Notre-Dame-de-Grâce: Results from my OTA setup
Hello all, this is my first post here. Been lurking here for a while and decided to join the OTA club and this forum. So far, the plethora of information in this forum has helped me a lot in making my choice for an OTA antenna. Hope I can provide some help in return by sharing my experience with you.
First of all, I live in the NDG area. I got a CM4228 antenna at Raybel a few days ago and put it up on the roof yesterday.
It's installed on a 1-1/2" dia x 10 foot mast on the chimney and sits at about 35 feet off the ground. It's pointed towards Mt. Mansfield (approx 160 deg. on my compass). There's a 5 story building in the signal path but it's about 2 blocks away from my house.
I used the balun that comes with the 4228 and hooked up a homemade RG6 cable that runs about 50 feet to my OTA receiver: Echo* 6000 w/8VSB module. I sealed the balun boot with Dow-Corning 111 silicone grease and used crimped snap'n'seal Thomas&Betts RG6 connectors at either end of the cable.
I'm getting the local analog channels from Mt.Royal from the left side of the antenna but the reception is poor. The picture is faded, snowy and full of ghost images on all Montreal local VHF and UHF channels.
From the US side, the reception of VHF and UHF analog channels is also snowy but better of course since the antenna points that way. However, WPTZ-5 doesn't come in at all which is an bit strange since WCAX-3 does come in (although not well).
On the digital side of things:
CBFT-19 (SRC) and CBMT-20 (CBC): zip... nada, no signal at all. Mt Royal must be in the way.
WVNY-13 (ABC): 65-68% (lots of audio dropouts, picture blackouts, freezing and pixellation)
WPTZ-14 (NBC): 80-87%
WETK-32 (PBS-VPT): 83-86%
WFFF-43 (FOX): 64-65%
WCAX-53 (CBS): 80-87%
Oh well, 3 out of 5 ain't bad I guess. I don't really care about the analog channels and CBC and against all expectations, I do receive ABC but the unrelenting dropouts effectively make it unwatchable. Can something be done about that?.... Is it because the tuner on my 8VSB sucks?... would a CM7777 preamp help? Or do I need to get a dedicated OTA STB?
BTW, are there any recording HD-OTA STB's on the market presently?
Thanks