My antenna setup is a Channel Master 4221HD mounted to a makeshift tower and placed in my family's sunroom. (I originally used a clone which worked pretty well, but the real CM4221HD is even
better!) I also use the Channel Master 7777 Pre-Amplifier. I purchased both the CM4221HD and the 7777 Pre-Amp from the excellent Mississauga based OTA store
Save And Replay. The Pre-Amp
greatly improved my reception, allowing me to receive digital stations I had never seen before. It also helped me solidify my reception on many of the stations I had been having trouble receiving regularly (Buffalo in particular, plus some of the weaker Toronto digitals.) The setup works surprisingly well considering I can't mount the antenna outside of the house at this time.
Below is a shot of the Channel Master 7777 Pre-Amp.
Below is the "hybrid" setup I use now that there are some VHF digital stations that I pick up occasionally. The rabbit ears date back to about 1990 when I was a kid interested in OTA reception and saw that Radio Shack had individual antenna poles for sale. I asked my Dad to help me with the project and he built the antenna for me. Now, nearly 20 years later, those same rabbit ears have helped to pull in digital VHF stations!
I'm really glad I stumbled on your blog, Garth. I haven't had a life-long passion for OTA and antennae, but I'm developing a passion for reducing my Rogers bill. In the next few weeks, I'm going to install an antenna on my chimney and see what happens. I'm in East York.
ReplyDeleteHi Harper!
ReplyDeleteThank you for checking out my blog! :-) In East York you should be able to get pretty decent OTA reception - and that's what impresses me most about the digital era. You can get *perfect* pictures and HD programming! (This year I got to watch the Superbowl in HD with all the US commercials from Buffalo's WIVB!) In your area you should get all of Toronto, plus most Buffalo stations. Good luck with the install!
I'm glad I stumbled across your blog as well. I have been OTA for about a year now and love the near blu-ray quality one can get with digital HD via OTA. I live in a condo south facing and can get some Buffalo stn notably CW23, WKBW7, and WIVB4. The rest though are hit and miss. I use a home made SBGH and it seems better than a the same 4221HD I had briefly from save and replay. I use a pre-amp as well model? but it helps just slightly. Do you have to rotate your setup to pick up other US stations such as from MI or OH? If so are they stable throughout the year? I only wish I could convince our condo board to put an antenna on the roof as it is 12 stories high and already has a microwave antenna that is not in use and was used for TV reception from a company that has gone out of business, leaving us with ROGERS only!
ReplyDeleteHey peekaboo!
ReplyDeleteThanks for checking out my blog! I too was impressed with digital OTA (it totally brought back my love of DXing!) I used to be happy when I could pull in fuzzy colour reception of Buffalo stations, so to see them in full HD was quite an upgrade! I do have to rotate the antenna to get different stations. Generally the way it's positioned in the pics above works for Buffalo and Toronto. Those are the only two markets I get regularly. (And sometimes they get knocked out in bad weather.) The long distance stations come in based on weather and tropo results, and last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. (With the antenna tilted left I get Rochester, NY and tilted right I get Erie, PA. If I move it far left I get Utica & Syracuse, NY and far right I get Detroit, MI and Cleveland, OH.)
I actually got about an hour of Cleveland reception this past Friday and saw Detroit for half an hour on Sunday. (I think it due to the warm bump in temperature we got!)
It's too bad more condos/apartments don't try to bring back OTA for their tenants!
Take care, and thanks again for checking out the blog! :-)
Thx Garth, so do you get Buffalo reliably with your setup? Also do have any trees within your immediate sight line? I love it when I get CW23, CBS, ABC, and especially ION (albeit very rare) from Buffalo but the rest are hard to get. I really only watch CBC and CHCH locally as the rest are useless personally. I wrote a letter to my condo board but they feel it is too expensive for so few channels and one commented that he can't live without the specialty channel BNN. Hope you don't mind that a posted your link on a recent Globe and Mail article about OTA in a comment I left.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/globe-on-technology/planning-an-ota-switch-research-before-you-commit/article1743866/
Keep up the great work and will check in now and then.
I'd say I get Buffalo pretty reliably...sometimes WGRZ is tricky, and other times it's WNED or WUTV that's iffy. CW23 is rock solid, and I find WIVB, WKBW pretty solid most of the time. WNYO is also pretty solid from my location (though I hear others in the GTA have trouble with it.) ION is tropo only for me, though it does pop in a lot during nice weather. On the Canadian side I find Global and Sun TV are the weakest and I couldn't even get them until I got the Channel Master pre-amp. I also find that CHCH and CTS are tropo only, even though they're from Hamilton.
ReplyDeleteAnd no problem at all for posting a link to the blog! I'm actually glad you did :-) Glad to see more articles popping up about OTA!
Hmm I'm not much different then. Love it when ION comes in and WGRZ too as they are the two hardest to get. Actually I just posted your link now as I thought I'd wait first.
ReplyDeleteLooking at your set up and results has just made me more determined than ever to get a more powerful antenna. I'm currently using a Terk HDTVi, which has been a solid performer for me on most of the Toronto stations (except CBLT for some weird reason) and most of the Buffalo stations. It also gets the VHF stations CFTO and CHCH no problem. My distance record during tropo is Columbus, Ohio, which Travel Math puts at 316 miles. In the other direction I've occasionally pulled in Utica. Not bad for a little indoor antenna. I'm on the tenth floor of a west facing apartment in the midtown area of Toronto, and have a clear view to the southwest. I was considering either a Channelmaster 4221HD like yours, or possibly an Antennas Direct Clearstream 2 or Clearstream 4. Would need to combine with rabbit ears to get CFTO and CHCH, though. The stand would be the hardest thing to rig up, especially as it needs to not look too bad in my living room. I've been keeping an eye on our garbage area to see if someone might throw out an old floor lamp I could cannibalize, but so far no luck.
ReplyDeleteHey there Goldielover! Thanks for checking out my blog! I've actually seen your posts on Digital Home and you've had some impressive results yourself! (Heh...I was jealous of your Columbus catches! I think I *just* missed them that day!) Your height is an advantage, and I would definitely recommend the Channel Master 4221HD. I mounted mine to an old CD storage tower (stripped of the plasic shelves) so maybe keep an eye out for something like that. Thanks again for visiting my blog and keep up the great DX! :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Garth, thanks for the quick response.
ReplyDeleteWhatever I choose has to be easily movable. I want to be able to move it to the balcony from time to time. Can't have it there permanently, as its against regulations, and I'm not allowed to drill to get the cable through anyways, but a portable one I can take in and out through the balcony door should be ok. Won't take much extra cable to do, either. Would need to evaluate the need for a pre amp. The living room TV is close to the antenna, but there is a longish cable run to the TV in my daughter's room. Am using an el cheapo distro amp right now to boost the signal to her TV. Works well, too.
Agree about the height working to my benefit, and I think I'm in a good location for OTA. Mind you, doesn't stop me being envious of people on the top floors of the building just to the northwest of me (the one I get the tower signals bounced from). If any of them are using OTA, they'd be getting clear signals from the south, southeast and southwest.
Once I've got a more powerful antenna, I'm hoping to get the flakier Buffalo channels a bit more reliably. Right now I almost never get WGRZ, and WUTV has a very low signal. WIVB, WKBW, WNLO, WNED and WNBY are all pretty solid. I'm also hoping to get CBLT, too. Still can't figure out why I'm not getting it. Its not overpowering the tuner - I've tried an attenuator with no success - and when I do move the antenna to the floor it comes in (sometimes) but with a low signal. One thing that has me thinking a bit is that someone else over at Digital Home who lives quite close to me has recently reported problems with CBLT using a Terk, too.
I'm looking forward to more catches with a more powerful antenna, although I've been very happy (if surprised) with the results from my little Terk. Just goes to show location really is everything, as the Terk has consistently outperformed more powerful antennas, even outdoor ones, that are mounted much lower. So much for "antenna snobbery". I don't intend to retire it - it will be used for a third TV in my room. Easier than running a very long cable, and may even get better reception in there, as the bedroom window is not set back several feet to accommodate the balcony like the living room one is.
Hi Goldielover,
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the CBLT problem is multipath? I used to DX from a friend's apartment in downtown Toronto and the signals were bouncing off all the apt buildings around. (When analog was still on, they were unwatchable.) Distant signals were great, but local ones were tougher to get. As for WGRZ, that can be flakier in the GTA and WUTV is hit and miss depending on location due to their directional signal.
And if the Terk works, that's awesome! You've done some great DXing and pulled amazing catches with it! I've learned size isn't everything with antennas. I remember being shocked that a 20+ year pair of home made rabbit ears were what it took to get digital VHF signals - I initially assumed my CM4221HD would get them, since it was so big. I also bought a medium size VHF/UHF Channel Master antenna last year hoping to improve my VHF reception. I've tested it, and it seems worse than my rabbit ears. So it's always good to experiment and never count anything out ;-)
Hi Garth,
ReplyDeleteI suppose multipath is a possibility, given the amount of apartment buildings in the area. After all, I do get the tower signals bounced off a building to the northwest of me. Seems a bit strange it only affects CBLT, though. I get the other tower stations easily enough, and the FCP ones too. I also got CBLT digital easily enough prior to the transition, although it was a little weaker than the others. I'd thought they were increasing power after the transition and my signal levels would be higher. I was rather surprised to lose it (except when I put the antenna on the floor).
Hi there! ANd what about using flat antennas? I need to setup an antenna in my RV. I have such aizbo TV antenna as I understand it have to be placed at window.
ReplyDelete