NY - Buffalo, Southern Tier, Batavia, Rochester, Syracuse

[stampeder]

Hi 70stang, hopefully you can take back that Philips antenna for a full refund because for reliable reception of Toronto you will need an outdoor UHF antenna.

Can you please post a photo of your old antenna so we can help identify if it can do UHF? Also please follow these steps so that we can give you better advice:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/show...4&postcount=72

And also read through the thread about the Canadian side of the river:

ON - Niagara Peninsula - OTA

[majortom]

With 2 or 3 days left till D-Day, get it, so far my results indicate I'm probably gonna need to do some work here in Buffalo to get all the TO & Hamilton stations full time, without losing ION Batavia.

In order of best / most reliable reception so far...
CBLT-DT CBC UHF20
CICA TVO UHF19
CFTO CTV VHF9 (brief test in wee hours only)
CHCH VHF11
CIII Global UHF41

Re: CFTO & CIII, at least I can say I can receive em at all, which is better than it was.

[buffalofan19]

You're having an easier time with CFTO than with CIII? Where in Buffalo are you?

[majortom]

probably not far from u, near west seneca, south buffalo, lackawanna border.
CFTO hasn't transitioned yet, just a few tests in the wee hours of the night,
I happened to be up one nite and it was booming in here. But, like i said, that was wee
hours at night. Relavent posts on that are in the CTV Transition Thread.

Should also point out they do seem to be "jivin" with tvfool predictions so far for here.
i.e. CBC & TVO are up top in terms of the Canadian Stations

[buffalofan19]

Down here in Buffalo (I'm about 50-55 miles from the CN Tower), CBC, Global, and TVO are all comparable. In fact, I'm pretty sure TVO comes in the strongest of the 3, but not by much. All are about 75-80% for me during the day and a little stronger at night.

[buffalofan19]

Originally Posted by majortom

CFTO hasn't transitioned yet, just a few tests in the wee hours of the night

They were doing tests on VHF 9 and coming in strong, or was it still on UHF 40? They're going from 40 back to 9 on Thursday, and judging by the improvement that never happened with CHCH moving from UHF 18 down to VHF 11, I'm not optimistic.

Another question, how do you use a pre-amp and not overload? I was told that a pre-amp was virtually worthless in Erie County due to the proximity of Grand Island and the absurd amount of RF being transmitted from there.

[majortom]

test was on VHF 9. They've been bringing up the dig transmitter after 2 AM for testing.
I'm not that optimistic either, but it should be better than VHF 11 from Hamilton, and certainly better than their transition signal on UHF 40.

Wasn't anyone around here saying u could never use a preamp anywhere in Erie County.
Noone can make a blanket statement like that. I'm ~ .25 to 1/2 mile from an FM transmitter and I'm fine with a preamp, no overload.
Every situation has it's own unique challenges, so as they say... improvise, conquer, overcome.

There is no question here, Global is weakest here. CHCH wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for all the trash from being in a VHF environment.

[buffalofan19]

I was running early getting ready for work this morning so I did a channel scan for the hell of it. CFTO came in very strong (I don't have a percentage on my Vizio just five bars out of five). I'm guessing it moved to VHF 9, because UHF 40 never had that sort of strength. My Vizio doesn't indicate the real channel...ever, just its relocated channel.

I also picked up at signal from 66-1, Omni-1 for the first time ever, but no picture. I wonder if I would have had I tried it an hour earlier. I'm going to do a fresh scan tomorrow night after work to try to get rid of all the analog crap that shows up in my lineup but never gives me a picture. Interestingly enough, CBLFT came in at very little power.

[Humbar]

CBLFT has not transitioned as of yet, as well as all of Rogers stations.

[buffalofan19]

I know, but usually I can get those channels when the weather is right. The weather seemed right this morning.

[JJMoney]

66-1 would be sun tv not omni. Unless you meant 64-1 which is omni1 but will be transitioning to 47-1 tonight..

[buffalofan19]

It must have been 64-1. The call letters definitely said Omni-1.

[buffalofan19]

CITY is coming in for me now here in Buffalo (44-1 mapped to 57-1).

Omni-2 is now appearing for me on 69-1. I have no idea what the real channel is (I'm assuming it's 51-1), but ION is there so I can't get to it by punching in 51-1.

[Humbar]

CFTO 9.1 seems to be on reduced power for some reason. I have a very weak signal and can see the CN Tower. OMNI 2 is indeed on RF 51 mapping to 69.1

[Chips]

Wow, what a difference in the power level I am seeing on CBLT since midnight. I watch a poor analog picture on Ch.25, with the volume muted ( I don't know French and the station was in and out), while going back and fourth to check the power levels on CICA, and CBLT. At midnight Ch.25 in analog went down and the power levels for CBLT went up. I also for the first time since it went digital, got CICA (which use to be my best analog station from Toronto). I live about 110 air miles from Toronto, so I need a trop to set up to get the Toronto stations (although I often got analog out of Toronto). I am totally impress with CBLT, it is a real power house. I also saw signal on Ch.44-1, nothing on Ch.47-1 (although I was able to get Onmi on 47 analog earlier that night). I find it hard to believe that I am seeing signal on 44-1 if City is only broadcasting at 22 kw, (it was a bad night for the Analog channels I watched, not a good trop), but anything is possible.