tigerbangs prescription for deep fringe reception

lousam

Hi Tigerbangs:

I’m located in Hamilton Ontario, which is 40 miles west of Toronto and about 55 miles north west of Buffalo. There are probably 25 digital (US/Can) stations and 12 analog (Can) stations in my area. I get all Toronto and Buffalo digital stations except for two: WPXJ – ION 51.1 (RF 23.1) from Batavia NY and WNYO 49.1 (RF 49.1) from south Buffalo; and which I am terribly stumped on how I could get these two Buffalo stations. They are deepest fringe- 70+ miles away and not the greatest ERP. I should mention that there is a Hamilton transmitter that is 3 miles north-east from my house broadcasting 3 digital and 3 analog TV stations- not extremely strong though. Otherwise, there are no immediate major obstructions toward Buffalo.

My current set-up: stacked combo of 4221HDs, CM rotor and Winegard Pre-amp- HDP-269, tower/mast mounted about 30+ feet high.

What antenna and pre-amp would you recommend? (AD 91XG and CM 7777, something else?)

How much of a difference would adding a 10-foot tower section do?

I greatly appreciate your help.

lousam

Here's my Canadian postal (zip) code: L8T 4Z9.

(see comment previous)

Can't post TV fool report- need to make 5 posts before doing so- HD Forum rule

afineguy

The antenna is pointed toward Philly and I did quite a few re-scans and still have the same issue. I heard that WTXF is only operating at half power until mid August and then going to full power with a new digital antenna toward the top of the tower.

Strick

Well I ahve been searching and searching and reading what i could and finally found this site. Posted below is the link to where I am located from tvfool. This location is basically a weekend cabin so i am not interested in getting all of the channels and would rather not spend a fortune on antennas etc. I am basically interested in those channels at the 160 azimuth. ABC, NBC, CBS in the green/yellow zone of the chart. The NBC/CBS is uhf and ABC is High VHF. The 20 year old VHF antenna with a Radio Shack pre amp before the switch would pick these up pretty well with plain ole 2 wire connection. I curently have the antenna on a mast about 20 ft. I was looking at the CM 2020 or if I have to the CM 3679. Of course I may be way off so that is why I am here to get the professional opinion of what I could use. Thanks in advance for any help...

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jim5506

Look at the Winegard HD7082 or similar.

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Tower Guy

The cheapest antenna to get the 160 stations would be an Antennacraft HBU-22. To add CW, an Antennacraft Y5-2-6 with a HLSJ Joiner. No rotor is necessary.

A preamp may be helpful, but it may work without it. To avoid the cost of a preamp you could consider a slightly larger antenna such as the Winegard HD7696P instead of the HBU-22.

The Mynet station might come in off the side of the smaller antenna.

Strick

OK thanks for the suggestions. If anyone else has any input I'm listening....

JB Antennaman

Before the switch, it was analog VHF high power.

Now it is low power VHF and UHF.

You have many very do able stations in your TV fool report.

To get all the stations in your report that are in the green, yellow and pink, you would need a Winegard 7698P antenna, RG 6 wire, preferably Quad Shield with low loss. A antenna rotor and some sort of pre amp such as a CM 7778 or a Winegard AP 8783

JB Antennaman

WPXJ flash cut to channel 23 on June 12, 2009 at part of the digital television transition

Their transmitter is only 455 KW

That's not a lot of power and it is 97 miles away.

WNYO is 79 miles away and is transmitting on digital channel 34 at a power of 167 Kw.

Neither is viewable as anything less than a tropo signal.

Strick

Interesting...3 different opinions on which one to use...

HardToGetDTV

Hi tigerbangs and all:

I just don't get it. I had great analog TV and then ...

I currently have a RadioShack VU-190 VHF/UHF Combo on a rotor with a 10db mast mounted preamp (RadioShack) w/new RG-6U on Long Island, NY (see attached radar image or tvfool dot com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d23c561b76e50c 3) about 25 ft above ground. Before June 12, many more DTV stations were visible. In July, we were able to receive 2.1 (occassionally), 4.x, 5.x, 7.x, 8.x, 9.x, 11.x, 13.x, 20.x, 21.x, 25.x , etc. Lately (mid Aug) we have lost 2.1, 4.x, 8.x, 13.x, 20.x and 25.x. Has anyone changed their transmitter power or antenna?

I have thought about the problem of WFSB/WCBS co-channel as my 2.x problem but am at a loss as to why we lost so many channels recently. Is it atmospherics?

Is it time to scrap the antenna & preamp and replace with an XG-91 / CM7777? Should I add a VHF antenna to the mix? Is the HD8800, the HD769 or the CM4228HD worth a look? Why are the signals so finicky?

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gjvrieze

I bet it is the Radio Shack pre-amp. Never have had good luck with them... I would get a CM7777 and retry. One other thing that you could do. Unhook the preamp and power injector and just hook up a balun up at the antenna to the coax coming down from the antenna and see what that yields. If you test on only one device, that should tell you about where things are at (make sure to remove splitters for a pre-amp-less test)

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HardToGetDTV

I tried that and I was amazed at how much signal was still there! I still could not reliably get WCBS or WNBC but the high VHF looked fine, something not the case in the old analog VHF world. In fact, the WLIW (UHF #21) signal level had increased! I wondered if the preamp was overloaded by WLIW or something close and the corner reflector UHF that is loaded on the front end of the VU-190 just wasn't that great a UHF antenna. When I reinserted the preamp, I was able to receive more channels with less dropouts than without it but WCBS (UHF #33) and WNBC (UHF #28) were still elusive. This is why I am wondering if it is the antenna as well. I do not know what the UHF performance of the VU-190 really is. I was also able to pickup VHF #10 (WTNH, 8.x) in July and it is nearly at right angles to the NYC stations. My concern is that the VU-190 may not be very directional. I am still very much in the dark.

oldmanriver85

I live north of houston (77386)and have directv but do not have ota channel 13-1 anymore. had it but now it is gone. also can other channels outside of houston be picked up, would like to get the texas when blacked out.

jim5506

Just a wild guess, but perhaps 13.1 was on UHF temporarily and now it has gone back to VHF channel 13 and you have a UHF only antenna?

Can you get KUHT-DT 8.1 PBS on channel 8?

__________________
Programming: Dish HD Absolute with 0.01 Cinemax
Displays: Sony VPH-D50Q - 7 ft on the wall; Hitachi 57R59
Receivers: DishNetwork ViP722k; DishNetwork ViP211K; DishNetwork ViP211; DishNetwork 301; 2 - TiVo Series 2's; Accurian 6000; Samsung SIR-T351; Panasonic ShowStopper 2000; ATI HDTV Wonder
Dish 1000 on 110,119,129; Dish 500 on 61.5; DPP44
Sony 80GB PS3; Toshiba HD-DVD