Over The Air Antenna question

[Antec7]

Looking to get my parents over the air or OTA as its called. They live in St Catherines. Im told they would need two antennas. Can anyone verify this?
Can anyone recommend an installer?

[ppl4golf]

Who told you they needed 2 antennae ?

[Fraser River Rat]

Looking to get my parents over the air or OTA as its called. They live in St Catherines. Im told they would need two antennas. Can anyone verify this?
Can anyone recommend an installer?

Hi,

It looks like you're as new to OTA as you are to RFD. Your parents should be okay with an indoor antenna. Search this forum for threads on OTA.
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/mohu-leaf-indoor-ota-hdtv-antenna-25-off-46-shipped-1174672/

Check out this site for available OTA stations & their locations.
http://www.remotecentral.com/hdtv/

[Mr Nobody]

Looks like you need 2. One to point at Buffalo (SE). One to point at Toronto (NNW) or in between Toronto/Hamilton (NW).

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d134936da267dfb

[icecold]

Looking to get my parents over the air or OTA as its called. They live in St Catherines. Im told they would need two antennas. Can anyone verify this?
Can anyone recommend an installer?

Distance to CN Tower: 55km
Distance to Grand Island: 30km
Distance to Batavia: 104km

For you to pull in stations with an indoor antenna consistently from 55 to 104 km I would say you would have to be sitting up pretty high with that indoor antenna. What happens if the television is located in the basement? Due to the where the location of all the HDTV station transmitters are in the Toronto and Buffalo you will require either an Antenna mounted on a rotor, or install 2 antennas (Ganging)1 aimed for Toronto and 1 aimed at Buffalo. I would suggest you contact a local installer and they should be able to assist you in your needs. I think "Dr Sat" or "channeloneantenna" does work in that area. I do installs in the east part of the GTA so I can not assist you with it. Good luck.

Philip
***************

[ppl4golf]

I asked because ganging/stacking 2 antennae is actually a good thing.

I bought 2 CS2 last year but only installed 1. I stacked another one (with 10° both aimed at Buffalo) just last week in anticipation of the US Open golf on NBC. The reception improved right away.

There have been too many condos built in the Bayview/Sheppard area and I am suspecting they are blocking my line to Buffalo as I never had too much trouble until ~2 years ago.

Now with 2 CS2, my reception is better though not 100%...but definitely better.

The problem channels in St Cats are probably going to be the Toronto channels. Possibly need a DB8 to TO and DB4 to BUF.

[PwrSurge]

Either a roof mounted dual antenna system or a rotor is pretty much required for the St. Catherines area due to the look angle between Buffalo and Toronto. If you post or PM your postal code, I can confirm the amount of channels that they would most likely receive with a professionally installed roof mounted antenna.

[Antec7]

Either a roof mounted dual antenna system or a rotor is pretty much required for the St. Catherines area due to the look angle between Buffalo and Toronto. If you post or PM your postal code, I can confirm the amount of channels that they would most likely receive with a professionally installed roof mounted antenna.

L2M4V9

thanks

[AncasterRFD]

St. Catharines? My cousins used to live there.

This (http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d1349366f482b1e) is your theoretical channel list based on your parents' postal code.

Your clusters are in almost opposite directions. Go here (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=36534) for help particular to your area. That forum is really the gold standard for OTA discussion. The advice here is great but it won't be as specific as that digitalhome thread.

For an installer, you're also best to get a specialist in that area. OTA is sometimes a lot of trial and error, even in the same area, as you are also governed by height, obstructions, interference, and the wide variety of equipment available. Someone who installs mainly in the GTA can only guess what works best in St.C., whereas a local installer should have in-area experience.

[johnvan]

There's a picture on the sunnydirect website how to page from a guy in St. Catharines using two CM 4228 installed back to back.

Sorry, just Google it. It was the saveandreplay website. On the left hand side you,ll see a link to a section on stacking and hanging.
I use two 4221 myself in Montreal and get good results.

http://overtheair.saveandreplay.com/Antenna_Stacking_Ganging.asp

[AncasterRFD]

In that SaveAndReplay reference, back-to-back is breaking the laws of multipath interference. You might want to double check on digitalforum if that really is optimal in St.Catharines, or perhaps the person has resorted to using an a/b switch instead of joining the signals.

A quick read of the last few pages, dsspredator reports he gets Toronto off the back of his 4228x1 pointed at WGRZ. You could ask him what type of setup he's using (eg; antenna height, preamp, length of run, splitting the signal to multiple TVs, etc). Because if it's consistent and you can do the same, why buy two 8bays if you don't have to?
You could always use a rotor and turn the 8bay to Toronto when it gets spotty.

Note on page 88, that is two cheap 4bay clones to make an 8bay. Don't get ripped off, and do it right the first time. If you go the route of 8bay, get a Channel Master 4228.

[TWD09]

See this piture
http://bbs.haltonchinese.ca/data/attachment/forum/201110/12/212449vjr3wputr8jvzrvf.jpg