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

[Benjamin]

French Creek (Parksville) OTA

Have been receiving CBC HD 2.1 solid since my last post and finally locked into CTV HD 32.1 today. Positioned my antenna on top of my BBQ on the back deck and watched a solid 2 hour movie that had no audio or video dropouts.

I seem to have found the "sweet spot" for CVIT 32.1 as Im receiving it solid pretty much every time I check it.
CIVT 2 bars out of 6
CBUT 5 bars out of 6

[RockyRd]

I will be picking up a new HDTV today and am interested in both analogue and HD OTA possibilities. OTA might be enough for me if it is all possible here.

I live in Victoria on Rockland Ave (near Government House) and face due south looking towards the mountains. if anyone has any good experience getting reception here, I'd be very interested in knowing about it.

I know nothing about OTA or antennas, are they affected by trees? Plenty on this property which impair my view of said mountains.

[Roastbeef]

I was wondering if anyone in Victoria, BC has been successful in receiving HD signals over the air lately. In specific, any Hockey on CBC? If so, is it possible to get a signal without an expensive and huge antenna?

Thanks.

hmm...
I see this has been moved to a dead thread.

[stampeder]

It sure has been quiet in this thread, but I've wondered about that too regarding CBC HD's ability to carry across the Straight.

I think the SeaTac stations just can't get around the mountains to most of Victoria though.

[Zudnick]

Hello,

I'm in Nanaimo (for those that know the area I'm in the Departure Bay/Sherwood Forest/Stephenson Point area), and have a HDTV but I am still on SD Shaw Cable...

I would love to move to HD, but just can't manage to swing the 700 bucks for the Shaw HDPVR (If you're going to go HD you might as well get the PVR, right?)... So, I borrowed a set of rabbit ears just to see what I could get... I would love to be able to watch Hockey Night In Canada in HD this year!

The TV is in my basement, so I was hoping for greatness, but in reality wasn't really expecting much with the rabbit ears. I hooked 'em up did the search and found two channels -- KVOS and Shop NBC (KBCB or something like that), but that's it. Sadly, I couldn't get any of the digital channels from Vancouver.

There's a big hill behind my house that is kind of in between me and Mt. Seymour, so I'm pretty sure that has a lot to do with the signals I got/didn't get...

A couple of notes: The two digital signals that I did get were 100% clear with very little to no drop outs. I could also get a bunch of analog signals (including those from Vancouver and Victoria) with varying results.

So, sadly, Shaw may end up getting more of my money in the long run anyway...


Z

[stampeder]

Sad to say that you may be right about that hill killing CBC HD signals from Mt. Seymour, Zudnick, but I wish you had a CM4228 up high to test.

Also which analogues from Mt. Seymour do you get, and what is their picture quality relative to eachother?

[Zudnick]

Hello,

If I remember correctly, the analog signals I could get were CBC, CTV, City TV, Global, CHEK, and KVOS…

They were all a bit fuzzy at times, but at other times very watchable during my short test period. I don’t really remember enough to do a reliable comparison between signals though… I was much more interested in the digital signals that I could pick up, therefore I didn't pay that much attention to the analog stuff.

You know, if you’re really interested in testing the signals over here feel free to stop by my place with a mast and CM4228 anytime! I'd love to see those results too.


Z

[stampeder]

Thanks for the invite but with the price of gas and the ferries it is ridiculously expensive now to visit the Island!

[GTC]

I'm frustrated by CTV pixellation. I live in a great location on Salt Spring Island and am able to get CBC HD perfectly, and when I swing my (outdoor) antenna toward Seattle, I can get 2 of the HD stations there (NBC and CBS). I'm line of sight to Mt Seymour and the picture still breaks up regularly unless the sun, moon, stars and weather seem to be in perfect astrological alignment. I'm hoping CTV is reading this, and will remove the FRS radio from their antenna and replace it with a real HDTV transmitter!

[stampeder]

GTC, that would be due to CTV's woefully low Effective Radiated Power. They decided in their wisdom that a peashooter would do them fine, so we have to live with it until they wise up.

Their ridiculously inadequate ERP is a common topic in this thread: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=42734

[solarwind]

Just wondering what the future of OTA might look like for the Cariboo region.. Family has some property at Canim Lake and I'm up there quite often in the summer. There are two locals, translators or repeaters I assume. Channel 3 (Global - same content as Vancouver) and Channel 5 which is E! and with some Kamloops content.
I set up a small combo antenna (Princess Auto special) on two tower sections, so it's approx. 25' high. 8725 preamp and a 80' run of RG6 coax. Channel 3 comes in very well and channel 5 is rather snowy, but watchable.

Stampeder, I see in the list on your site:
http://www.user.dccnet.com/jonleblan...ations/BC.html
Looks like both channels have allocations for DT channels on UHF 21 & 23. Is it likely these smaller repeaters/translators really will move over to UHF DT on 21 and 23 within a few years with the approaching analog cutoff? Or staying on VHF analog for some time yet?

[cooper83]

Thought I'd give OTA a shot now that I have an HDTV. I'm in Victoria (Cedar Hill area) on top of a hill, with really nothing in my way between my house & the US. With a Philips SDV2510/27 I only get 2 digital channels (KVOS & the NBC shopping channel ) and a handful of analog ones. Not too impressive, to say the least. I'll play around with the location of the antenna once I get my EyeTV Hybrid hooked up with my MacBook.
It has sparked my curiosity in OTA, that's for sure!

[stampeder]

solarwind, I don't think DTV will be coming to Canada's rural mountain areas if the networks get their way. Odds are that such locations will get certain channels FTA over the main satellite carriers, but this is all being hashed out over the next few years by the Feds in Ottawa so all bets are off for now.

BTW we try to go up to Mahood Lake at least once a year with the RV...

[stampeder]

cooper23, if you can "see around" the mountains down to SeaTac you'll do better with an outdoor antenna like a CM4228. If you swing it to the north east you might find that CBC HD in Vancouver would be lockable, but I highly doubt you'd get anything from CTV HD.

Lots of us keep hoping that some digital translators of SeaTac stations will come up in Bellingham, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Felgar]

Does anyone have any experience with digital reception in the Duncan area on the Island? It looks like there might be a chance to pull in SeaTac channels... My main concern is CBC-HD. I don't suppose it's possible to pick it up out of Vancouver is it?