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

[Bumblefist]

I haven't been home in the evening the last few nights so I haven't been able to check if it's still dropping out between 6 and 7pm. The weather has changed so hopefully tonight I'll be able to see if the cooler weather will change anything. I did notice that last night after 9pm, the signal was very weak from CBC while still strong on the other channels.
As for the other information on my situation, I've got a Zenith DTT901 reciever, a DB4 antenna, currently no pre-amp and about 70 feet of cable.
Under normal conditions, my signal strength on all channels is in or just below the "good" range on the signal meter. When I loose CBC it goes down to the "poor" range and hovers up and down. The signal strength on the other channels are still "good" during this time although once I lost Global just when CBC came back up in strength, which I found interesting. It was as though the disturbance was making it's way down through the frequency spectrum. Or it was just a coincidence.

My next plan is to get a pre-amp and see if that makes a difference. I also want it to improve my analog reception if possible. Then in the future I'm going to build a GH10 antenna.

[sputnik]

Hi Bumblefist,

I have both a pre-amp and a rotator. The pre-amp helps me get the further away Bellingham stations. My antenna is normally aimed as a compromise between the Vancouver stations on Mt. Seymour and the Bellingham ones on Orcas Island. Sometimes, there are weather anomalits where the signal from Vancouver is fading in and out. At those time the rotator comes in handy to allowing me to aim better at Vancouver and get a more consistant signal while temporarily giving up the Bellingham stations until I re-aim it back.

Did you buy the Zenith DT-901 on the island or did you have to order it in from somewhere?

[Bumblefist]

I have my antenna at an angle that gives me all the Vancouver stations and the Belingham stations as well. I wondered if I was sacrificing signal quality by trying to bring in all the stations with my antenna angle. Perhaps I should try a new angle and see if that eliminates my problems. I've been reluctant to climb up my pole and change the angle since most of the time I get all the channels with a good signal. The signal has been going out at many different times lately and for the first time I lost all the Vancouver stations at the same time yesterday around 6:30pm but KVOS was still coming in strong. I must be picking up the signals in a way that even though the signal is strong most of the time, any amount of disturbance in the air will reduce it quickly to the point where my receiver can't get enough of it or it is distorted too much.

I purchased my Zenith receiver in Bellingham for about $50. I was in the area and the exchange rate these days made it a great bargain compared to the prices of receivers here in Canada. The customs guy didn't charge me any duty either.

[dtvinvictoria]

Bumblefist, The Vancouver stations are much weaker then KVOS Bellingham which is probably why those ones drop out when KVOS is still coming though strong. Last summer I had the Vancouver's fading in and out while KBCB and KVOS remained with a consistent quality.

[sputnik]

Hi dtvinvictoria,

What you say is totally true for the south end of the island.


I think further up island around Ladysmith, Nanaimo, Parksville I think in many spots with elevation it may be eaier to recive Vancouver.

I can only speak for own experice, but even with the much low-power being transmitted from Vancovuer stations I can recive them with rabitt ears but the not Bellingham stations. Of course, in my case it helps that I can see Mount Seymore out my window and the lights on Grouse Mountain at night and that am 120 metres above sea level. I am also affected by the ridge that I believe blocks out Seattle makes CKVU from Saltspring a big ghosty mess. This could also weeken Bellingham a little for me.

I suspect that thoose in Nanaimo closer to the ocean will have better luck with KVOS then me.

[GearGuyBC]

Finally got around to re-installing my antenna and HDHR today. Antenna is a Winegard 8800 and it is pointed towards SeaTac. I did this about 18 months ago. Difference with the HDHR is that the signals are much stronger and so far more reliable.

My next adventure will be to try to build a second antenna to pick up CBC which is in the opposite direction.

Here is my channel lineup -- located in Victoria around Ten Mile Point area:

King - 48-5-1
KIRO - 39-7-1
KCTS - 9-9-1
V-me - 9-9-2
Create 9-9-3
KMYQ 25-22-1
ION - 33-33-1
QUBO 33-2
IONLife 33-33-3
Worship 33-33-4
DTV42.1 42.0.1
AMG 44-44-1
Azteca 44-44-2
AAT TV 44-44-3
MBC 44-44-4
KUNS 50-51-1

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by sputnik

Hi dtvinvictoria,

What you say is totally true for the south end of the island.


I think further up island around Ladysmith, Nanaimo, Parksville I think in many spots with elevation it may be eaier to recive Vancouver.

I suspect that thoose in Nanaimo closer to the ocean will have better luck with KVOS then me.

It also depends whats between you and the transmitters. Im on the beach at
French Creek and get all 3 Vancouver HDs with a Phillips indoor antenna.
When the changeover happens in 2011, I may have to look north to
Courtney and Campbell River to pick up CHEK, and a few other channels
from that area.

[GearGuyBC]

Originally Posted by stampeder

I was guessing the same thing - I think you're onto something since people along Lk. Ontario report experiencing some similar late day events with signals from across the lake.

Some members from out there even call it the "Lake Effect" so maybe you're describing BC's own "Straight Effect".

Anyone else on the Island experiencing something similar during this heat wave?

Used to do a bunch of sales work with clients for point to point microwave systems. Lakes, marsh and ocean causes a couple of problems. As I recall, on days when there is little wind to mix the air and the body of water is smooth you get atmospheric effects where the signal reflects off the water and causes a multipath interference problem. When the wind comes up and ripples the water more the multipath issue becomes less of a problem.

I also remember that at sunrise and sunset on calm days that the heat rising from the water and even from land can interfere with the signal. I remember them showing us a time plot in a Microwave 101 class where the impact of the sunrise in particular caused issues until the breeze came up and started mixing the air.

The last thing I remember there is the effect you get on very calm evenings when the air settles in layers of cold/warm/cold called ducting where the signal is narrowed within the duct. If the the transmitter and your antenna are both within the duct the signal strength can improve dramatically. If your receiver and the transmitter are outside of the duct, the signal can worsen dramatically as well. Ducting often happens in the early morning hours on still evenings in the summer months until the breeze comes up and mixes the layers.

I assume that these conditions apply here at these lower frequencies as the do in the higher frequency microwave stuff. I would expect that over the straight that all 3 conditions would impact the radio signals between the Island and the Mainland from time to time. I may be completely out to lunch here as I'm not a radio engineer .. just what I recall.

[GearGuyBC]

Hey all,

Been playing around the last few days with the HDHomeRun and my antenna. I am currently running without a pre-amp between the antenna (Winegard 8800) and the HDHR - 50ft of RG-6.

As above, I've got some good results for the SeaTac stations even though TVFool suggests most of the stations are 2Edge. I think I get these stations despite the obstruction because the obstruction in this case is so far away. Even if I raise my antenna height on TVFool to 500ft, the obstruction is still present.

Anyhow, I'm hoping to pull in the Vancouver Digitals and so far no luck. In theory channel 22 CHAN -68.9dBm should come in the strongest with CBC 58 at -73.1dBm not far behind. Given that I am getting no signal when I rotate the 8800 in that direction I'm wondering if hope is lost? Close to my home in the direction of the Vancouver stations there are some large trees. The next major obstruction is Saturna Island (about 1/3 the way to Vancouver and from TVFool, looks to be the major obstruction and of course, it's much closer to me) and then clear LOS. To get clear LOS, TVFool suggests I'd need to have the antenna at 335ft (which is only about 300 feet higher ).

Looking for options and opinions here.

1. Should I look at a Pre-Amp (might help with some of the SeaTac stations too)...
2. Would a highly directional antenna work? The current crop of HD Vancouver stations are all 356 degrees (almost due north) of me? If so, I would like to build this myself and would appreciate a second opinion of which DIY model might be most effective for me.

[zapperman]

Gearguy, as a quick reply, I think you should go for it. For comparison, I have 2 edge tvfool data to the Mt. Seymour stations with CHAN and CBUT at both at 7NM dB. Their power is listed as -84dB. I am 47 miles from the transmitters.

I built a rough DBGH and received CHAN no problem, but didn't get CBUT. I since got a CM4228 and get both channels (preamped). I have been unable to get CIVT yet , but its strength is pretty low (-8.6NM and -99.4 dBm).

I plan to make a quality build of the gapless DBGH ("Vancouver Special") and think I'll be able to pick up all three. With your TVFool data, you should have no problem getting CBUT and CHAN, in my not so expert opinion, but I can speak from similar circumstances and was in your position 2 months ago- thought you'd appreciate the results....

[Ladybearbc]

HI all!

Well - we are going back to basics - saying goodbye to the Star Choice

We are located in Ladysmith, south facing and at the top of one of the hills.
What I would like to know - is what is the best bet as far as antenna equipment to start with. We tried an indoor Radio Shack special yesterday - and actually got station 12, 17 and 31 - I believe they were CTV, City Vancouver and Kvos

One was terrific (Bellingham) but the other two were lousy.

Does anyone have any idea what we can realistically expect to receive in our area with an outdoor antenna - and which one would be a good one to start with.

Thank you for any help you can offer

[stampeder]

Hi Ladybearbc, if your television is an HDTV with an ATSC tuner (since you got KVOS on 12 it seems that it is) then you would want a deep to deepest fringe antenna on a rotor so that you can swing it around to Vancouver or southeast towards Bellingham and/or Victoria and maybe even for SeaTac stations.

Another option would be one antenna fixed in place (no rotor) towards Vancouver and another fixed in place pointing southeast. You can see several posts in this thread for areas near you to get a sense of what is available.

One further complication: while most of the OTA stations are in the UHF band, Global in Vancouver, CITY on Salt Spring Island, as well as 3 SeaTac stations are or will be broadcasting in the VHF band, so the antenna(s) you choose need to get both VHF and UHF. See the Antenna Chart for more info.

I don't know of any OTA gear dealers on the Island but here's where to start looking:

OTA: BC & Western Canada Parts, Sales, Service, Installers

[GearGuyBC]

Some very positive results from the southern tip of the Island. I added a CM7777 pre-amp to my Winegard 8800 and I am now pulling in a whopping 27 digital stations from the SeaTac area. Granted, a few are the wrong language and content for me, but I was able to pull in several new mainline stations with the new pre-amp so I am a believer.

Here is my list of stations:

4.1 KOMO-DT
4.2 KOMO-SD (the KOMOs are new and I've not been able to get before)
5.1 KING-DT (KING was borderline and new very strong)
5.2 KING-SD
7.1 KIRO-DT
7.2 KIRO-SD
9.1 KCTS (PBS) (KCTS was borderline, now very strong)
9.2 V-me
9.3 Create
11.1 KSTW (KSTW is new)
13.1 KCPQ-DT (KCPQ is new)
13.2 KCPQDT2
22.1 KMYQ
28.1 KBTCSD1 (KBTCSD1 is new)
28.1 WrldVie
28.3 KBTCdoc
28.4 Create
33.1 ION
33.2 qubo
33.3 IONLife
33.4 Worship
42.1 DTV42.1 (DTV 42.1 is new)
44.1 AMG
44.2 Azteca
44.3 AAT TV
44.4 MBC
51.1 KUNS

Should get a chance this week to mount my new home built M8 pointed towards Vancouver with the pre-amp to see if the Canadian stations will come in and I will post the results. I am also going to add my Hauppauge PVR150 tuner to my SageTV server and pull off some of the SD locals.

[GearGuyBC]

So tried giving the Vancouver digitals a go today now that I have the antenna pre-amp. I've made an M8 -- verified that it works by picking up the Seattle digitals. When I point it towards Vancouver, I'm still not picking up any of the digitals. Channel 22 (Global) shows a very strong signal strength on the HDHR of 90%+ but just won't lock into the digital signal. CBC (58) also shows good signal strength of 70%+ but again, won't lock into the digital signal.

Few more things to tweak to see if bringing in these stations is possible.

[Ladybearbc]

Hi Kip

We are in Ladysmith - totally newbies and acquired a motorized antenna from ebay

We pick up KVOS which I believe is in Bellingham - but to date - nothing further south.

Also - all the Digital stations in Vancouver, A channel in Victoria (not pretty), Omni - and the ever popular CBC in french. Also, several of the Vancouver stations come in on analogue.