NB, NS, PE, NL - Atlantic Provinces - OTA

[downbeat]

Vivian, welcome to the forum!
Have you taken a moment to check out this introductory message?
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=125161
You'll find instructions on what information to share with fellow members so we can help you better.
There is also a link to the OTA FAQ, which contains lots of good info on how OTA works.
Good luck signal hunting!

[vivian]

Downbeat, I read all that. If there's something you think I should have done that I didn't, would you mind being specific?

Update: We tried the antenna outside, about 10 feet off the ground, and obtained no better results than we did in the attic. In fact, the results were no better than with an amplified set-top rabbit ears. Which is pathetic, so this antenna is going back to the store. My friend has a giant antenna he's willing to sell us; maybe we'll try that. Or give up, I dunno. Pretty discouraged right now.

[lukeab]

Originally Posted by vivian

Downbeat, I read all that. If there's something you think I should have done that I didn't, would you mind being specific?

Update: We tried the antenna outside, about 10 feet off the ground, and obtained no better results than we did in the attic. In fact, the results were no better than with an amplified set-top rabbit ears. Which is pathetic, so this antenna is going back to the store. My friend has a giant antenna he's willing to sell us; maybe we'll try that. Or give up, I dunno. Pretty discouraged right now.

Vivian,

I'm on the Northside of Fredericton. I didn't have too much luck until I upgraded my antenna. If you are looking for a new antenna there is a report you can download on this site - http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=97121, which gives some options depending on your situation. Maybe the antenna you bought is on there somewhere so you know if it does a decent job picking up high vhf. I ended up getting a Channel Master 2016 because it is good for both uhf and high vhf. CTV is high vhf and that was the one I was having trouble with. The signal does come in stronger on this side of the river so there is no guarantee it will come in especially as it appears there are some poor reception areas where you are.

[kfarrell]

I have my very good signal but CTV is muted . My Toshiba tv is my tuner previous tuner was Bell 9200 and it worked no problem ,is it CTV or my tv ?

[rabbit121]

Hey guys.. I'm another Frederictonian (west side, past silverwood) trying to get an OTA setup up running. Am I to understand CBAT-DT on 31 (CBC) is up and running? I can get Global on 44 with my little indoor flat top antenna but that's it.

I had the day off today so I tried building a larger antenna to see what else I might be able to pick up.. I improved my signal on 44 and pulled in a french CBC channel 19 but still no sign of anything else. these are the antenna/instructions I found http://uhfhdtvantenna.blogspot.com/

I have a 4228HD and amp coming in the mail this week, hopefully I have better luck with that than my little home made contraption.

[zuess2011]

i am having no luck with this ota, i still get only two channels,cbc n.b,and 31 which is french,and i understand those two channels are analog,so are there any other analog channels i might get,if i could pull in ctv,or cbc ,nova scotia that would do,but im having no luck as far as auto scan,that goes nowhere.i guess its because the sony wega has no antenna option.

[halifax-ota]

it must be frustrating trying to work with weak signals. i'm 3.2 miles from transmitter, and now getting occasional problems. i lost ctv one night, and all channels another night. ctv seems the worst for problems receiving, so i replaced my short rabbit ears dipole with a uhf bow-tie antenna, kept the long rabbit ears dipole connected with the splitter, and made sure the cables for each were nearly the same length. antennas are still on my 3rd floor ceiling. i think i made a bit of headway, but still pointing antennas occasionally to find ideal directions. both my Homeworx converters like to crash, like the sound going muted, picture freezing, and sometimes losing all reception, all requiring rebooting with the remote to fix problem.

[vivian]

Lukeab, our antenna was a Channel Master, I think CM2016, the same as yours. It went back to the store yesterday because it proved to be no better than rabbit ears when we compared the signal strength for the channels we already get.

When we returned it, the guy at the store said that a lot depends where you are because the digital signals are directional. They don't just go out all around. So it sounds like, if you don't have the luck to be in the path of the signal you want, you may not get it no matter what you do. He said it might get better in the future when the stations beef up their signals. I don't know when that's supposed to happen.

Makes me wonder if the long-term plan is to pull the plug on OTA TV altogether.

Rabbit121, we're getting CBC (CBAT-DT). We must be pretty close to the transmitter; CBC is just up the hill from us. I'm surprised to hear you're getting French CBC as we only get the analogue version. We turn off the converter box when we want to watch it. Good luck with your new antenna.

[vivian]

Oh, you know what's funny? TV Fool seems to think I shouldn't even be getting CBC.

[Dave Loudin]

Why do you say that? It is listed as your strongest station. Remember, you need to select the "Pneding applications included" option to see the post-transition operations.

Some advice based on your TVFool report:

You have at least two VERY strong UHF stations, CBAT (digital 31) and CBAFT-10 (analog 19) which are the CBC and SRC stations. I can't tell if Global's CIHF (digital 44) is active, but it would be extremely strong, too. You do not need more than a loop antenna to get them. On the other hand, the CTV station on ch. 9 is MUCH, MUCH weaker, with a noise margin (signal level compared to the minimum needed to successfully decode) of only 2.6 dB. You need an antenna capable of 10 dB gain or more in the high-VHF band to capture this reliably. The CM2016 does not have anywhere near that gain, which is why it didn't work. The guy at the store was probably trying to describe terrain blockage, but as you relate what he said, that's completely wrong.

For CTV, you will need to buy (per this forum's OTA antenna chart) either a Winegard YA-1713 or an Antennacraft Y10-7-13. Don't pay attention to mileage ratings.

[rabbit121]

Vivian, the french CBC channel I was referring to was just the analog one, and it's pretty grainy.

[phannon]

CBC in St. John's (8.1) seemed to be having some problems (at least from my reception area) over the past few days. On Wednesday evening, the reception went all to hell (dropped frames, frozen pictures, pixel streaks, no sound, etc.) for a little while, then came back up somewhat but with the signal strength and S/N varying wildly (e.g. S/N -SONY LCD - at 32 then down to 18, 20, 24, etc.). This was also noticed on Thursday evening, but good enough signal for no breakup. This morning, all seems to be back to normal with the signal strength. During this time, the NTV signal (21.1) was fine.

Anyone else in the area notice this or was it confined to my general area?

P.E.Hannon

[phannon]

An update to my previous post.....I thought CBC was back to a solid signal, the at about 4:00PM the up and down signal started again....freezing loss of sound, signal strength fluctuating and errors shown on the SONY LCD. Naturally the best of my three tuners (SONY LCD, CM7000PAL and Access HD) is the Access HD! (fewer dropouts, etc.)

P.E.Hannon

[ralph_sinclair]

zuess2011,

CBAT 7 Moncton and CBAFT 31 Charlottetown are the only analog channels available in your area. If your TV doesn't have a dot or dash button next to the 0 key then it doesn't have an ATSC tuner and you would need a different TV or a standalone ATSC tuner in order to pick up CBC Charlottetown, Global Moncton, and CTV Moncton in HD. You location looks decent for picking up these channels, if you get a clear analog picture on 7 and 31.

For anyone who happens to have a Bell dish on their house, but does not recieve Bell service (eg you cancelled or the previous owner had Bell): Bell is currently replacing their customer's 9200 model DVR's, rendering them useless. These work great as OTA DVR's, if you can get one for free on Kijiji for example. But they need to be plugged into a Bell dish to work. The receiver will work for OTA even if Bell has cut it off. There is a thread in the Bell Hardware forum where this can be discussed more. These make a great HD DVR for folks with good OTA availability.

[zuess2011]

yes my remote does have a dot button,im just not having any luck with ota i guess,i do have a bell receiver,its a 6100 it has ota on the front of it,and has a small remote antenna ,you think i might be able to make this work,i must have atleast4 or five different receivers layin around,be good to get something out of one of them,not sure if i still have a bell dish or not,ill have to see whats in the shed i guess.thanks for the info.