just like RF8 which I can't get but get RF7 at 8 bars... I won't even watch it but I gotta pull it in, lol...

No need to go anywhere else! You can always ask for the best antenna(s) for your situation in our Antenna Research & Development forum - we're very proud of our experts there, amongst whom are professors and professional engineers in the field. :)

Even so, I agree that a simple dipole (i.e. rabbit ears) of the right width will do fine.

@flower_petals
It has been noted that VHF digital stations have been harder to pick up indoors than their UHF counterparts unfortunately. There are also more sources of RF interference to deal with indoors. I can echo to what DigitalRocks and stampeder have said though.. Great info to start upon.
I was messing around here with some twinlead wire a few months ago indoors and actually started to pick up FOX RF7 though quite poorly. For you being so close to the towers there shouldn't be very few problems at pulling it in.

hey guys
just payed a visit to my parents in Leamington (Friday-Saturday) and on Saturday afternoon my I took sometime to go up on the roof and rotate his old Radio Shack yagi (small one). I pointed towards Toledo first and pulled in WTOL 11-1, 13-1 WTVS, and 30-1 WGTE and thats it. Then pointed towards Cleveland and I got 3-1 (100%), 5-1 (100%), 8-1 (65%),19-1 (20%), 23-1 25%), 25-1 (80%), 43-1(80%), 55-1 (30%). From the back of the antenna it gets 2-1 WJBK mint (100%), and 13-1 WTVS (30%) Toledo, so I left it there.
I know a few of you's mentioned some interference from the new RF's from Detroit, but it appears my dad's house is far enough from them.
Just wanted to let you know the results from around the center of town near the Princess Centre.

Mark

Hi,

I'm new to the OTA digital television market and I have a few questions about getting setup. I am tired of Bell TV, it's only advantage at the moment is TSN, Discovery, and Spike TV. However, for $60/mo. for time-shifted news stations and 3 frequently watched specialty stations, it doesn't seem to be worth it. I'm sure we can do without our daily fix of Discovery and Spike. Sports can be picked up from the US stations I assume.

So, now I am considering taking advantage of the digital OTA signals coming from the US, and the few news stations further north. The house I am living in has an aerial tower already installed, it seems to be in good condition structurally. The antenna that is mounted doesn't seem to be in good condition, and the rotor is definitely damaged and will need to be replaced.

There are a few pictures at the end of this post of the antenna and the top of the tower from the roof. I'd estimate the tower to be 30' high.

As for a new antenna, if a new one would be beneficial, I was looking at the Antenna Direct DB8. According to the TVFool reception maps, a reasonably good fringe setup will be required to grab a good set of US stations. The Windsor, Sarnia, Leamington, Chatham reception thread only has a few posts from Chatham residents so far, so I'm unsure of the real world signals I can pick up.

Can anyone offer an opinion on what course of action I should take? Buy a new antenna (+ starter kit), or clean the old one and redo the wiring?

Thanks for your help,
GPollos

TV Fool Results @ 36' Tower:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3dcd722e9f58dc61

TV Fool Results @ 25' Tower:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3dcd720e186ef6f7

The current antenna and tower:

http://img341.imageshack.us/i/img00066201005161405.jpg/
http://img230.imageshack.us/i/img00065201005161405.jpg/
http://img375.imageshack.us/i/img00063201005161403.jpg/

hi GPollos
welcome to the forum.
Depending how handy you are and if you were to perform the work yourself will help evaluate what route to pursue.
You could retain the antenna portion as the old combo's work well. The yagi will work well for channel 2-1 WJBK (RF7) from Detroit. If you were to replace the rotor you could rotate towards Cleveland and possibly pick up 8-1 WJW (RF 8) and 19-1 WOIO (RF 10).
I recommend replacing the twin wire lead with fresh RG6 and a new preamp possibly a CM 7777 or 7778.
Basically new rotor, amp, and wire should be all you need.
On the other hand a nice new DB8 will work great but the hi VHF's will be hard to pull in. I have seen a few 4228's CM in Chatham so I wonder if they pull in channel 2-1 well?
anyhow let us know how it goes.

I recently purchased a LAVA HD-2805 antenna. I live in Windsor, Ontario and should get a lot of US stations. However I get only 7.1, 2, 3 and 20 from Detroit. I get no stations from Canada except a bad reception CBC. Is there any special setup I require. Is this antenna too strong or did I get used.

Hello ffs1, first of all that Lava antenna unfortunately belongs in the garbage unless you can get a refund for it.

Follow these steps to give us the info we need to give you the best advice: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=1082124&postcount=72

Thank you for your quick response. It's unfortunate, but it would cost me more to return this antenna than it was worth. I have to suck it up and make the best of the situation

I'm approximately 5 miles due south from downtown Detroit, and should get good reception. However, my backyard has a bridge, about house height, crossing the 401 which may be an interference point. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Got the antenna on my roof. I can pick up about 14 HD channels, but no Fox. How do you ground this thing. I haven't been able to find out how on this forum. Any help?

ffsi: this might help
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=62265

really surprised on the lack of reception from 2-1 WJBK RF7
huh

Mark

When i first saw those Lava antennas all over ebay i knew they were too good to be true. Tiny little things with built in rotors.... Seems sketchy.

To pickup VHF 7 you need a dipole around 80 cms long.

Thanks again. The link to the ground information was very helpfull.

Can you please give us your info from the link in Post #608?

Just came back from a ride through ground zero here in Leamington. The tornado that ripped through cause great damage to many mature trees and homes.
First of all I am extremely glad there was no death to people, but I am afraid to report some OTA towers and antenna's did not do so well.
Some of the towers I saw were bent in half. Large combo antennas were split in half, left dangling.
Again I am extremely happy that no life was lost in this area as a direct result of it.

Of course, Evironment Canada says there was no tornado,.. so those antennas and towers must have simply succumbed to the heavy downpour of the rain. Or they will say it was straight wind, or a downburst, or a microburst,.. anything but calling it a tornado. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck,.. then why don't they just call it a duck. Those guys don't seem to get it!

OK! my rant about environment canada has ended :mad:

When I enter a channel number, how does the tuner know whether I mean the nominal or actual channel, and why does it sometimes forget?

For example, here in southwestern Ontario, we have PBS Detroit, nominally channel 56, but broadcasting on ch 43.
We also have an independent (WUAB) in Cleveland nominally ch 43, but broadcasting on ch 28.
When I punch in 43, I usually get WUAB, but sometimes PBS. While I'm watching WUAB, it will sometimes jump to PBS or to a black screen. When this happens, I can usually get WUAB back by entering 28, but then it sometimes changes to a black screen.

Sometimes re-scanning fixes the problem, but sometimes it just can't find the channel again no matter what I do.

I think this is the only local example of one number meaning 2 different things, but the rest of the behavior occurs on other channels, too. A strong signal will suddenly disappear; sometimes I can get it back by entering the actual channel number, but not always.

Possible diagnoses:
There's something in the programming of the tuner that I missed, (too simple and cheap to be true)
The tuner is dying (likely, since it's out of warranty)
It's weather-related (possible, since it's intermittent, but I havn't noticed any corelation to any specific weather conditions)
I'm too close to the limit of reception to expect consistent performance. I'm 50 miles over land from Detroit and 60 over water from Cleveland. It sometimes also can't find a signal from the CTV repeater on ch 42 in Oil Springs. It's about 40 miles away and, as far as I know, still analogue. TVO and CBC in Windsor are about the same distance, and so far there's no problem with them.

When I punch in 43, I usually get WUAB, but sometimes PBS.
Would help to know exactly what tuner your using, and your location.
Maybe post your TVfool of your location, and your antenna Height.
Also post some details regarding your antenna installation.

Sounds like what your experiencing is related to tropo. Buffalo has a PBS station on RF 43 also, so it may occassionally interfere with Detroit's RF 43 at your location?

I don't think all tuners behave the same in every way, but
on my Zenith DTT-901 Convertor Box, when pluggin in a channel directly, if a station has been tuned / stored with a Virtual Ch on that CH number already, it'll use that. If not it'll
attempt to tune that as an RF Channel Number, and if found, remap it to it's virtual CH. What may happen on some sets (including mine), if a Channel that has already been tuned / remapped, starts experiencing interference, to the point of no longer being decoded, it may delete the reference to it's Virtual CH Number...Until the interference goes away, and ya rescan it, etc.

What your seeing is not related to any hardware failure of the tuner itself.
Not exactly a high failure rate item.
You can probably avoid it by optimizing the antenna orientation to prevent the interference, etc.

Yep, I'm guessing its tropo too. Tropo has been very strong this time of year (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=121819) and can sometimes override tuner settings if it is in a powerful enough burst.

Stampeder is right. Same thing here. WUAB 43-1 (28) has been almost impossible to get lately. WCMZ PBS from the Flint area has been dominating RF28 every single night.