I was really happy to hear that CBC Windsor will continue operating. CBC Windsor is a fantastic channel for local/Canadian news and especially for Olympic coverage and Hockey Night in Canada! I can't wait until they move over to HD, which may be longer now with the economic downturn :( I currently have a HD2800 Delhi antenna (no rotor) and get all Detroit channels great! I live in Amherstburg which is about 25 km's southwest of Windsor. I could easily get Toledo if I had a rotor. My question is, for my location, what type of antenna would I need to get future Canadian DTV channels from say London? Is Toronto out of the question?

Thanks!

Sorry, but I would say that for reliable reception, both London and Toronto are out of the question for Amherstburg. Either would only appear with tropospheric refraction (not a reliable condition). I suppose you may be able to get London on a regular basis with your antenna high enough - on the order of more than 100 meters!

Toledo should be no problem if you could get an outdoor antenna aimed just West of due South (All transmit from Oregon, OH, just East of Toledo, with the exception of mostly religious format WLMB).

One interesting thing about Toledo is that since the demise of NBC Weather Plus, WNWO-DT (actual channel 49) has been carrying America One Television Network on subchannel 24.3. If I recall correctly, A1 has the USA franchise to the CFL games, so, barring possible blackouts, you just -might- be the only Canadian still able to watch a CFL game over-the-air!

rob50312, I think that's because the Bruce Trail rises quite high between London and Toronto, so that's a natural attenuator. Between London and Ann Arbor it is almost billiard-table flat.

@cptcarter

The only channels from London you cant get in Windsor are Omni1, Omni2 & SunTV. (CityTV broadcasts 20 miles east of London)

The good news is the other channels are available by repeaters stations.
(ie CBET is CBC windsor, CBLN is CBC London. CHWI is A channel. Same with CFPL. etc)

CTV is like 50 miles west south west of London.
CHCH is like 30 miles west south west of London.

RF meant the mouth of the *Maumee* river, of course :-).

WLMB-DT won't be so easy from Ontario. They transmit from Jasper, MI (Just South of Adrian, about 40 km West of the Lake Erie shoreline, they are on a short tower, and their use of channel 5 in something the FCC calls "Zone I" limits them to 10 kW ERP).
WMNT-CA (that is and will remain an analog station, BTW) will also be difficult, they are low power, and will continue to receive interference from the SRC relay in Chatham-Kent, and the WPXD translator (W48AV) in St. Clair Shores.

The Cleveland stations will be regular visitors during the summer months (often with booming signals) due to tropospheric refraction over Lake Erie, but will never be "permanent residents".

I just helped my father in law set up his antenna on a 17ft home made tower (3- 4x4's put together and cemented into the ground 5 ft deep)

We used the Antenna Craft CCS1223 antenna that the guy in Turner electronics sold him. This is not an antenna made for the new age of digital television but never the less we have gotten excelent results!

Parts
Antennacraft CCS1223 antenna ( very large low FM/VHF/UHF combo)
Channel master preamlifier
Channel master rotar
17 ft tower.

Here are the digital channels I can recieve

Cleveland
3.1 - NBC
5.1 - ABC
8.1 - Fox
43.1 - MyTV
55.1 - TheCW

Detroit
2.1 - Fox
2.2 - Fox
4.1 - NBC
4.2 - THIS!
7.1 - ABC
7.2 - RTN
7.3 - Weather
21.1 - MyTV
21.2 - MyTV
39.1 - URBAN (Religous)
39.2 - Religous
50.1 - TheCW
56.1 - PBS
56.2 - PBS
56.3 - PBS
62.1 - CBS

Toledo
11.1 - CBS
11.2 - NEWS
24.1 - NBC
24.2 - RTN
24.3 - Weather
30.1 - PBS
30.2 - PBS
30.3 - CREATE
36.1 - FOX

Random Channels im not sure where there from?
19.1 - TVFOOL shows an analog out of cleveland and its CBS but this is a digital

52.1 - Indipendant between cleveland and toledo

Cannot Recieve
61.1 Uni from cleveland - does this exist?
13.1 ABC
13.2 TV+
13.3 Weather

I am extremely pleased with the results useing this low vhf antenna. so this is ausome for anyone in the area!

(redzone asked):

Cannot Recieve
61.1 Uni from cleveland - does this exist?

Yes, it certainly does, but their digital transmitter is on channel 34, as is CFTV, an analog low-power station in Leamington.

Panamark mentioned the directional antenna of WNWO - it is a factor, but Amherstburg is closer to WNWO than Leamington. One will need a directional antenna on a roof to get WNWO in Amherstburg, but it should be possible.

I'm not sure where RingtailedFox is, but he might not have to miss WTOL and WTVG, as they will be going back to being omnidirectional and returning to VHF channels 11 and 13 after analog shutdown.

Random Channels im not sure where there from?
19.1 - TVFOOL shows an analog out of cleveland and its CBS but this is a digital
At first glance I was inclined to say that your television was registering WTVG-DT ABC DT channel 19 from Toledo. However It is most likely WOIO-DT CBS Cleveland. Your television is displaying there virtual channel. I recall that my friend in Leamington there television (Sony) displays virtual channels when acquiring OTA through the televisions scanner. With that in mind if you physically punch in the desired channel's real DT designation, at least on there model tv, it comes up too.
ie: at there place when I did a scan, WTVG-DT ABC came up on there television as 13.1. Now there actual channel assigned is 19.1 and did not come up in the scan. However if I just type 19.1 on there television it was there. Something to do in the television's turner is responsible for this.
Side note:
I am finally a step closer to my own OTA rig. Thanks to Emerald Boar and this forum's other member's inputs I purchased a 4221 HD clone and pre amp.
I have decided on an attic installation which I hope to get completed within the month but just for kicks I think I'll bring it down to Leamington over the Easter weekend to show my father and brother just what they can get in there area.
Regards,
Mark

I'm located near Wyandotte Street and Campbell Avenue, between the University/Bridge and Downtown. If you know where Adie Knox Herman Arena and Pool is, that's right in my back yard, literally.

I've lost WMYD in tonight's surprise blizzard (21.1 and 21.2 saying "Weak or no signal"), while i was shocked to find WPXD's four channels running strong on 31.1,.2,.3,.4. Looks like they were able to move to WKBD's tower just before the snowstorm came, becuase my TV picked the channels up on my last channel line-up scan, but all were black before... now they're BOOMING in at 75-80% and this is during a blizzard!

WTOL 11 is barely visible, 13 is snowy with no colour, but watchable with Audio... WUDT-CA 23 is having some satellite reception issues since it keeps breaking up and pixellating (analog), and 24 is experiencing strong interference from the storm.... i'm glad to have regained WPXD. Hats off to the FCC and CRTC for letting them move!

As for DXing, i was picking up WKYC 3 Cleveland, WEWS 5 Cleveland, WLNS 6 Lansing, and briefly picking up WILX 10 Lansing a couple nights back during balmy weather... lansing is surprising, as that's well over 120 km from me, and over ALL land. I know that in essex county (particularly those north of say, County Road 14), reception of cleveland stations will be rare events...

i also get CHCH-TV-2 on 51 from strathroy and WLMB on 40 from toledo every so often.... my antenna's pointed away from them (and they are directional away from me)... this is wild!

Hey guys, hope I am posting in the right spot,
anyways, need some help with signal loss when cars drive by. I live on a pretty busy street so its to the point where it is unbareable to watch tv, except on some nights.

I had built a homemade little antenna with coat hangers that I seen on youtube, and in all honesty it worked great, far better than the one I purcahsed and returned from the store and for a tenth of the price. Anyways I always noticed signal loss and figured it happenes whenever a car drives by.
So now I have a huge Yagi up on the roof, figuring it would help out, but still no go. Each time a car passes I loose signal. Is there anything I shoul ddo to boost performace? Im in/near windsor ontario so there is a ton of channels I would love to pick up.
Should also say using a toshiba 37 inch lcd 720p.

Hi and welcome here - from Windsor you should have plenty of signals booming in with no problem from passing vehicles, so there is a problem in your OTA setup for sure. The first thing is to try your home made antenna up on the roof or as high as you can get it. Is that possible to try?

Also please read through the OTA FAQ: --------------------------------------------------------->

I sure can use the homemade one, but don't see the need when I have a normal antenna up there now. I get an almost full signal, but soon as a darn car goes by I loose it.
Almost thought it might be the antenna. I got it from a friend so it was missing the cable that came with it. So i just went to the source, picked up a 300 ohm to 75 ohm transformer and hooked it directly to the antenna. Im thinking this might be the issue. Its like a 10-12 foot yagi, so should not get interference. Im going to tweak it a bit this week and see if turning it a bit gets me a totally full signal, im 1 bar out from full signal. Its frusterating.
thanks for your advise too, you think i should try the homemade jobby again?

Forgot to mention, yagi is on about an 8 foot pole attached to the chimney, im in a raised ranch so antenna is most likely close to 30 feet up.

hmmm.

Basically you...
Get enough rg56 cable.
Get a small cheap tv.
Get mount mast kit.
Get a grounding Rod

Mount the aerial. (away from any power lines/ or other hazards)
Hook the aerial into the small tv. see the results onto 2nd tv. If like what you see.
Run cable to the grounding clamp. (ground the aerial) Then run the cable to the tv.

Please check out this:
http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/basics.html

Good Luck,
Al

About home made one. You can put that one into the attic and run a cable from that.

guess tweaking might help, currently on channel 62.1 Im locked with a 67 percent signal, Which I guess might need improving, but as soon as a car goes by, poof it drops to 0.
odd for sure, hard to find much info on how to solve this car driving by thing.

When you say lose signal when a car goes by.
Do you mean street level or are you beside the ambassdor bridge (or another bridge)?

BTW, rg56 is the same as rg6.

Read ya l8r,
Al

your antenna or tuner must be really weak to be affected by passing automobiles. my indoor antenna used to be affected by people walking by next to it, so i know what it's like.

Check out this topographical map of Southwestern Ontario and you'll see that while the area west of London is like a billiards table the Kitchener direction causes signal propogation problems for stations:

http://www.user.dccnet.com/jonleblanc/images/s-ontario.png

SRC? which repeater?.. CBLFT Toronto, London, or Kitchener?

Hey love the site! I was always wondering what real OTA HDTV looked like so I went online found some easy plans and made myself a youtube antenna

I can get NBC and ABC HD no problem, but at only a mid 30s signal strength sometimes mid 20s. I do get Fox HD sometimes but its real rare, signal strength is only maybe 20 if I'm lucky. Really I just want to watch NHL playoffs on CBC HD. Though the more HD I get the better!

Anyways, Ive done some reading, have been looking at getting a Antennas Direct DB8, now will this do me ok? Heres my TVFool: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d7c72db8312fc5e

I already have an existing outdoor antenna that didn't work real great 20 years ago, so I was just going to get a heavy duty rotor and the DB8, maybe a preamp/amp. and add it to the pole that is already there.

Any suggestions would be great!! Thanks!