would put the Global broadcast antenna about 45˚ east of CTV from our perspective in the SW.

From the very limited amount of reading I’ve done so far I don’t think a single fixed antenna is going to suffice.

45˚ is doable with an antenna that has a fairly wide beamwidth like a 2 or 4 bay boetie antenna. Yagis are much more directional and could be problematic however.

Roger makes a good point - its conceivable that an antenna in Cedarbrae aimed at CTV would pick up the much weaker Global signal, or in a reverse scenario its more likely that with aiming at Global to the NNE it would still pick up the much more powerful CTV signal to the NNW either in its main beam width or on a side lobe. Maybe even a due-north aim would collect both. This will take experimentation starting hopefully in May when Global eventually comes up in DTV in Calgary. For now its just a matter of pointing the antenna right at CFCN.

Its worth noting that many people in Montreal and Toronto use that indirect aiming method to get stations from different cities with one aiming point.

Wow!

On a whim I just plugged an ancient speaker-wire antenna into my HP set and did a scan. Crystal clear HD reception on channel 4-1 CFCN. It said 1080i. Amazing. This is in my basement with a 6ft piece of wire for an antenna!!!

I will have to compare the quality later with my Bell Satellite when I have time. Perhaps my days of paying Bell $100+ bucks a month could be coming to an end.

I hope you'll connect a proper antenna to it soon because the impedance of that wire could be causing electronic problems for your tuner that a warranty might not cover.

Which part of Calgary are you in, rsambuca?

Oooo. You mean I can do actual damage to the tuner in my set just by attaching a wire? Yikes!!

<Runs to go pull it out>

I live in Tuxedo - a relatively central area just north of downtown. 22nd Ave and 1st St NE.

Since I am renting the unit, maybe I'll attach my 'antenna' to the Bell PVR instead - I think there is a digital OTA tuner on my 9200. :D

I think that's more Mount Pleasant you're in... ;)

Your 9200 definitely can record from OTA DTV. Since you're renting you should be able to use an indoor antenna like a ZSS clone and have an easy time with CFCN-DT but if Global comes up in May you'll be needing to turn it back and forth per channel or experiment with 2 identical antennas into a reversed splitter into your 9200.

I think that's more Mount Pleasant you're in... ;)

Your 9200 definitely can record from OTA DTV. Since you're renting you should be able to use an indoor antenna like a ZSS clone and have an easy time with CFCN-DT but if Global comes up in May you'll be needing to turn it back and forth per channel or experiment with 2 identical antennas into a reversed splitter into your 9200.
Nope - Mount Pleasant stops at 4th St W, and Tuxedo goes from 4th Street over to Edmonton Tr.

Anyways, regarding my wire - it seemed to pick up clear reception on my TV whether I had the two wires stretched out or just lying on the ground. I tried pointing them in different directions, but the picture didn't change. If Global's signal is even close to the strength of this one, I suspect I will have no problems picking up both signals whether I am using a real antenna or my wire.

I am, here, at Auburn Bay Blvd SE, Calgary and CFCN HD is awesome but the other analog channels are not that great.

I had bought the a cheap antenna from XSCargo ($15).

Can't wait for GlobalTV and other local station to HD.

Last night CFCN HD bravely tackled their biggest challenge yet - 5.1 audio. They tried to actually pass 5.1 for the first time, and while they were doing it, the video faded from time to to time and the audio cut periodically. They had to switch to 4:3 picture and 2.0 audio on many occasions and gave up entirely in the end. But there was one glorious stretch during "Two And a Half Men" when everything was perfect.
They lost in the end, but fought bravely, and there's still hope. :)

^^^^
If you know anyone in CFCN engineering, let them know I am willing to rent out the necessary equipment:
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=14&pictureid=484

Just kidding ;). Actually from conversations I have had with the engineering dept. in a Buffalo station, the conversion to DTV is very overwhelming, especially since it is having to be done on shoestring budgets in most cases. Hope you guys out west get some more DTV soon.

cheers

Hey, neat gear 99gecko!

Hmmm... "Auto Destruct..." Hey guys, I WONDER WHAT THAT D