Indoor Antenna-lost channels had a few days ago

olympiacocoa · 4-Sep-2011, 11:25 PM

First post here-please bear with me!

Here is my tvfool info:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...8387353a3e35d7

Ottawa Ontario finished switching to digital as far as I know on August 31.
Got a new tv on August 31 and had like 3 analog and 3 digital. Sept 1 I had l think $ digital and now I have 2. INfact when I scanned my tv(because I played with my antenna) I got no channels! What is going on? I have an indoor antenna with rabbit ears and a UHFlink.

MisterMe · 5-Sep-2011, 12:16 AM

All six of the stations that you can expect to receive broadcast on real UHF channels. Three of them may be found at 331° magnetic. The other three may be found at 167° magnetic. Being fewer than 13 miles away from the transmitters, you should receive all of them strongly with a simple unamplified UHF antenna. This Terk antenna comes highly recommended. I am curious--what is a UHFlink?

Tigerbangs · 5-Sep-2011, 12:58 AM

The Camp Fortune and the Herbert's Corner transmitters are almost 180 degrees opposite of your location. Since I am a former resident of Ottawa, I have been following the digital transition pretty closely, and you'll find that the TVFool.com report that you posted still reflects the analog stations as well as the digital stations, which may lead to some confusion. For example, CBOFT has returned to channel 9 from it's temporary channel assignment of channel 22. CHCH has assumed channel 22, but their transmitter is in Herbert's Corner, not on the camp Fortune tower, as CBOFT once was.

The big issue for most Ottawans is Global's CIII retaining channel 6 on the Camp Fortune tower, and CHRO, which is operating with relatively little power on the Roger's tower in Herbert's Corner. As of today, Ottawa has VHF digital channels on channel 6 (CIII-Global) channel 9 (CBOFT- SRC) and Channel 13 (CJOH-CTV): the other stations are all on UHF, and split between the two transmitter locations., which are about 35km apart.

Rabbit ears antennas are marginal in most locations in Ottawa, and many Ottawans are reluctant to mount outdoor antennas on their roofs due to the harsh winter weather conditions, but if you have an attic large enough to mount an antenna, then we can get you all of the Ottawa-Gatineau stations reliably. Let us know if you have the will to work on your OTA reception with an attic-mounted antenna, and we can design you one that will get you all 15+ stations that operate in the National capital Region.

You can ignore the CRC-DT experimental channels, as they do not regularly air TV programming.

Good Luck!

John Candle · 5-Sep-2011, 9:32 AM

I suggest a simple indoor antenna aimed at about 347 degree magnetic compass. Here is how to aim indoor antennas , http://www.kyes.com/antenna/pointing/pointing.html. Here are some indoor antennas. http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=380. If building construction is wood frame with wood or vinyl siding then reception should be Ok. If the building has , stucko wire , metal siding , metal backed insulation , metal roof , concrete , bricks from ground to roof , solar panels , the reception will be reduced or blocked. Also the digital Tv needs to scan for Digital Broadcast Tv Channels , Not digital cable channels , Not analog cable channels. You should receive 12 and more Digital Broadcast Tv Channels with a indoor Tv antenna.

olympiacocoa · 5-Sep-2011, 12:03 PM

Thanks to you all for your replies. I must have been tired as I reread my posting and saw numerous typos, etc.

To answer MisterMe, I meant to type UHF loop not UHFlink! Also, you said that all 6 channels I receive should be real UHF. I dont understand this as I get CBOT-DT on Channel 4.1. Isn't that VHF? TIgerbangs does not mention CBO-T as a VHF channel either. What am I missing here?

TO John Candle, I will try to manuveur the antenna some more but my home has aluminum siding(but not completely clad i aluminum) as well as brick in some parts so would this hurt my reception? Does the building consttuction come into play with analog signals in the same way?

I am not ready for an attic antenna-we dont watch enough tv to warrant the expense and we like the ability to easily move the tv from room to room.

Is the TERk style antenna really superior to rabbit ears? Should I upgrade my antenna?

Thanks again for your replies.

Tigerbangs · 5-Sep-2011, 1:57 PM

CBOT is on VIRTUAL channel 4.1, but actually operates on UHF channel 25. This identification is known as PSIP, and is supposed to help you follow your TV channels by virtually renaming them to their old analog channel numbers. Don't worry, the US has had PSIP for years now, and people STILL don't get it...LOL If you look at your TVFool.com report for digital stations, you'll see the REAL and the VIRTUAL channels listed. The REAL channels are the actual channel on which your digital operates; the virtual channel is the simulation of the old channel number that you have known for years, with a suffix .x after the channel number. It was supposed to help you figure out the new channels by disguising them as the old channels...LOL.

Because your house has some aluminum siding and brick exterior, the UHF channels will have a harder time penetrating your house, and you will likely experience some signal drop-outs , especially when people move around the room. Unfortunately, the only cure for that is a properly designed and installed antenna system. Very directional indoor antenna systems can help some, like the HDTVi or the HDTVa from Terk, but don't expect miracles in this case: all indoor antennas are limited by the environment in which they operate. In any event, indoor VHF antennas are really nothing more than a pair of rabbit ears with some sort of UHF attachment on them, so they all perform pretty much the same on VHF.

Here is a reprint of you digital TVFool.com report: I believe that it will explain things a bit better.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...8387353a3e35d7

Click on the selector button to see the PENDING digital-only stations: it is the closest to what is actually happening in Ottawa at the moment.

DA_Ontario · 27-Jul-2012, 12:29 PM

This week (July 2012) I've been losing reception daily just after 1 am. I've learned that all my stations come from Camp Fortune.
Does anyone know if There is work being done on that tower?

Btw, thanks for all of this link - its really helpful. I live in an attic and have a new little 7 inch handheld tv. It has a built in telescoping antenna that rotates - the whole thing reminds me of a transistor radio I had in the 60's.