Free TV In Nanaimo BC - OTA TV ( Over the Air ) HDTV

Free TV Channels - Nanaimo BC

There is some TV content you can get for Free in Nanaimo!

A lot of people think getting TV content over an antenna is a thing of the past, something to do if you are not able to afford paying Shaw or Telus.  Most people just cannot be bothered or have more money than time.

OTA ( Over the Air )  set ups do take some time to set up and adjust. There is a bit of knowledge needed as well, but its pretty straightforward and info / help  is available  

In this post, I'll explain what equipment I have used to set up my Antenna in order to pick up channels from the OTA TV towers I have within Antenna distance! 

All you need is an antenna, a ATSC receiver / converter, TV, some coax cable. Possibly a Pre-Amp. 
The total for the equipment is about $150-$200 CDN. ( depending on your needs ) 

Antenna: RCA Compact Outdoor Yagi HDTV Antenna. Mine looks like this, it seems to be an older model, possibly discontinued as the ones I can find now have the mounting pole right at the back. I got this one because it was cheaper than the other one, I think it's ANT751R is the version number of the new one. These RCA antennas are great, Winegaurd makes a similar style antenna that looks like it'll work fine as well. 

RCA Compact Yagi Antenna

As far as antennas go - Since I only have UHF stations in my area - I want to try out a long range UHF antenna like this narly looking one: I still have trouble picking up channel 17-1(17) and 10-1(33) when it's windy or just randomly. 

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These antennas are meant to be installed in the attic or outside. I choose the attic because of various reasons such as: Don't have to drill into the exterior of my house / ground the thing, was easier to get approved from domestic FCC ( my wife ), it won't get hit with the weather. We get some pretty big windstorms in the fall around here, so the antenna will last longer in the attic. 

If you don't want a attic antenna, you can get indoor antennas, but you'll have some trouble getting all the stations. 

For fun, have a look at my first Antenna - photos at bottom of page. I lived closer to the water then, so I could pick up most of the channels just with this thing behind the TV and it cost me maybe 5 bucks to make it. 

Converter Box:  Mediasonic ATSC Digital Converter  

You don't need this if you have a TV with built in tuner. 

This mediasonic box  actually kinda isn't super awesome...but, it's cheap and it works great for set up due to its manual channel add feature. I'm on my second one. The first one lasted about 3 years and then seems to have burned some contacts on the circuit board. So that made it not work. No worries though as I felt I got my 40 bucks worth! Best feature of this unit is that manually add channels if the scan doesn't pick them up. ( I need this for my 2 fringe channels ). 

I also have a Haupauge PCIE Card for my computer which I run MythTV in order to watch / record OTA TV on my computer ( Watch for more info about this card in a future post ) 

Pre-Amp: RCA Premap   

I need a preamp because I am about 50 miles away from the towers on Mt Seymour, which is about 80km's so my signal strength is limited and need to keep any losses to a minimum. 

 I get about 40-50% signal on a some channels the pre-amp is able to take that weaker signal and send it to the TV.  This  set up gives me just enough power to pick up a signal on some stations. 

I also have a fairly long run ( 10-15 meters or 30-40 feet ) or RG6 Coax cable from the attic to the TV. I could put it closer, but it doesn't make a huge difference and I wanted my antenna in an accessible spot in the attic in case I want to switch it out, or adjust it. So far I haven't needed to adjust it though, so not sure about that decision just yet. lol Anyway, with the Pre-Amp, it's best to test the antenna without it first to see if you actually need it and make sure it's as close to the antenna as possible. 

Coaxial Cable:  Nothing much here except make sure you have some good quality RG6 Coaxial cable that you're using and the ends are terminated correctly. There's RJ59 cable you can get for cheap which will still work, but just get some decent RG6 cable and you'll be fine here. If you're going to split the signal and are using a preamp, make sure do it after the pre-map so that both splits will get the power. I wonder if I used a solid copper core RG6 cable that it would conduct the preamp power better and how that would effect the sign. 

Free TV Channels Available in Nanaimo. 

 I've made a list of all the channels you can get from Nanaimo. 

2‑1 (35) CBUT-DT CBC

This is CBC. It usually comes in pretty good. They recently moved to UHF Channel 35 for some reason due to that US repack. At least it's still a UHF station!  

6‑1 (16) CHEK-DT IND

This is CHEK. It's from Victoria. It comes in good as well. The towers are on Saturna Island.  Has good news, movies and plays the game shows like Wheel of fortune and Jeopardy. 

8‑1 (22) CHAN-DT Global

This is Global - It's from Vancouver. It also has news and talk shows. Plays that "Border Security" show and sometimes has movies. 

10‑1 (33) CKVU-DT cityTV

This is a great station, it's CityTV - I do have trouble getting this station sometimes. It has Price is right on this channel, which is a show I loved in my childhood. 

12‑1 (14) KVOS-TV H&I

This is basically the star trek channel. lol They play other things as well though. It's from America, and it's a crazy strong signal, if you can't pick up KVOS 12 then your doing something wrong, or you live in a location where it's not possible.

24‑1 (19) KBCB SBN

This is Jimmy Swaggart - Legendary evangelist.  I have been captivated by this channel sometimes they run these fund raisers, where people from all over just send them hundreds or thousands of dollars in exchange for prayers. It's some wild stuff I tell you, wild wild stuff. 

On the Sub Channels: 

Shopping Channels- I can't believe people actually buy from here, but they must. It's likely the same people giving Jimmy Swaggart their hard earned money in exchange for prayers.  I'm not here to judge though. I'm sure there's worse ways to spend your money. There's like a couple subchanels of these shopping channels. 

32‑1 (32) CIVT-DT CTV

CTV - Has Shows like Grey's Anatomy, Sometimes they'll play sports, like Football or if it's not football season, they might play some golf. For Golf, they seem to air the major events though, like they played the masters this year on CTV. 
I seem to have trouble lately picking up this station for some reason. It's apparently on the same tower as global, which never have issues with. I must investigate this more. 

17‑1 (17) CIVI-2 CTV2

CTV2 - Has Some great shows as well. 

66‑1 (24) CHNU-DT JOYTV 

I am not sure what the deal is with this channel. It's called "JOYTV"  They have more information on their programming here: https://www.joytv.ca/about-joytv/

26‑1 (26) CBUFT-DT SRC

French CBC. Not sure why this just isn't a sub channel of CBC. Canadian broadcasters don't seem to use sub-channels for some reason. 

42‑1 (20) CHNM-DT OMNI

This is multi-cultural station. 

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There is more information I need / will add to the channels as my time allows! 

If you have any questions / comments please comment! If you want to just talk out about antennas and Over the Air TV, frequencies, cables / wires / connectors please contact me! 

If you like watching TV and you want to stop paying Shaw or Telus outrageously large bills with their promos, contracts and intensives for new customers but shaft the existing customers,  I can help you break free. 

Resources: 

TV Schedules: https://tvlistings.zap2it.com/?aid=gapzap
Transmitter Locations:  https://www.rabbitears.info/searchmap.php

Help: 

-- Reddit:  https://www.reddit.com/r/cordcutters/
--Antenna Man: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySjheRcVJ21B3Jo3HcWMTQ