a Phillips deep-fringe antennaPhilips/Magnavox antennas are built by other companies, usually under a buying arrangement of a U.S. outfit they bought called Gemini. The products are usually good but not great, unless they are direct clones such as the ZSS models they sell which are excellent.

Is the Philips model you're looking at a full size VHF/FM/UHF combo? If so, its not great but it is good. There are much better antennas out there for purchase. Check out the Antenna Chart and you'll see my recommended antennas, although be aware that the Delhis are rapidly disappearing from the marketplace. :eek:

Also its important to consider that once you've got your antenna mounted up on a rotor way up on that tower you are likely not going to want to go up and down to replace it if you are not satisfied with the reception. Once its up there, most people leave it up there, so what I'm advising is to try and get it right the first time. :)

It's summertime, and my dad and i have been thinking on getting a 20 foot tower in the back yard, along with a rotator with 12-location memory and a Phillips deep-fringe antenna, as that was the best antenna that Turner's Audio Video on Provincial Road in Windsor has. Is that antenna any good, or should i avoid spending my hard-earned money on it?
I think you could do very well with either the CM 4221HD or the 4228HD.
I am using both and have had good results- the 21 is better for higher UHF and the 28 for lower UHF and hi VHF, based on my experiences. The 21 is about $50 and the 28 $100. There must be some store in Michigan that sells them. As well, if you do the suggested hacks (before mounting) you could improve the perfomance even more, something I learned after I mounted the antennas- now I have to get them down some how and do the hacks.

thanks for the advice! it's one of those huge antennas.

As for frequencies, yes it is VHF/FM/UHF. I want to know exactly what i'm getting and how much it will cost before i plunk down a ton of money for something. As for going up and down, that's easy. My roof has a flat overhang near the top that i can access through a window, so climbing isn't a concern.

Its all a matter of how many of the far away stations you'd like to get. In Windsor you of course have all those nearby and fringe Michigan channels so the Philips VHF/FM/UHF combo antenna you've already seen will be fine.

If you decide to go for a big high performance VHF/FM/UHF combo antenna up on your rotor you'll be swinging it around in hopes of getting deepest fringe Toledo or Northern Michigan stations and of course more of the Canadian stations too.

It all depends on you and what your requirements might be. You should be able to look at the Windsor OTA Station List thread and jot down the stations that are "must have" and then the "good to have" ones and finally the "can live without" stations.

I am looking for basic information regarding digital TV via our existing antenna.
for the past 12 years we have had Star Choice satellite, which I recently backed off
to basic. But the cost just continues to rise and as we are now on fixed incomes
I would like to re-instate the antenna that is on the 30'tower I have refused to let go of.
I am a real newbie to this, no idea what channels are available in my area, about 4k from Courtright Ont, on the St. Clair River. I do not even know who to get in contact with
about purchasing whatever it is I need. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Gayle

Hi Gayle and welcome here - first of all please read through the OTA FAQ. It contains a huge amount of stuff so do your best. ;)

If your original antenna is a VHF/FM/UHF then you are probably all set to hook up any ATSC-capable TVs or tuner boxes to it, assuming all your OTA gear is still functional and in good shape.

This thread contains a huge amount of info on what people in your area can/should receive.

Here are some important links to read through:

Thanks, this is exactly the info I need. Sorry I did not see these files before, I am
new to this format being used to the Yahoo groups only. We also recommend
reading files before anyone tries to fix/tear down a machine.
I have someone coming to check the existiting antenna/rotor. Hopefully it
will be ok. Its an older Channel Master that was TOL in 1986.......Off to read.

gayle

Is that antenna any good, or should i avoid spending my hard-earned money on it?
@Ringtailedfox
I kinda did the same thing. I was impatient and bought what I could get, and not what I wanted.
Now I think that I am going to get a couple Channel Master 4228HD's.
I say this to you because I like my set up but.......in the back of your mind you will second guess your choice and think "what if I had got the best, how much better reception would I have got".

side note:
When I was down in Leamington there; back at Easter; my dad was saying that back in the late 70's and early 80's when I was a kid our family OTA antenna was indeed an original 4221 style. I was floored. He mentioned to an installer he wanted the best for each application.

I hope this help's in your choice.
Mark

What would happen if i had two televisions connected to a rooftop antenna with a rotator, and each set was on a different channel, such as mine trying to lock on WTOL-DT (17, Toledo), while the livingroom set would try to lock on to WDIV-DT (45, Detroit)?

Antennas are picking up all the channels they can all at once, so in your case each TV would get the channel it is tuned to. The big issue would simply be whether the antenna is rotated to a sweet spot position in which both channels are available at once. Some people find the perfect rotor setting for that sweet spot in just a couple of hours, but for others it might take days or weeks depending on your experimentation.

Something I found helpful in finding that "sweet spot" was to use Google Earth and plot some lines to your favourite towers,then fine tune it from there (saved quite a bit of time fiddling around).
This is my LOS lines below and it works really well for me.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a321/wee-haggis/Clipboard01-31.jpg

i actually don't have the tower set up, nor the rotator and antenna due to financial constraints. I just want to plan out the best possible setup before i spend a large amount of money. The thing is, Toledo is SSW of me, and the detroit signals are NNW of me (cleveland would be the opposite, being SE, but reception would be unlikely from the distance)... i'm not sure if pointing my antenna due west (in between) would balance them out, especially if i end up losing one or both signals. I'll give your little Line-of-Sight thing a shot and see what i can do.

Alternately, i'd love to retain the bow-tie antenna that's aimed towards Detroit, and get a second antenna, aiming that towards toledo, and merge them with a combiner, if that's technically possible.

oh joy. i completely forgot about WJW-DT... i'm getting very annoyed of the close-placement of signals on the same channel (less tahn 120 miles/200 km)...gracias, FCC x.x

this isn't the 1940s and 1950s... space the stations out a bit more. I sure hope that the move from 31 back to 8 solves my issues... that or convert CITY-TV-3 from 31 to something else, like 44...

A new Station Status thread has been split off here:

Windsor, London, Detroit, Erie, Cleveland, Toledo OTA Station Status (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=107284)

The topic of that thread is purely the broadcasting, regulatory, and technical discussion of the actual stations, with a view to the future of their operations.

This thread that we are now in will continue to be specifically about your local reception results so that new and veteran members can easily look up and discuss their OTA reception from their locations.

cheers :)

hi guys...just did a little newspaper reading about using anteenas and getting some HD reception....Can anybody tell me exactly what channels "could" be received in Sarnia by using an antenna....thanx,IB:)

you'll get the detroit locals plus 51 and 69 from London, maybe 9 from windsor and 10 from london, possible the flint locals (5, 12, 25, 30, 46). read back a few pages in this thread where i've explained to other sarnia residents about what channels (analog and digital) are available to them :)

OK...thanx for the info RingtailedFox....IB:)

@fox
Moving CFTV to 38. There is the issue with CTS as it also is moving to 38. Then again there no space where you can easy stick on a channel on. Lemming should go

@IronButterfly
Tvfool results for sarnia. 42.90 -82.34 (you can go to tvfool.com type in your postal code and see the results you get)
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d663d454115599b
Any channels having a DB above 35 is receivable no matter in which way you point the aerial.
Any channel having a DB of -3.1 or better is receiving if you point the aerial towards the broadcast tower. (Of course on occusion i do pick up WEWS which is -15 DB for me.)

Sarnia has a nice selection of channels. Main American OTA + Main Canuck OTA.

Read ya l8r,
Al

Can anyone get the Flint Locals in Sarnia??

it might be doable IF you have a rooftop antenna or an antenna mounted on a tower and pointed WNW...