reinny how exactly are you connecting the Magnavox DTV box to your TV? Is it with S-Video or composite cables, or is it with RF (coax) into the TV's antenna/cable input?

we are using a rf coaxial cable

hi we have had success:) we have the rotator pointed towards buffalo
we get about 7 stations crystal clear. (Wow)

we will keep playing . One thing we have found that some of the stations the picture is not filling the entire screen although the box set up is on full screen.
anyway around this? We are concerned it will wreck the t.v screen.

We put it on the downstairs t.v that also has a booster attached to it.

Right now the Antenna is about 45 feet we need to move it and want to drop it to about 25- 30 feet.Hopefully this wont affect signal.

Is a pre amp necessary ?

also is chtv in Hamilton on Digital

Why can't you leave the antenna at 45 feet? The higher the better in this game.

CHCH is on digital. Physical channel 18; some tv's will remap to 11.1 (or something similar).

Hi

Age is the issue more than anything we are in the process of redoing the house roof and want to move the antenna out in the open more. we have a great deal of birds who like this antenna as a bathroom:p.
We found the house roof directly under the antenna had allot of mold growing on it that the neighbors did not even though facing the same direction.

My Husband does not want to climb that high anymore we are already higher in elevation in the area of town we live in and have a clear line of sight

Hopefully it will work.If it doesn't I may be able to persuade my Hubby to consider adding the rest of the tower back on.

Thanks for the info re : chch t.v.

we are using a rf coaxial cableOK you need to check in your TV's menus to make sure that it is set on Antenna and not Cable. I think that's why your TV is showing such weird channel numbers.

If it is actually the Magnavox ATSC box that is giving you those weird channel numbers I'd be very surprised!

Reinny I'm in the north end of Cambridge and 45ft is a must for the area up to including Guelph for a reliable US reception. I don't think the bird droppings on your roof were mould it would more than likely be a fungus from the droppings there is a cleaner that will remove that. I'm not a mould expert but pretty sure if you had mould on your shingles you may want to have your attic space inspected by a certified company that does mould abatements and air quality testing. I would be afriad of it away from the house attracting more birds. But we are actually here about tv reception not bird poop sorry for getting off track. I get 24 channels with my setup I do get some channels cutting in and out like Rochester but Buffalo is very relaible and my rig is old and I am only running RG59.

thanks for the info re height. We may reconsider the height issue than as far as being away form the house I think that part will be ok. It has clear view and should be ok. Getting a signal pre amp to put on the antenna tonight hopefully install on the weekend.
Right now with the antenna dropped to 30 ' we get about 7 stations but not reliable at all except for cts & chtv.The direction does seem to be real close
not very far apart at all to get the stations in
at one point I was getting the following stations

7.2 - wings,11.1 chch,7.1- wkbw,4.1- wivb cbs,36.1- cts all in one location

2.1- wgrz-hd,2.2 wgrz- wt,11.1- chch in another location

it appears that they come in and than a few min later dont come in signal strength is not very high anywhere from 12-16 maybe with the preamp they will be stronger.
This appears to be very much a game of trial & error

Thanks for all of the suggestions and ideas much appreciated:)

I am new to the OTA tv and have spent some time chasing down the posts.
However the closest I have come to my reception area is Elora, Ontario and that is about 30 km (18 miles away)

I live in North Wellington County, Ontario which is north of guelph, just a bit outside Arthur. I am 99 km (60 miles) from the CN tower and 176 km (106 miles) from Buffalo, Grand Island.
Lat 45 52 47.00 N Long 80 34 35.28
in decimal it is 43.88 lat and -80.58 long

I have a 28 foot tower and would like to make use of it. It annoys me to pay bell $75.00 + per month

Antennaweb is only for US residents so it doesn't help me with antenna selection.

Any help at all would be appreciated.

Thank you
NorthWellington

Hi NorthWellington and welcome here - I wish I could say that it would be easy for you to get Buffalo stations but in your case I would have to recommend a deepest fringe setup in both the VHF and UHF bands. You can see my prescription in the Antenna Chart link to the bottom right. That 28 foot tower is a great start.

The only change I might make to the Antenna Chart prescription would be to replace the stacked CM4228s with a Double Bay Gray-Hoverman, which you can build yourself or ask in the GH threads if someone would build one for you.

Before you plan on buying anything it sure would be wonderful if you could get a pro or well-experienced OTA Hobbyist with a signal analyzer and an excellent antenna to come up there and do a site survey from on top of your tower.

I would love to do it myself but I'm at the other end of the country! :)

hi we solved the issue by using the zoom feature in the set up menu on the digital box

hello i just bought a new lcd tv and plugged in the roof top antenna to the build in digital tuner and was AMAZED at all the channels i got in HD i got 14 channels the first night i got...

2.1
2.2
4.1
5.1
7.1
7.2
9.1
11.1
15.1
17.1
17.2
17.3
23.1
36.1

and now i can only get 11.1 E channel and 36.1 CTS HD. I am located in Kitchener. what can i buy or do to get those channels in. my antenna is about 7 feet above my roof and all the houses around me are bungalows(singe story homes). any help would be great thanks.

Welcome here canada - what model of antenna do you have, and which direction is it pointed towards?

What is the length of coax cable from the antenna to the TV, and is it RG6?

im not to sure i climbed up my antenna to try and find a model number but no success i know it is made by channel master thought. i have tried rotating it a full 360 and still the same ONLY two channels.right now its pointed to buffalo.The cable is a standard cable TV cable i don't know what kind it is. its the weirdest thing though i got 14 CHANNELS the first night and then there GONE! what can i buy to get a better channels thanks

Canada the weather turned cold and now Ontario is in normal conditions.During warmer then normal the Buffalo stations have more range.

Yep, rob50312's reply explains the issue with tropospheric effects on your reception, so let's figure out how to optimize your OTA gear for regular situations.

Can you post photos of your antenna to a site like Flickr and link to them here so that we can try to identify which antenna it is?

Also, as I've asked, what is the length of coax cable from the antenna to the TV, and is it RG6?

im not to sure i climbed up my antenna to try and find a model number but no success i know it is made by channel master thought. i have tried rotating it a full 360 and still the same ONLY two channels.right now its pointed to buffalo.The cable is a standard cable TV cable i don't know what kind it is. its the weirdest thing though i got 14 CHANNELS the first night and then there GONE! what can i buy to get a better channels thanks
Welcome Canada,


Are there any splitters or extra connectors in the cable from where it leaves the antenna to where it enters the TV?
To add to stampeder's question ("...and is it RG6?"); look closely at the cable. There might be some fine typewritten info on it.

okay heres a link to my pictures of the antenna and some sort of splitter box in my basement.there's maybe 25 feet of cable from the antenna to the splitter then i bought 25 from there of RG6 quad-shield to my new TV. heres the link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31606645@N08/?saved=1

Thanks for the photos, canada - your antenna is a combo VHF/UHF and it was built for near fringe to fringe reception and not much farther. From Kitchener that's unfortunately not going to help with the Buffalo stations. That explains why you got such good results only with tropo effects but then dwindled down to Hamilton stations only afterwards under "normal" circumstances.

You'll need a much more robust antenna setup. My advice is to look in the Deep Fringe column of the Antenna Chart (I'm pretty well positive you won't need Deepest Fringe). There are options shown in the Chart for a single Combo antenna or for separate VHF and UHF antennas. Given that you already have the tower and rotor ready to go, I'd have to recommend a 1-for-1 swapout of the old combo with the new. Someone in a closer place to Toronto and Buffalo might buy your original antenna if you can get it down from there unscathed.

My advice about your other OTA gear:


The device inside your house is a distribution amplifier. My advice is to put a strong preamp right up at the antenna and run fresh RG6 from it to the point at which it must be split to different rooms, at which you would use a high quality 3 or 4 way splitter and not a distribution amplifier.
If you want to try to make the best use of your existing antenna and cabling, I suggest putting a VHF/UHF preamp right up at the existing antenna with a run of fresh RG6 and then replacing that distribution amplifier with a high quality 3 or 4 way splitter.

Periodically I take a look at which threads seem to be growing fastest and which ones cover really large areas to see if the membership will be best served by a split of the posts into a couple of smaller area threads. I've done this many times over the past few years as Digital OTA has grown and grown in popularity.

Today I've split the previous thread for your area into two:

ON - Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph, Cambridge, Bruce Peninsula (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=94075) (this new thread you are now reading)

ON - Hamilton, Burlington, Stoney Creek, Woodstock, Brantford (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=36535) (original thread no longer applies to your area)

I have some housekeeping to do in the original thread so don't be surprised if you see a post or two that I haven't tidied up yet.

Thanks for all your great posts! :)