I'll join my former BN colleagues in saying how much we'll all miss Peter.  A great guy and a terrific reporter.

Thanks tvguy and Mace for the advice. My DVR is a dual tuner Channel Master DVR+, which is made specifically for recording off air signals. And I have a 40' tower with a rotor and a UHF head. Reception was pretty reliable on the Nexstar owned channels (4 and 23) before the latest repack. Now sometimes they're there, too often they're not. 

As mentioned, there's a splitter involved, which further degrades signal strength.

All the others are pretty good, although I seem to be having the occasional issue with WUTV, which is baffling because it's normally very strong. I checked it tonight, for instance, and the signal strength is at 80 (out of 100) but there's a 0 on the Signal Quality. How that can be, I have no idea. But the result is a black screen. 

Anyway, I'll think about the ustvgo idea, although I prefer to DVR everything so I can skip through the commercials and watch things in a much more efficient way at a time of my own choosing. Although I'm surprised to hear they've nulled out my VPN (Nord.) Hopefully, they'll figure out some way to defeat it, as this endless cat and mouse game continues.

Have you tried http://123tvnow.com/category/united-states-usa/? It seems to work just fine on most stations for now - even without a VPN. 

Thanks again for your thoughts on this. It's kind of ironic that Channel 4 would be the hardest signal to get, given that it was the very first television station in this region, going back to 1948. Sometimes, I miss analog! 

Me bad.   WNYO is on 16 and WUTV on 32.  Both will transmit from the (old) WUTV Tower on Whitehaven Road, on Grand Island - is what I meant to write.   RadioActive, the reference to DVR sends up red flags.  What brand?  You are probably suffering from overload from the CN Tower, which is, impacting HDHomeRun and older Philips DVRs very badly.  It is virtually impossible to receive WIVB/WNLO reliably with a preamp connected these days.  I've tried variable attenuators, and haven't had much success.  Newer LG TVs function very well, with preamp'd signals - older Samsungs do not.   It's basically luck of the draw, because colden is so far from Toronto, and the signals are far more susceptible to temperature changes, rain, etc over the 87 mile path.  You may also find, with these very weak Buffalo UHF signals, from Wales NY and Colden that the placement of the tower/antenna - a couple of metres one way or the other, or a couple of metres higher, will impact reception.  Bottom line, not much can be done to improve reception, but one thing I can guarantee is that the noise level and overload characteristics of the pre-amp is the first thing I would examine.  I believe you mentioned you are using an older preamp?   The only reliable pre-amp I've found is the Winegard LNA-200, which is lower gain than Channel Master, but less overload problems.  Subject to my comments above regarding HDHomerun, Philips DVRs' etc.

Charlie wrote:

Kosmos Kagool wrote:

Charlie wrote:

exclusive X-rated 'behind the scenes' footage featuring Mike Bullard.  Check your local listings

Surely you jest, Chuck

Moi?  Perish the thought.  I would have included a Frank D'Angelo video if I could.
 

Bobby Gimby wrote Ca-na-da @ approx this time of year in '66.    The Young Canada Singers recorded it and took it to no. 4 on CHUM the following spring.     Anyone know if the Young Canada Singers stayed together or if they disbanded and if so, did any members gravitate to broadcasting or musical careers?   

Charlie wrote:

exclusive X-rated 'behind the scenes' footage featuring Mike Bullard.  Check your local listings

Surely you jest, Chuck

This article outlines what O'Day did for Jimi Hendrix and later for his family, after the guitar great's death. 

But it also reveals how he singlehandedly made the Ventures' "Walk Don't Run" into an international hit, when no one was willing to give the band a chance. 

From the Seattle Times:

"In a 2010 Seattle Times interview, Don Wilson, one of the founders of The Ventures, credited O’Day with making “Walk — Don’t Run” a national hit in 1960.

"The year before, Wilson had been working construction in Tacoma. The group took their single to every radio station in Seattle, and they all turned them down. Except for O’Day, who began using 30 seconds of it as “news kicker” just before the news. That was enough. The kids began calling, and the record went onto regular programming." 

It's a done deal.  Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett of NordStar Capital have officially taken over Torstar which includes The Toronto Star, six regional daily papers and over 70 weekly newspapers.
https://www.thestar.com/business/2020/08/05/nordstar-takes-possession-of-toronto-star-publisher.html

RadioActive wrote:

markow202 wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

If only someone could do something about WIVB and WNLO. I thought the repack might improve them in some way.  The truth is most of the time, I've lost them entirely. And nothing I've tried to boost the signal from Colden, N.Y. has helped. I don't expect things to get much better as we head to winter. 

Have you tried looking at tvfool coverage maps for your area of these stations?  You could just be in a dead zone for them regardless of what you do.  Also how old is your RG6 cable?  

I had an antenna expert up here a few weeks ago. He found nothing wrong with the install or the antenna, although the cabling has been around since the early 90s. 

I'm almost positive the problem is the repack. I never used to have an issue with Channel 4. When WIVB shifted back to Colden, which is a lot farther away from Toronto, their signal strength into the city took a big hit. What really irritates me most, though, is that they took WNLO with them, and now both are coming from the same tower with roughly the same power. Channel 23 used to have one of the best signals into Toronto, so strong even a mid-winter blizzard couldn't black it out. Now I'm lucky to get it cleanly on a sunny day in July. 

I've tried an extra pre-amp with an attenuator, but it didn't do a thing. So I'm not sure what, if anything, the next step might be, other than move closer to the border! I like some CBS & CW programming, but I'm not quite that desperate! 

Strange.  It could be area but im not sure - however cabling on your system since the early 90s is definately due for a replacement you might not see it visually or not.  I just replaced it at the cottage (since 1998) and it make a huge difference in signal.  

In Etobicoke I have found no fluctuation in these Buffalo channels except for 49.1 recently but I understand they arent up in full yet.  
 

markow202 wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

If only someone could do something about WIVB and WNLO. I thought the repack might improve them in some way.  The truth is most of the time, I've lost them entirely. And nothing I've tried to boost the signal from Colden, N.Y. has helped. I don't expect things to get much better as we head to winter. 

Have you tried looking at tvfool coverage maps for your area of these stations?  You could just be in a dead zone for them regardless of what you do.  Also how old is your RG6 cable?  

I had an antenna expert up here a few weeks ago. He found nothing wrong with the install or the antenna, although the cabling has been around since the early 90s. 

I'm almost positive the problem is the repack. I never used to have an issue with Channel 4. When WIVB shifted back to Colden, which is a lot farther away from Toronto, their signal strength into the city took a big hit. What really irritates me most, though, is that they took WNLO with them, and now both are coming from the same tower with roughly the same power. Channel 23 used to have one of the best signals into Toronto, so strong even a mid-winter blizzard couldn't black it out. Now I'm lucky to get it cleanly on a sunny day in July. 

I've tried an extra pre-amp with an attenuator, but it didn't do a thing. So I'm not sure what, if anything, the next step might be, other than move closer to the border! I like some CBS & CW programming, but I'm not quite that desperate! 

tvguy wrote:

By the weekend, you are likely to see a major improvement in WKBW reception.   Possibly WUTV and WNYO as well.  Based on postings on AVS forum, the helicopter crew is expected to hoist the new antenna for WKBW today or Friday.   It is also expected that the crew will also hoist a new antenna for the WUTV Grand Island Tower site, where WNYO and WUTV will broadcast from on RF 32.

 

Thought WNYO Channel 49 was on RF 16. Is it changing?

I am sorry for those who lost their jobs. I am fortunate that at age 33 to have been one of those let go when the broadcasting company I was employed with then was bought out, and I took the AZ truck driving course. 31 years later, I still drive a truck, and have not been without a paycheque at any point during that time. Altho it hurt bad at the time to give up my radio career , in retrospect, it was the best that happened to me financially. 

If only someone could do something about WIVB and WNLO. I thought the repack might improve them in some way.  The truth is most of the time, I've lost them entirely. And nothing I've tried to boost the signal from Colden, N.Y. has helped. I don't expect things to get much better as we head to winter. 

It's not just Stingray. Bell is getting wrung by the COVID effect as well. From the Financial Post:

"...revenue in the company’s media division was down by 31.2 per cent as ad revenue dropped and many customers trimmed their packages to save money...

"All three of Canada’s big telecom players reported tough financial results due to the pandemic, but BCE had the biggest hit to profit.

"Rogers Communications Inc.’s net income was down 53 per cent and Telus Corp.’s net income was down 39.4 per cent, compared to Bell’s 64 per cent decline."

Still, I'm pretty sure there are no tag days in the future for any of them. It's the potential for more layoffs that worries me. 

BCE profit plunges 64% on COVID-19 economic turmoil and lower TV revenue