Hey guys,
I'm sure this has been asked before, but I honestly could not find it.

CBC in Windsor, the channel 9 tower on Riverside (the one they cut in half a couple years ago), seems to be giving me a lot of reception issues, along with my other analog stations. I recently re-attached my old school Delhi Large Combo rooftop antenna (no pre-amp) to my Hauppauge 2250 TV tuner card with a 50' RG6. I'm in good shape with all the main Detroit digitals (except 31.1/2/3/4 in Ann Arbor (when are they moving to Southfield?), and 38.1 is kind of flaky), but the local analog's are giving me major headaches.

The olympics and the hockey season are quickly approaching, and I can't even get a stable connection with Channel 9? something sounds fishy. Is it possible that I could be overloading because I'm only 2.8 miles away? CHWI-60 comes in great and that's even closer.

I'm a bit baffled. Any help would be appreciated.

@Ringtail, I've read you are close to downtown, do you have any issues with CBC?

Thanks in advance for the help, I will try to pay it forward when given the chance.

kls.

CBET-TV gives me slight ghosting issues due to the office towers along Ouelette Avenue interfering with the signal from their new primary tower in McGregor. I think your overloading signals are from CHWI-TV-60 on the Victoria Park Place apartments (victoria avenue and Park street).

I think that tower they cut in half in 1997 is now either FM-only, or used as their microwave studio-to-transmitter link. WPXD's (31.x) been MIA since the last few bad storms in early August, but WADL (38.x) is strong, as are the remaining detroit locals (even WJBK is alright now).

@ RingtailedFox and whoever can help;

CBC confuses me, because I have no issues with channel 18 from Detroit. Even 66 on the RenCen is good (not the programming, just the signal )
Is it possible that my antenna is having trouble with it because it is too close? I've checked the Antenna charts here, and my setup is more for fringe and deep fringe, but I just assumed that it would not be an issue (mostly based on a visual survey of 90% of the antenna's around the city being the same).

Are you using a large combo antenna, or a UHF only? I'd like to go the route of a good CM4221HD with a preamp in the attic if it'll let me pick up the Fox VHF, but I don't want to drop the cash without any re-assurances...

i'm using just a simple, cheap weather-protected square four-bay bowtie UHF antenna, but since i'm so close to southfield, even WJBK-DT on VHF 7 comes in loud and clear. They broadcast from southfield, about 18 miles northwest of downtown windsor, which is great for us since they're just so close. I think you could be having issues with overloading from CBET-TV since they're about 18 miles south-southeast of the city near McGregor, as well. I plan to upgrade to something like a CM7777 so i can pull in WPXD and the toledo locals in the future, but i'll get to work installing it around april if i can save up for it by then.

Isn't WPXD supposed to move to the Southfield farm next year on channel 50?

lol, too funny

I was picking up WJBK-DT 2-1 here in London around a week ago with my DB8 however whatever they were doing I cannot pick it up anymore. I wonder if they put some nulls or something. Heck I was getting everything last night even 38-1 WADL. I know they were increasing the signal but perhaps they were like "let's screw with that guy in London and give him a day or two of higher signal strength, then when we reel him in and we will crush his hopes by decreasing it on him. That will really screw with his head." lol

Hey klskls do you have a pair of rabbit ears laying around? Then mabey you can hook them up to see it is over amplification or just the antenna. Perhaps you could borrow an antenna from someone that has a 4221HD for testing?

Indeed the combo antenna is King in Windsor too, from the days of VHF Heaven. Now most have left even VHF-Hi so those bowtie antennas are more desirable as they have smaller footprints.

I'll tell you though, growing up in your area and being so used to seeing combo antenna's it was a bit of a change to install a bowtie and believing their power. Face it; how often do you see other than yagi's on cartoon's.

yes, WPXD is supposed to occupy WKBD's former analog position (channel 50, as well as height) on their tower, but when they move is anyone's guess.

nice comment about W66BV. made me laugh!

alternately, if they used a diplexer (like what is used on the Sears/Willis Tower in Chicago), they could put their transmitter at the same height or even use the same transmitter to broadcast two different channels...

LOL my mom would beg to differ she says it gives her more knowledge. I can't argue with that. We can pick up ch 66 (and 18) most days with moderate snow and occasional interference though quite watchable if there's no tropo/poor weather knocking it out.

back OT though... CBET ch 9 is still at 201kW in the same spot they have been since the late '90s along with TVO 32 and CBEFT 54 in McGregor. I'm 17.9 miles away from there with a roof mounted combo antenna+preamp and I get excellent reception about 98 percent of the time. Other than severe antenna damage you should be able to get a very good clear picture from them. But be sure your antenna is facing south to south south east though.

@ Ringtailed

Those Southfield area signals are really cookin' up there. If I was living in your area i'd possibly use one stationary bowtie that can pick up some vhf and use that for Detroit and use a large very directional combo or a vhf uhf dual setup on a rotor for other distant areas so to possibly avoid the local overload.

The future WPXD on 50 will be directional, though there is no FCC contour map yet so your right... who knows yet...it's definitely going to be sometime next year before there's any action on that front. I just hope I can pick it up at that time.

@ Pana

yep those vhf/uhf combo antennas still have a little more use in them down here. There are multiple dtv channels on Vhf-Hi around here that some people can get pretty well. Even before the transition WTVG, WTOL Toledo when on analog were FAR easier here to get than the digitals on 19, 17. When they both moved back "home" to vhf they are now quite reliable more so than the temporary uhf channels they'd been using so thats a plus.

Pleasent suprise last night.... I decided to do a channel scan just to see if there was anything else that I could pick up. I didn't even move the antenna from where it was and suddenly picked up a couple of Buffalo stations, and some Ohio stations as well. I'm in Tilbury and my antenna is facing southwest. Here's what I have as of about a half hour ago:

2-1 Fox Detroit
2-1 WGRZ NBC (Buffalo I think??)
2-2 Fox Detroit SD
2-2 WGRZ Buffalo
2-3 RTV
3-1 WKYC Ohio
3-2 WX Plus
4-1 WDIV
4-2 This
5-1 WEWS Ohio
7-1 WXYZ
7-2 RTV Detroit
7-3 WXYZ Weather
8-1 Fox Cleveland
9
16
19-1 Sun TV (reception about 40%)
19-2 Sun TV
20-1 MY Tv Detroit
22
32 TVO
38-1 WADL
38-2 Universal Sports
42
48 CBC French
50-1 CW
51 CHCH
53 CBC French
54 CBC French
56-1 PBS
56-2 PBS
56-3 Create
59 TVO
62-1 WWJ
64 CBC
69 OMNI 1

Why such in increase in channels without even moving my antenna??

Welcome to the world of Tropospheric Skip and Ducting, which are explained towards the beginning of this thread:

OTA Odd Reception, Weather Effects, DXing, Tropospheric Skip

Tropo affects any and all OTA antennas of every type. The difference is that if you have a very powerful outdoor antenna your results will be much, much more pronounced and intense.

For an example of tropo in London, a neighbour with a big Winegard HD8200P up on the roof might be getting a VHF station barreling in from Iowa while your indoor ZSS clone is picking up a Detroit station you normally would not get.

We can discuss tropo further in the thread linked above, and you'll also see quite a few posts in there from SW Ontario members who enjoy seeking it out.

We'll return this thread back to "normal" local reception.

i considered keeping the small UHF-only bowtie in service and simply teaming it up with a CM7777 on a rotor so i could swing it around and pull in the toledo stations, but i'm not sure how feasable this is.

Lecocq: nice catch on WKYC! they have a muffler on their transmitter to limit how much signal leaks over to Canada. Pretty cool snagging digital low-power repeater CKXT-DT-2 (SunTV 19)... You even got WGRZ from Buffalo? awesome catch for our area! what are you using?

wouldnt hurt to try. As you suggest your pretty much facing North so I think this would not help the situation. I would be interested in your results if you do try this.
NE might or should pull you in a Detroit station but the type of antenna you have is not designed for this.
Like I said, it would be an interesting project.

Mark

Ringtailed Fox - 3.1 WKYC I get on an almost steady basis with my antenna pointed towards Detroit. I was pretty suprised at this as well. Alot of those channels have disappeared since I first left the post. Was thinking of playing around with the rotor to see what I could snag today.

I'm using the tuner on my Samsung tv and I'm not sure on the antenna as it was here when we bought the house a couple of years back. All I know is it's a rooftop antenna . There is a Ventura amplifier where the cable comes into the house and that's it. I really think we are in a good area here between Chatham and Windsor and the picture is crystal clear on all Detroit stations.

This is interesting as I have a very hard time without tropo getting stuff from Cleveland and I am closer to there than you in Tilbury. More and more i'm thinking that being so close to CHWI 16 tower here is hurting my chances of getting it. Over the next few weeks as tropo dies down for the year can you keep us updated if you can still regularly get WKYC, etc... channels?

So recently moved from North Toronto down to Windsor near the bridge. Brought my TV, H260F, CM 4228 and preamp all down. Using the CM 4228 inside the appartment and without the preamp as I found it was overloading the recievers, I am pulling all of the Detroit stations sans ION on 31. So far, even with the preamp, I have been unable to find a way to to get 31. So my question to the locals are, is this a hard channel to pull? Second problem, somehow the DTB-H260F Samsung STB broke on the move from Toronto to Windsor. So now I went over to the local Zellers and got the RCA unit that is now in my footer. My question though is, does anyone know where in the city I could get it repaired? I spoke to Samsung and its a year out of warantee, so they want $110 USD to fix the terminal. Seems sorta steep but if there was a guy in town who could fix the unit, it would almost be worth it.

Advice to your new neighboor would be great