MB/SK - Winnipeg, Brandon, Regina, Saskatoon, Prairies - OTA

[Reed Solomon]

WHEN are CBC Going to remap to their Analog channels 6-1 3-1

It's probably your TV. I tried it on my sisters Vizio TV and it remappled to 3-1 and 6-1 last night.

still getting weak or no signal for cbc CBC french is coming in perfectly, but CBC english is not. Very strange. And yet, at my mother in law's, both are coming in perfectly. The difference between our places, maybe 300 ft. She's southeast of our house.

Perhaps she has a better quality antenna or has it pointing in a better direction or the distance from the antenna to the TV is shorter.. It could be any number of things. CBC is comparible to Global for signal quality for me.

[RottieGirl]

we have the exact same antenna with the same amount of cable. It's coming in now....for how long, I'm not sure. We're thinking that we might have to move our antenna this spring, due to the fact that 13 will disappear, once the leaves come on the trees. I'll be checking things out better tomorrow, once my migraine is totally gone.

[Lorenzo1000]

In Transcona north of Regent and just east of Plessis I get the following using a Channel Master 2016 which i intentionally attempted to point towards the Richardson building when I installed it in early September:

CBWFT 3-1 = 100%
CBWT 6-1 = 100%
CKY 7-1 = 85%
CKND 9-1 = 90%
CITY13-1 = 77%
JOY 35-1 = 99%

Looks like I did a good job pointing the antenna as CBC comes in really strong.

[METEO]

Very interesting...how high is your antenna? Might try this myself.

[tux]

Anybody know how well I'd be able to receive local channels using an indoor antenna? I'm considering dropping Shaw, but I want to make sure that I can get all the local channels with an indoor antenna, and I wanted to wait until everything was digital. I'm not as concerned about getting JoyTV, but I'd like to receive the other local stations (CBC/SRC,CKY,CKND,CHMI).

I'm in West End, near Portage & Broadway, and my TVFool report is at http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...4033ed2e6fc72e . I'm looking at purchasing a Terk HDTVa or Winegard SS-3000 antenna, if I can find any local retailer that sells them.

[Dr.Dave]

I noticed a couple of anomalies with the new CBC signals. The channels map fine to CBWFT 3-1 and CBWT 6-1 on my Samsung TV. Channel 6-1 doesn't seem to provide a time signal at all and 3-1 provides an incorrect time.

The time on 3-1 is 2.5 hours less than the correct Winnipeg time. I suspected it was a time zone problem so I changed the time zone on my TV from Central to Newfoundland and Channel 3-1 showed the correct Winnipeg time, but all the other channels were wrong. It seems like either Channel 3-1 is setting the wrong time zone or isn't setting any time zone at all, causing my TV to default to the Newfoundland time zone.

Since I was getting 2 different times, I noticed that when I tuned to Channel 6-1, it would show the time of whatever channel I was on previously. If I change from channel 7-1 to 6-1, I get the correct time; if I change from channel 3-1 (which has the wrong time) to 6-1, I still get the wrong time.

[sleepdirt]

I picked a 5$ rca antenna from xs cargo antennas for a friend. Tested it at home for kicks in the polo park area and it pulls in 5 of the channels(except city-13 not surprisingly). some sort of amplified antenna should do the trick for that one.

[Dr.Dave]

I dug out an old pair of rabbit years from a 25-year old TV just to see what I could get. I'm in the west part of Winnipeg with a Samsung Series 5 on the main floor. So far it's just for experimentation, since I rely on my PVR, but I did watch a program last week just to try it out. I've been playing around for the last month and the results seem pretty consistent.

CKND, CBWT and CBWFT are very strong and CKY has always been reliable. Joy used to work well, but the results are spotty recently. I was able to get CHMI once by lugging the TV up to a 2nd floor west-facing bedroom, but it wasn't reliable.

I'll post my results since they show that CBWFT seems to have a consistently better signal than CBWT. My TV has a meter with 10 bars which I think is signal strength and a SNR in dB.

Number	Name	Bars	SNR	SNR2
3-1	CBWFT	10	33	35
6-1	CBWT	8-10	28	33
7-1	CKY	6-7	25	30
9-1	CKND	10	30	30
13-1	CHMI	3*	0	20
35-1	CIIT	8*	0	28
* = second floor only

EDIT: I updated my chart to include the second floor (SNR2). I was able to pick up CHMI and CIIT by connecting some coax to the vintage rabbit ears and moving them to the second floor. All the signals were stable with no dropouts.

[doctorzero]

Here's what I've been able to get between 12:30 and 1 p.m. today at my location using a small indoor antenna:

SRC 3.1 - 90%, but with a few glitches

CBC 6.1 - 90%

CTV 7.1 - No signal (I'm on the north side of the building, so there's loads of clutter between me and the transmitter)

Global 9.1 - 90%

Citytv 13.1 - 90% near a west-facing window, no signal deeper indoors

CIIT 35.1 - 100%

[jjmljs]

In Marchand, MB (20 mins southeast of Steinbach) with rooftop Winegard HD8200U antenna with pre-amp and distribution amp but no pole.

CKY 7.1 = +90% at all times no matter which direction I point my antenna
CITY13-1 = Approximately 70%.
JOY 35-1 = Approximately 50% and clear at all times.
CKND 9-1 = No signal when it is warmer than -5 degrees Celsius, otherwise it works well. 50% today.
CBWT 6-1 = No signal or maximum 30% on a cold clear night.
CBWFT 3-1 = No signal or maximum 30% on a cold clear night.
KNRR = No signal

TVFool says I should be able to get all the above channels with my deep fringe antenna. I'll be forced to install a 60ft tower/pole or go to satellite TV to receive CBC, CKND and possibly JOY when spring comes around. I received all these channels crystal clear before the digital conversion with a much smaller antenna. I'm particularly disappointed with CBC as they can't even match CKND's poor performance.

[Haybomber]

Just out of curiosity, why didn't CBC just add CBC French as a subchannel rather than a separate channel? Seems to me that would be a practical way to go about it. Perhaps someone may be able to shed some light on it.

[Dr.Dave]

Haybomber, according to this this post, CBC is using "MPEG Video: Bitrate 15.000 Mbps Resolution 1280 x 720p" for each channel in Toronto, so I would assume that is the standard across the country. There is only 19.4 Mbps available for video and audio, so using a sub-channel would result in more compression.

[kcbrk32]

CBWTF 3.1 26-33 glitchy
CBWT 6.1 62-78 glitchy
CKY 7.1 11-26 intermittent picture
CKND 9.1 62-78 stable
KNRR 12 No signal
CHMI 13.1 No signal
CIIT 35.1 70 stable

Rabbit ears and loop antenna cannibalized from defunct 1989 TV. Tested indoors near south facing window. Probably aluminum siding and steel studs in house do not help reception.

[Cham]

Good time to check/compare signals, I am home and have time on Sunday afternoon.
*Morris area, farm yard with lots of trees (evergreens).
*Test antenna is two full wave loops, one cut for channel 12, the other cut for channel 16 (approx 530MHz), VHF/UHF diplexer/balun and <50' RG6
* HAAT = 15' or 4.5m attached to wi-fi antenna mast <1m above roofline
*Magnavox TB100MG9 ATSC tuner

Note: test antenna is temporarily located perilously close to an active wi-fi grid antenna!

3.1 no signal (antenna is way off resonance for 51)
6.1 20% steady good picture
7.1 82%
9.1 17% good picture
12.1 40%
13.1 78%
35.1 24%

This antenna has very little gain but is bi-directional to some extent. Interesting how low the signal can be and still locks and provides a perfect picture... Not sure how the meter works... s/n+BER somehow?

The Winegard antenna picks all channels up at 100% except channel 12. (up higher & pointed at Winnipeg).

-C.
p/s.. bad picture of my test antenna:

[RottieGirl]

cbc analog was still working here this afternoon. Once it's gone, we'll have to do something with our digital signal. Weak or no signal most of the time.