On April 16, 2007 at 11:43, dinch said...
I just purchased a HD television - RCA26 inch. I have
been able to get 4.1 and 9.1 pretty well, although the
HD broadcasts of the games have had some signal loss every
minute or so - but not enough to lose sight of the fact
that the picture is perfect most of the time. I'm using
rabbit ears located behind the TV.
What type of rabbit ears are you using? Are they combined with a UHF antenna? CBOT-DT and CBOFT-DT (4.1 and 9.1) are actually currently broadcasting on channels 25 and 22 respectively so you need a UHF antenna. One of the best indoor UHF antennas is the
Zenith Silver Sensor (or clone, some of which also have rabbit ears for VHF). Another good option for indoor use is a
AntennasDirect DB-4, although it isn't specifically designed for indoor use. Having said that, depending where in the city you are located and where the antenna is in your house you should be able to get away with any UHF antenna as CBOT-DT and CBOFT-DT are both quite strong.
Edit: One other thing, try and move the antenna further away from the TV.
In my junk box, I have a Lectrolin EDA 2400 Drop Amp which
is supposed to add 7 db's of power.
My question is, will this Amp be of value? (or will it
damage my TV?)
My general rule is amplifiers are not beneficial for indoor antennas, but 7dB isn't much gain so it shouldn't damage your TV and if you own it already it might be worth a shot.
Is there a timeframe for Global, CJOH, CITY, etc to be
available in Ottawa?
Unfortunately all the stations seem to have put the transition on hold right now until the CRTC publishes the results of their review of Broadcast TV in Canada. Assuming a favorable result, my best guess is that the OMNI's and possibly Sun TV could be broadcasting digitally in about a year. The others will probably be at least 2 years away. Global, CHCH and TVO will probably be the last stations to broadcast digitally in Ottawa.
BTW, have you checked out the
Digital Home Canada Ottawa/Outaouais Reception Results thread? It has lots of good information.
