BC - Victoria, The Island, Sunshine Coast, BC Interior, BC North - OTA

[stampeder]

This thread is a one-stop-shopping location for info on receiving Over The Air High Definition and Digital broadcasts in BC outside the Lower Mainland, as experienced by Digital Home Canada members. In your posts please specify:

1. Your Location (city, town, locale, on a high rise, in a valley, etc...)
2. Receiver and Antenna Brand/Model
3. Stations Received with their Picture Quality (excellent, pixellated, etc...)
4. Other helpful info...

[stampeder]

Originally Posted by idearat

Stampeder, any idea whether the signal might get to Victoria, and if so, what kind of antenna you'd require?

Hi Perry, from what I can tell the stations are asking the CRTC/Industry Canada people for just enough juice to cover the Lower Mainland. Looking at the Effective Radiated Power allowed by their licences I don't expect any of the signals to be viable out to the Island, but it will be interesting to see what people around Nanaimo can get in real time.

Originally Posted by idearat

I'm moving there in a couple of weeks, and buying a new tv soon (well, as soon as I've found work ), and I've been wondering whether there'll be any value in the near future to having an ATSC tuner.

Check to see if the tv you're looking at already has an ATSC tuner in it - more and more of them do these days. If so, no worries. If not, hold off for a bit and we'll try to keep you informed of DTV signals available on the island. If you do decide to buy an ATSC tuner we'd highly value your results here in the stickied OTA thread for BC.

Originally Posted by idearat

The antenna's the other factor because I'll be moving to an apartment initially, and probably a condo after that, so a big rooftop antenna's not on.

Depends on where you'll be in the Victoria area. If you're out towards Esquimalt or especially Sooke you may find the Olympic Mountains of WA in the way of SeaTac signals. Have a look at the stickied OTA thread for BC, and regarding antennas there are a couple of threads in this forum about best options. As you say, a big rooftop antenna is not an option for you so your results are not going to be great from SeaTac, HOWEVER if you have a balcony facing south or southeast and you can see around the Olympic Mtns. to SeaTac you could conceivably put a Channel Master 4228 on a bracket with a good preamp (CM 7777 or Winegard AP8275) and have some luck.

[stampeder]

Just looking on a map and I think someone living in the southernmost Gulf Islands (Saltspring, Pender, Mayne, etc.) with a CM4228 & CM7777 and a clear view southwards should be able to get some good signal from SeaTac and from UPN's repeater in Port Townsend, WA. They might even get the CBS repeater in Port Angeles, WA.

Likewise around Sydney on the Island but maybe not as far south as Oak Bay due to the Olympic Mountains. Ya never know.

I imagine that southward facing hillside antennas on the Gulf Islands further north (even Gabriola?) would have some luck from SeaTac.

[sputnik]

Hi Everyone,

I am recieving CIVT-DT 33 (CTV Vancouver) here in Nanaimo with both a BEV 6100 and a Sanyo HT27744 Televison. I am using a cheap $50 Radio Shack VHF/UHF Yagi mounted in the attic. The 6100 reports the signal at 62% to 68% with dropouts occuring occationally as signal dips to 61% or less.

The signal from CIVT-DT is more stable that KBCB-DT 19 (24.1) from Bellingham, the only other station I can recieve at present.

I will enjoy CTV now and look forward to CBC this fall.

[stampeder]

This is a Private Message that the author has allowed me to repost here for the benefit of others in the Victoria and Gulf Islands areas. Thank you harrybarry!

Originally Posted by harrybarry

I live in Victoria in a 5 storey high apartment building, facing south to Olympic mountains. I am on the top floor actually my patio is on the roof, and my building is located on top of a hill so I am probably on one of the heightest spot in Victoria.

Hi, for OTA testing you are very fortunate to be in that location at that height facing that direction!

Originally Posted by harrybarry

I have a regular TV (with ntsc tuner of course) and Sanyo Z2 projector with 1280x720 resolution ( with no tuner at all). I would like to get a Channel Master 4228 antenna with cm7777 amp and try if I can get any HD signal from either Seatac, Tacoma, Bellingham or now Vancouver.

That is a very good antenna and preamp for your deep fringe SeaTac requirements.

There are some Victoria stations that might overpower your gear if you try to point it at their broadcast antennas. This is something you can test when you get it set up. Probably the easiest thing for you will be to point the antenna southeast towards SeaTac and test whether you get any Vancouver stations without having to move it. You will certainly get the local Victoria ones, and I assume you'll also get the Port Townsend (UPN) and Port Angeles (CBS) repeater stations. Bellingham will probably be fine too. Thus, you may not need a rotator - you could leave the antenna bolted in place at the best azimuth. Just an idea for testing.

Originally Posted by harrybarry

I would like to do that before purchasing an expensive STB, in case if the result comes negative, I mean If I can't receive signals.

That's a sensible approach, although I'm positive you will receive signals from the analog stations if not the digital ones.

Originally Posted by harrybarry

here is the question part; if I get the antenna and the amp., connect them to my regular TV and search for the signals, and say I successfully get a HD signal from those towers, would I we able to tell it's a HD or SD signal. I am not talking about the picture quality.
I know my regular TV will only show the picture up to it's capacity.
I am talking about, how can I tell if the picture is HD,
is the channel Logos different than regular broadcasting, like, let's say, instead of just Discovery, would it state DiscoveryHD, or something like that.

Unfortunately an NTSC tuner like the one on your TV will not be able to detect ATSC signals. For instance, if you tuned an ATSC tuner to digital channel 44 and got a nice, clean digital picture, your NTSC tuner would only be able to show analog channel 44 as snow (unless there was also an analogue station broadcasting there, which is extremely rare). Also, not all Digital stations are in High Definition. Stations are assigned a frequency, but they have a certain amount of bandwidth to broadcast on that frequency with. Its complicated, but the easiest way to understand it is that some stations choose to use their entire bandwidth for one HD channel (i.e. channel 44.1) since HD is a bandwidth hog, while other stations choose to divide their bandwidth into several SD channels (i.e. 44.1, 44.2, 44.3). A real world example is CTV Vancouver, which chooses to broadcast on one channel: 33.1, so that they can output HD. On the other hand, KBCB in Bellingham WA also uses one channel: 19.1 remapped to 24, but only broadcasts in SD because the vast majority of their programming is from SD networks in Asia.

Originally Posted by harrybarry

If I know I am getting HD signals, then I would purchase the STB.

I wish there is some way that you could borrow an ATSC tuner from someone. Otherwise there is not any way to test. You could go into the OTA forum and ask if anyone else in Victoria has tried testing, or if they want to help do some tests with you.

[stampeder]

I've been making OTA reception projections for the southernmost parts of Canada's western provinces near the U.S. border based on maps, databases, and some personal knowledge of the area's topography, and its safe to say that if you are able to receive local repeater stations from Washington or Idaho you should keep in mind that the curfew for those stations from the FCC is for a 2006 switchover to digital. (Edit: this is now likely delayed to 2009.)

I don't have to tell you how screwed up TV signals get in the Okanagan, Columbia, and Kootenays areas due to the mountains, but if you can receive the repeaters you will eventually get U.S. DTV signals. The cutover to digital for Canada's TV stations will probably be a much longer process, but keep checking here.

[harrybarry]

Hello everyone,

here is my little experience with OTA HD reception in Victoria;

Hughes E86 Receiver
Televes DAT-75 Antenna

Top floor of a 5 storey building facing South & Southeast.

Antenna and the receiver belongs to another forum member, we just wanted to try if this was going to work or not. Yes it did work.

I am only getting 48 KING-DT Seattle WA. so far. I only managed to get %51 signal strength. Last Saturday we setup the system and since then every day has been very windy over here, and antenna vibrates violantly. If the wind EVER stops, I will move the antenna to a higher position and secure it then post the results again.

I am also getting weak signals from Bellingham, Port Angeles and Vancouver
that not high enough for the receiver to lock it.

Hopefully wind will slow down and I will post an update this weekend.

Regards
Harrybarry

Special thanks goes to Stampeder and the other local forum member for their generous helps

[stampeder]

Originally Posted by harrybarry

here is my little experience with OTA HD reception in Victoria;

Hughes E86 Receiver
Televes DAT-75 Antenna

Top floor of a 5 storey building facing South & Southeast.

Antenna and the receiver belongs to another forum member, we just wanted to try if this was going to work or not. Yes it did work.

I am only getting 48 KING-DT Seattle WA. so far. I only managed to get %51 signal strength.

I think you guys are going to need a preamp to get a better signal. This is to be expected given the distances. Good luck!

[stampeder]

Just when you thought you had it tough getting OTA, look at what these folks were facing and how they solved it:

http://www.fsjames.com/~tv/

Fort St. James is located in the very centre of B.C. and is just northwest of Prince George.

Their solution might serve as a model for other parts of the country. Here are the Industry Canada listings for the Fort St. James analog OTA repeaters:

BC Fort St James 3 CH3034 CANC 542506 1241749 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 4 CH3035 CANC 542506 1241749 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 5 CH3036 CBCE 542506 1241749 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 6 CH3037 CANC 542635 1241328 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 9 CH3038 CANC 542506 1241749 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 10 CH3039 MM 542506 1241749 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 11 CH3040 TSN 542506 1241749 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 13 CH3041 CBCE 542506 1241749 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 46 CH6455 CANC 542635 1241328 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 50 CH6456 CANC 542635 1241328 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 54 CH6457 CANC 542635 1241328 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 60 CH6458 CANC 542635 1241328 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 62 CH6459 CANC 542635 1241328 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 66 CH6460 CANC 542635 1241328 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 68 CH6461 KNOW 542635 1241328 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 48 CH6495 CANC 542635 1241328 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 52 CH6496 CANC 542635 1241328 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 56 CH6497 CANC 542635 1241328 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 58 CH6498 CANC 542635 1241328 0.0 0
BC Fort St James 64 CH6499 CANC 542635 1241328 0.0 0

[aa]

Is anyone here from the Victoria area and able to receive ota out of the Seattle area. I am located in the Gorge/Tillicum neighbourhood and would love to be able to receive "any" ota hd signal. I would be using the Bev 9200 as the receiver-tuner.

[gagemunsun]

North Quadra area of Victoria about 7 KM north of city center. I'm on a hill, facing south about 70 miles from Seattle.

Hughes E86 HD receiver
Channelmaster 4228 UHF antenna

Antenna is mounted on a 20 foot mast that rests on the ground and leans against my house. Antenna is pointed south-east where it seems to get to the best reception from Seattle. However, Seattle would appear to be slightly more south. There is another hill about 600 feet away, directly in front of the antenna at a slightly higher location.

Stations:

25 (22-1) KTWB-DT Seattle, fluctuating signal on receiver's meter with occasional picture
27 KBTC-DT Tacoma, weak signal, no picture
32 (33-1) KWPX-DT, fluctuating signal, occasional picture
36 (11-1) KSTW-DT, fluctuating signal, occasional picture
38 (4-1) KOMO-DT, weak signal, received picture twice for a few minutes
39 (7-1) KIRO-DT, fluctuating signal from weak to 95%
41 (9-1 to 9-5) KCTS-DT, fluctuating signal from weak to 85%
44 (45-1) KHCV-DT, fluctuating signal, occasional picture
48 (5-1) KING-DT, fluctuating signal from weak to 100%
50 (51-1) KWOG-DT, weak signal, occasional picture

53 Analog CIVI Victoria, picture again is not consistent
Many other analog stations but are not watchable for some reason

Other notes:

Biggest problem is getting a strong, steady signal. Signal can increase or decrease over a period of a few minutes. It generally improves later in the evening.

There are some 25-30 foot trees in front of the antenna in the neighbour's yard about 35 feet away.

I've worked with another Victoria resident (another member of this forum) testing the same equipment. His location is the Cook/Hillside area, looking south, with a good view of the city. His results have been similar to mine.

Next testing steps are: (1) vertically stack a second CM4228 that I have, (2) use Channelmaster 7777 pre-amp to improve signal, (3) use a FM filter to reduce FM noise and (4) mount best combination of antenna(s) on roof. I would like to limit roof mounting to about 5 feet above the roof line. Also plan using a rotator that I have.

I currently have a Televes DAT 75 on the roof which was receiving less signals than the CM 4228 is. My analog reception was much better with the Televes for some reason.

Also have a DVICO Fusion 5 HDTV card for my Shuttle SFF PC. It's results are generally better but again, biggest problem is a fluctuating signal.

Great to hear any advice, comments or questions.

[4DTV HD]

What sort of pictures are you getting on the Seattle UHF Analogs? KONG 16 KTWB 22 KBTC 28.
Are the pictures just weak or is there multipath present?

[Kabuto]

My location

My Equiptment
Antenna: Antennas Direct 91xg
Winguard 8275 Preamp
Mounted ~12-15 feet above my roofline with a Channel Master rotor
My HD MDP-130

MY tuner card is a PC variety and basically 8/11% is a trace 11/18 is a signal too weak to display and anything 21% and above is a perfect viewable picture.

Stations:

25 (22-1) KTWB-DT Seattle, sometimes works ,at 316 angle
27 KBTC-DT Tacoma, nothing
32 (33-1) KWPX-DT, nothing
36 (11-1) KSTW-DT, Always Works, 44% average, 305 angle
38 (4-1) KOMO-DT, very weak, few singnals for a couple minutes
39 (7-1) KIRO-DT, weak, rarely strong enough, 306 angle
41 (9-1 to 9-5) KCTS-DT, somtimes , usually at night, 290 angle
44 (45-1) KHCV-DT, nothing
48 (5-1) KING-DT, Usually works 28% average, 305 angle
50 (51-1) KWOG-DT, nothing
also CTV Vancouver 33 DT - 40% average 212 angle

Angles included are for relativity to each other and do not concur with any actual angle as far as I know.

My efforts to improve my results are gonna consist of mainly clearing some more tree's If i can find my camera ill post some pics later, but basically Its my opinion that some nearby tree's are highly degrading any signals that I might be able to recieve.

[stampeder]

Originally Posted by Kabuto

Antenna: Antennas Direct 91xg

Have you considered an 8 bay bowtie reflector antenna like a CM4228 for its superior fringe area signal gathering? A yagi/corner reflector antenna as directional as yours is not able to gather scatter as well as a bowtie reflector so its just a thought. An extension of that idea is leaving your AD91xg yagi pointed at Vancouver and a CM4228 pointed at Seattle with both of them joined to your tuner via a signal combiner. Great post!

[nfitz]

Originally Posted by stampeder

Just when you thought you had it tough getting OTA, look at what these folks were facing and how they solved it:

http://www.fsjames.com/~tv/

Finally looked at this site.

I had no idea that the CRTC had sanctioned OTA repeaters for CBS, NBC, and even TSN and Discovery Channel in Canada!
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/De...DB2000-157.htm

Nick