Cincinnati just dropped off for me, so it means logging on to WIVB again to gander at their weather radar..over the Great Lakes....to keep an eye on the snow watch.

A 75m cable run is not a problem for a preamp mounted near the antenna. Go out the back way get that antenna up and you should be fine. Lately I've found Qubo and ION to be a hopeless case on 51-1,2,3,4. 49-1 is also hit and miss for some reason. Location here is Caledon.

Well I forgot to mention I also get about 10 to 12 analog channels, but most of them are plagued by minor ghosting. Kids TVO on the other hand comes in quite clear along with a few others.

Definitely a CM7777 Pre-Amp will make a big difference IMO but you will still most likely have to adjust your antenna in a way so you might get some Buffalo HD channels like the CW, ABC, MyTV, CBS, and Fox29 etc.

Why not talk to the landlord and see if you can do an outside wall mount and raise that antenna at least 5 feet above the highest part of the roof? Perhaps your landlord may be interested in Free High Def OTA.

The upstairs tenant (the landlords parents) have cable and are interested only in Hebrew language programming, so no help there, there is an existing cable TV cable (not in use) that runs through the back window, so I could run a cable from an outdoor antenna on the garage roof to the outside junction, then use the existing inside cabling.  Would make things more complex though.

I would have the antenna, then the preamp, then in the livingroom a splitter  at the takeoff for one TV, then use the existing cabling to the VCR and bedroom TV at the front of the house.  If I win the Lotto on Friday night, then I'll do a dream setup in my own house.   For an outdoor antenna don't you need a lightning arrestor? 

Yes, its a good idea to make sure your antenna is grounded. I think it may work, just use the existing line. Check to see if it's an RG6 based cable line.

Make sure you connect the Pre-Amp close to the antenna outside, then have the power pack which comes with it inside close to a plug.

How do you tell RG6 from regular old cable, when it's already stapled to the floor?

Most of the time you can tell by feeling the centre (Copper) portion of the wire. If it's nice and thick/strong and does not bend easily, then most likely it’s RG6, if it's flimsy and can bend easily then its likely RG59. The RG6 can carry much more power than the RG59 and in some cases the RG59 can wreck your equipment if you try to force a lot of power through it which it cannot handle.

You should definitely check for RG6, and grab a preamp if possible.

I had your problem too (in fact I had a 3 page thread going on here when I first joined...).

I'd point my outdoor antenna one way and get Buffalo, but no Toronto, or the other way around and have the situation in reverse.

A 7777 preamp (not even close to the antenna), a little more height, and RG6 really helped me. Now I get everything, including 26-1 no dropouts. ION is iffy for me too.

I'm in south Mississauga/Clarkson village near Oakville.

From my location Bathurst & Sheppard area, Buffalo is about 1 degree off from the CN Tower, so with the antenna aimed at Buffalo it should bring in the CN tower perfectly as well.


Anyone know a good Toronto dealer for the 7777 and how much one of those should cost?

Sal's Tv & Radio Sales & Svc
[Link: profilecanada.com]

This is where I got my CM 4228HD from, but I picked up my 7777 from Summit Source online. Only problem was UPS ripped me off with extra costs, costs which I would never have paid if they dealt with USPS. So only thing is to Beware of UPS and it's rippoff charges.

It's not UPS, it's their customs broker.  Customs brokers do the paperwork to get goods across the border, some brokers can be very expensive, and like shipping, fees tend to be front end loaded.  A broker might charge $50 for items valued below $10,000, and .5% of the value if beyond that. 

What more and more companies are doing, in order to get around this is logistics.  What happens is they tender the goods to a logistics company that specializes in cross border transport.  They will take a bunch of goods, which could be shipped for 100 different companies, they put it in a trailer or container, then ship the trailer or container as a single entity, which will have a manifest that details what is in the shipment in whar quantites.  It gets brokered as a single shipment.  So the brokerage cost of the items is .5% low enough that the shipper can bury the cost within their shipping fees.  Often the logistics company will have a deal with a domestic carrier that they induct the goods to the carrier for delivery.  In some cases the individual items have the shipping labels on them for final delivery. 

Some US companies will then have a Canadian website and Canadian prices and may even use a Canadian payment processor even though they do not have Canadian staff, they may even collect GST/HST. 

The post office can do it cheap due to volume, effectively the post office is it's own logistics handler and broker.  As a rule, when ordering from the US ask the shipper to use USPS some will some will not, the ones that will not, you pass on.

Unfortunately for me, Sal's is outer Scarberia, and to TTC out there would be a full days trip, I don't have a car.

Wogster, it could be the strong analogs from the CN tower causing problems for your tuner. Quite a few Toronto digitals are adjacent to their analogs, could be that some interference could be causing you those issues.

I think the problems are a bunch of things:

1) I made the antenna out of what I had lying around, which wasn't the best materials for it.

2) I wasn't really sure of what I was doing building the antenna, so it's probably not optimum.

3) The antenna is in a basement window with an AL frame.   I suppose the frame is reducing the amount of signal available and it's too low. 

My wife is ready to head out the door boxing day shopping, and I am going too, so more later.

Thanks for the shipping information. I try hard to stay away from UPS. I like DHA, USPS & Canada Post. Never had a problem with paying high prices with those 3.

Check this out and they are in Toronto, ON. LOL, I did a CM 7777 search on google and it found the address's number 7777 LOL, Good find though, because they carry a lot of antenna stuff.
YORK ELECTRONICS
7777 KEELE ST UNIT 5
HWY 7 AND KEELE

[Link: toronto.kijiji.ca]

DHA??? Oh you mean DHL, I don't know about now, but they once charged me US$50 to clear a US$10 item, including shipping it was over $100 in real money....  Real money is the stuff your pay cheque is made of..... 

Of course it's different if it's a Canadian company, you can phone, get rates, send a cheque and have them send it to you, no customs or brokerage fees need to be paid.   Looks like the Keele North bus goes beyond that point, so it's an option.  I think someone in Canada selling this stuff online or a US company with a Canadian presence would be helpful.....  I'm into cycling and photography and they both have the same problem lots of stuff is available stateside, that isn't available here, or if it is it's 10 times the price, even though the loonie will probably catch up to if not pass the greenback this next year and everything is made in China or Taiwan anyway.