[radyio]

Thank you very much for your feedback, teleview.

Based on your advice, I installed a temporary antenna at 30ft with 7778 amplifier, with 100ft of RG6 to the TV, and I receive the following channels at my location:

CBLT-DT Real UHF channel 20 , CBC.
CICA-DT Real UHF channel 19 , TVO. (also on ch 28 as CICO-DT)
CBLFT-D Real UHF channel 25 , French Tv.

Also coming in very strong:

CIII-DT on channel 6 and
CKCO-DT on channel 13

I found that channel 41 (CIII-DT from CN-tower) is at the limit of reception, ie, TV indicates lock, but there are lots of drop-outs (on the 30ft analysis this channel is estimated to have noise margin on -3.4dBi, and a power of -94.2dB). My antenna has ~ 14dBi gain on this channel, so my guess is that my actual NM figures on the ground are about 10dBi worse than indicated on the tvfool analysis. I found that I can move the antenna about 13deg in either direction away from 88deg (CN-Tower azimuth), before the TV set looses lock. This is probably some indicator of the available signal strength, though I don't know how to quantify it.

Instead of the db8e antenna, I bought the CM4228HD, because it has a gain 2dBi higher than the db8e at channel 20, which is my primary interest.

There is a feed-line modification that can be done to the CM4228HD that will improve reception of channels 35+ by 3dBi or more (thank you Ken Nist and Tom Ballister for your work), but there are no desirable channels that this mod would enable for me.

I do have a question about the pre-amp: why is the 7778 a better choice for me than the 7777 ?

We are surrounded by mature trees, and I suspect in the spring when foliage returns I will be forced to mount the antenna higher, or change to a stronger amplifier. Does foliage decrease the noise margin, or just the signal strength (power)? Will a 7777 overcome the effects of foliage if the 7778 cannot?

I've also tried pointing the antenna at 126deg, and got no signal from the stations in that direction.

All in all, I'm very happy with the results, being able to watch some hockey and the upcoming winter Olympics on CBC.

Thank you again for your feedback and advice,

Regards