Hi all,

I keep looking at the Buffalo and Toronto map and contrasting the signal strength of the US stations (up to 1000 kW) to Canadian stations [from 2.2 kW!!]. Does anybody else imagine these stations being powered by hamsters on a treadwheels?

I don't know who is to blame, but if the CRTC starts mandating minimum signal strengths for major stations, things have to improve. So here is my online complaint.

I hope other Canadians will contact the CRTC with their own personal experience and frustrations. Heck, Americans demanding more Rick Mercer and Canadian news would be interesting too. Remember the spring when some of us couldn't get CITY or Global or sound on CTV during the Royal Wedding or the Stanley Cup?

Have fun. You'll see I referenced Remote Central's excellent channel database.

Sue

CRTC complaint form link:
[Link: crtc.gc.ca]


COMPLAINT

Organizations: the CRTC, southern Ontario broadcasters

The CRTC must get more serious about over-the-air broadcast quality and the power of signals. Since the digital switch, some stations have much worse digital reception than before -- CHCH TV is an example of that. Part of this reason is that the stations do not have adequate power to transmit appropriate distances. Take a look at the Western Lake Ontario list of stations: [Link: remotecentral.com]

You will see that American stations like FOX and WNLO broadcast at 1000kW. Here in Canada, both CITY-TV and SUN-TV have signals with less than 3 kW -- that's 0.3% of American signals' power. I live in Toronto, 18 subway stops from the CITY-TV building and cannot receive their signal reliably. SUN TV, Global Toronto and Omni 2 have very similar problems and tiny power.

More people are switching to antennas because of budget, but many are also switching because the quality of HD signals, especially with American stations. These pictures are often much better than satellite or cable. OTA'ers are not a fringe population any more; in fact, many tech savvy homes are taking advantage of the quality of US digital TV signals.

Surely the CRTC can and should set better standards to promote Canadian programming actually reaching Canadian TVs. Please regulate the TV stations in Southern Ontario so that they have the signal strength to reach more Canadians.