Hi, I live in Mississauga by HW401. I am pointing east towards the CN Towers and can receive pretty much all the Canadian HD Channels but not the US like NBC, Fox, CBS etc...can someone please help? I am new to this but quite happy with what I am getting thus far for someone that doesn't know much.

Thanks in advance.

welcome. could please post the antenna model you are using and aprox location. (hwy 401 along mississauga extends for over 20 km probably). In general to get buffalo you will need to pint more in their direction. trial and error your best friend. assuming you live in the west end then you have to point SSE to try to get enough signal from both. outdoor antenna better than indoor. higher better as well.

The hard way would start with going to antennaweb.org and determine antenna orientations for two nearby locations in the US. Plot lines with those orientations on a map to get the tower locations of the US stations, which would then allow you to plot lines on a map from the towers to you, giving you the orientation for each.

That is, if anyone sells maps with border areas of Canada and the US on them. It suddenly occurred to me that most maps barely show anything on the other side of any state border, and I'm sure that adjacent international areas get even less attention from mapmakers.

I also like pointing and looking for the highest signal, but I don't know if your receiver has a live signal meter, or if it tests and records one moment's signal level.

Thank you so much for the responses; it is greatly appreciated.
The model I'm using is EagleStar Pro 53-6308B.

[Link: eaglestarpro.com]

Location is by HW401 and Winston Churchill, so it is west of Mississauga.

Placement on map is approximate
+43° 35' 35.66", -79° 47' 1.51"

I tried pointing more south, but once I move south, I lose my Canadian signal like CityTV etc. Does adjusting the antanna vertically help? I don't mean moving the Antanna higher, but adjusting the angle vertically.

Thanks again for all your help. I have tried the "trial and error" method and been spending my last 2 days on it and no luck. Is it the US tower too far?

Thank you so much.

WOW !!!! As per the link , the antennas are ADJUSTABLE! and therefore they can be oriented in different directions in the horizontal!!!. I am going to have to re-read the great German reference book , Antennae , or for the matter any other great Antenna Desing and Theory related book because this antenna is sold as a single unit and for non technical customers therefore in my opinion it will give more trouble than solutions to the potential end users. At the same time I am glad they at least supply the matching device and both feeder lines at the same lenght but in any case in my opinion for mass market purposes the antenna should be a fixed 2 , 4 bay array, rather than a moveable one that could only be properly used on some particular and very rare applications. I guess the moveable thing it is just another marketing plot to attract potential customers. If you read about stacked antennas you will see why I made such a big thing about this.

US towers are in Buffalo , Grand Island and even more south for ABC/NBC/CBS. 100 km easily so they are far away indeed. With the Exception of PBS , we are not the intended market for the rest so they do not have to broadcast with higher power to cover the GTA nor guarantee being free of interference in our area either. City TV is among the lowest powered Canadian digital broadcasts so it is indeed very difficult to receive even for us living in central mississauga. The rest of the canadians are also, for now at least, very low powered and taking into consideration that most of them do not make good use of the EPG info you might as well watch those in the analog format for the time being until they switch. I know the antenna is not designed for the VHF band and therefore you might have an issue with CBC and CTV but you probably can get them in UHF in digital anyways.

In other words , If I were you , I would aim the "fixed straight" antenna for best US stations reception while keeping CBC and CTV in digital and the rest of the canadians Im interested in I would get it in analog since they also broadcast in high power in the UHF band, at least until they switch to digital.

Try contacting City TV and ask them when they will increase power for their digital signal.

The higher the antenna is located outside the better it will perfom , at least high enough to clear any obstacles like trees or structures. In theory and also practically , yes the transmitter are usually located very high on antenna towers. Toronto's CN tower being among the tallests therefore inclining the antenna vertically a bit helps, but the question is how much does it indeed helps besides you would need to change the bracket or antenna support somehow and the troubles are more than the benefits in most cases. I would not bother in your case with adjusting the antenna vertically.

Activemind, I keyed in your coordinates at the tvfool.com website and produced this chart.. .

[Link: tvfool.com]

Looks like you can point one side of the antenna at 80° (CN Tower) and the other at about 135° (Buffalo). However (as HD Fan suggested) you are pretty close to the CN Tower and will probably be able "get away" with pointing the entire antenna at Buffalo for maximum gain of those stations. That is what I would do, unless you really need to pick up those lo-power stations. Also, a preamp (CM7777) would help you a lot with picking up the American stations.

Make sure you use very good cable for the feed from your antenna to the TV. Good luck! Bill

HD TV station Transmitter Locations:
WNED PBS Ch 17 156kw 1076’ Full Range
WNLO CW Ch 23 1000kw 994’ Full Range
Harvey Road, (Whitehaven Road) Grand Island, NY
43 1’ 48”N, 78 55’ 15W
Latitude = 43.0297, Longitude = -78.9208
Lat = 43 degrees, 1.8 minutes North
Long = 78 degrees, 55.3 minutes West

WUTV FOX 29 1000kw 981’ (Points south)
just west a road of WNED
951 Whitehaven Road. Grand Island, NY
43 1’ 32”N, 78 27’28”W
Latitude = 43.0256, Longitude = -78.9282
Lat = 43 degrees, 1.5 minutes North
Long = 78 degrees, 55.7 minutes West

WIVB CBS 4 790kw 1368’ Full range
8242 Center Street, Colden, New York
42 39’33‘N 78 37’33”W
Latitude = 42.6594, Longitude = -78.6262
Lat = 42 degrees, 39.6 minutes North
Long = 78 degrees, 37.6 minutes West

WKBW ABC Ch 7 358kw 1420’ Full Range
8909 Center Street, Colden, New York.
42 38’ 15”N, 78 37’ 12’W
Latitude = 42.6376, Longitude = -78.6198
Lat = 42 degrees, 38.3 minutes North
Long = 78 degrees, 37.2 minutes West

WPXJ ION 51 455kw 906’ (point east & west)
BATAVIA, NY
42 53’ 42”N , 78 0’ 56”W
Latitude = 42.8950, Longitude = -78.0152
Lat = 42 degrees, 53.7 minutes North
Long = 78 degrees, 0.9 minutes West

WGRZ NBC 2 480kw 968’ Full range
11526 Warner Hill Road, South Wales, New York.
42 43’6”N, 78 33’ 47”W
Latitude = 42.7185, Longitude = -78.5631
Lat = 42 degrees, 43.1 minutes North
Long = 78 degrees, 33.8 minutes West

WNYO MyTv 49 198kw 1165’ Southwest
Wyoming, NY
42 46’ 58”N, 78 27’28”W
Latitude = 42.7816, Longitude = -78.4573
Lat = 42 degrees, 46.9 minutes North
Long = 78 degrees, 27.4 minutes West

CN Tower,
301 Front Street West, Toronto, ON M5V 2T6
43 38’33”N 79 23’15”W
Latitude = 43.6410, Longitude = -79.3864
Lat = 43 degrees, 38.5 minutes North
Long = 79 degrees, 23.2 minutes West

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I will your suggestion. Bill, when you say 80 and 135 degrees, what is the point of reference are you referring to? Based from the North? Sorry, I'm completely new to this but would love to gain some knowledge on the matter. I'm gonna see preamp you suggested as well. Hopefully it doesn't cost a fortune.

The only down fall is, everytime I adjust the antanna, I have to go back into the house to check the signal; I know, very low tech. I don't have any device to tell the signal or level of signal. :-(

Thanks again to all of you. I will report back the status. One more thing, my antanna is not setup on the roof top, hope this isn't a problem. I put it pretty high up in my backyard with no obstacle blocking.  Hopefully, this isn't the problem.

Ahh, you seem to have the exact opposite problem I'm having.

I'm picking up the Buffalo stations fine (minus FOX and ION and that religious channel), though rather unreliably as they go in and out depending on the weather.
I'm not grabbing any Canadian channels.

You seem to have the 8-bay multidirectional. I have no clue hot it works. If you do it on the backyard above your house, it should be okay. So long as you can clear the highest point of your roof. That's what I'm going to do myself to see if the problem is fixed.

As well, I thought combining 2 antennas was bad, especially if they're pointing at different directions. Correct me if I am wrong though!

What stations are you getting at the moment?

Seems like it. Funny cause I wanted to get the US channels.
Currently, I'm getting the following...
15-1 (Sun TV)
20-1 (CBC)
24-1 (CBC French)
40-1 (CTV)
44-1 (OMNI-2)
53.1 (CITY TV)
64-1 (OMNI-1)
65-1 (Global)
66-1 (Sun TV)

I'm trying to get the US Channels like NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX etc. The minute I adjust the antenna, I lose the Canadian Channels. So I haven't been adjusting, but I will try again after some suggestions from some great forum members; thank you.

BTW, does the CM7777 preamp really help? It's lingering in my head to pursue in getting one. I had a feeling the signal might be weak.

The preamp will probably help weak stations, but if there are any strong stations in your area, the signal picked up by those stations will overpower the amp and cause it to distort. Even though you're not tuning to those stations, the very presence of their signals in the amp can ruin performance on other channels.

Thanks Ernie for the feedback. I should refrain from purchasing one then. I have been reading some other threads and some do have problems. is Overloading the terminology as you described.

You're right, the reference point is North. So you'll aim your antenna north, then turn right (towards east) 80 degrees (picture the hour hand on a clock when the clock is at 2:40). FYI: 90 degrees and you'll actually be facing east. 135 degrees is southeast or "SE" (half way between south and east). Don't bother with a preamp (as I first suggested) cause it will make things more confusing for ya.


You may want to drag your TV outside and aim, or hook up a converter box to a small analog set and take those outside. As a bonus, most of the converter boxes have a signal strength indicator.

use two 4-bowtie antennas (kits available), one aimed at buffalo and one aimed at the CN tower. Ghosting is not an issue with digital. I don't use an amp as they kill weak signals like 57-1.