Hi All
I am brand new here. This is my first post.
First, my location can be found
here.
I have just hired a professional who has installed a tower and single 8-bay antenna pointed toward WKBW (about 122 degrees). The line is currently split at a 4-way into 4 tuners, one HDTV, one digital converter box, and two PC tuners (both ATI TV Wonder HD 650).
With that setup, I am receiving the following (in more-or-less clockwise order):
(Toronto -- 42°)
9 CFTO CTV
19 CICA TVO
20 CBLT CBC
25 CBLFT CBC French
41 CIII Global
*44 CITY Ind
*47 CFMT Omni1
*51 CJMT Omni2
*66 CKXT Sun
(Rochester -- 93°)
**45 WROC CBS
(Buffalo -- ranges from 103° to 149°)
14 WUTV Fox
32 WNLO CW
43 WNED PBS
**23 WPXJ Ion
**49 WNYO MyTV
33 WGRZ NBC
39 WIVB CBS
38 WKBW ABC
26 WNYB Ind
(Hamilton -- 108°)
11 CHCH Ind
*15 CKXT repeater Sun
36 CITS Ind
(Syracuse -- not sure of the exact direction)
**24 WSTM NBC
(Paris -- 274°)
*6 CIII repeater Global
28 CICO (CICA repeater) TVO
(Kitchener -- 288°)
13 CKCO CTV
*Stations marked with asterisks are less stable. Either they drop out a lot, or they are only coming in on one tuner and not another, or only at certain times of day. **Two asterisks means worse in that regard.
Here are the problems:
1. Huge house; huge family; many, many TV's & tuners... No way that a rotator will ever be possible.
2. I am certain that I will need at least one more antenna, more likely three more, to increase the stability of some of these signals.
3. I absolutely need either WROC Rochester (which currently comes in only at night), or WSEE Erie (which I haven't tried pointing toward yet), or both.
4. I figure, since I am spending so much money on this setup, I would also like to get 7 WBBZ Buffalo (just because it's there), but my only guess as to why I can't is the VHF frequency, although I am getting 6 from behind the antenna almost 30 miles away.
5. I cannot figure out why Sun drops out both from the CN Tower (ch 66), and from the Hamilton tower (ch 15), the latter being a clear line of site at a distance of less than 7 miles.
I have budgeted for a scaled down MATV system (although the budget is very quickly being used up) as I need to get these signals to about 25 outlets throughout the house.
So, my questions, basically, are: How many antennas can I reasonably & safely put on a mast? & How many will it take to accomplish this?
Also, should I be trying to pull Rochester in stronger, or make an attempt at Erie which is much closer?
My goal is to have each one of those stations mentioned (with the exception of Syracuse) with a strong enough signal that it can be watched reliably at least 95% of the time.
Any and all input is welcome.
Thanks
Brian