Attic Antenna Install 2020 - Nanaimo OTA ( Over the Air ) TV

 Aaron's Attic TV Antenna Install 2020 Nanaimo BC

I've been interested in OTA ( Over the Air ) TV in Nanaimo Since 2013. Earlier, I think sometime in 2011 I had heard about how you'd no longer be able to pick up TV with an antenna and decided to finally look into it. 

Turns out they were shutting down the analogue transmitters and switching to digital. So... There was still going to be OTA TV just that you'd likely need a different antenna to pick up the new digital VHF/UHF signals. From Nanaimo there is no VHF stations available. I am still learning about how it all works, but that's my sort of good enough understanding of it for now.  

I started out with a custom set up at my old house which you can read about in this old post: http://www.aaronbrunt.com/2016/02/over-air-hdtv.html

Then, we moved to a new place and I had that antenna with the coat hangers in the living room of the new place. We had a baby coming a few years later and that antenna was too scary for a baby, but it worked well. I decided to get something safer. I got the RCA Flat Antenna with the amplifier and put it up on the window. It worked sometimes... Which lead to the motivation for the attic antenna.  

Here's the antenna in the attic! 

I chose this antenna because it's a directional antenna that performs well for a longer range for it's size. I needed something inexpensive, small yet effective. So this antenna has UHF features as well it has a long VHF thing if you have VHF stations in your area, which I don't. Knowing this now I might have got just the UHF featured antenna like this thing:

Xtreme Signal Long Range Yagi Style

We only have UHF Stations in my area. You can tell from the rabbit ears info report and all the numbers are above 12 which is the VHF stations. I remember as a kid on our bunny ears we only had the VHF stations I suppose, because I remember only going the first 12 stations. Anyway... So this antenna also seems to have a bunch of VHF stuff but that's fine because they might have some sometime. 

Rabbit Ears Website Results are important to look up. Here is my link. 

https://www.rabbitears.info/searchmap.php?request=result&study_id=178438

I've taken a sample of the first 3 channels I get to talk about the results. 

For the Channel column you'll notice there is a couple of numbers there. For the KVOS channel 12-1, it's UHF station is actually 14 which is in the brackets 

In order to point the antenna towards Mt. Seymour towers I used this website which will draw lines from your location to the towers!  https://www.overtheairdigitaltv.com/tv-station-locator-tool/

But after I did that I found that rabbitears.info site and they have an option that looks even better where you can see the results and it puts lines on the map towards the towers. 

See tower paths

So I mark a path and remember a location to aim at for the next step. For me I choose a landmark close to the towers which I could located on the Signal Finder app. 

Look for this below the map! 

Then, I placed my phone on the antenna and using the "TERK Signal Finder" App which will cast a beam on the map based on where your phones pointing and then I can position the antenna that way!

If you found this post - please comment to let me know your OTA TV set up! I'd love to chat with anyone who uses TV Antennas!