I've been working on trying to understand how to access digital off-air and it is a little more work than most would expect. What makes it so difficult at the moment is that there seems to be few stations actually transmitting in our area.

None of the indoor antenna I had would work, including one advanced model with two fine tuning adjustments. I eventually built a bow-tie type UHF antenna based upon some plans I found on the Internet (although I did redesign it to be about half-size).

So far I've been able to get three PBS stations, which come from the same broadcaster, on 17-1,17-2 and 17-3, and one CW station on 23-1. The signal meter registers a signal for OMNI2 but there was no broadcast transmitted. Every other channel doesn't register on the signal meter.

Tuning for digital is done by compass direction but fortunately, if the signal is strong enough, the antenna doesn't have to be perfect. It can be fine tuned after a signal if found. And like analogue the antenna position has to be changed for each channel. Fortunately, it appears many stations are broadcasting from the same locations.

One of the biggest problems in Canada right now is that it appears most stations aren't broadcasting a signal and those that are aren't at full power. This can make it difficult to get anything at all with an indoor antenna. Many of the stations that I am able to receive on analogue I expect to be able to get from digital, but many I won't be able to.

According to the charts generated at http://www.2150.com/broadcast/ I'm about 32 Km from the CN Tower where the signals are supposed to be broadcasted from. The US stations are approximately 60Km from where I am, but the signals travel over water which allows them to carry further. Still, from what I've gathered, the range for digital broadcasts are about 40Km so I should be fine.

The chart at 2150.com shows stations that are proposed and the power levels they are suppose to be operating at when at full power. A chart at http://remotecentral.com/hdtv shows the channels in the Toronto area as they are broadcasting right now. It's clear that the power is so low on many of Canadian stations that I probably wouldn't be able to receive the stations right now. I'm hoping that when they go to full power that problem will be resolved.

I can also see from 2150 that there are stations planned for Peterborough which will fall about 40km from where I am. I'm hoping to be able to tune those in, but those appear to just be repeaters of what's coming from the CN Tower.

There is one local station which has applied for digital transmission but does not as yet appear to be transmitting. The analogue station comes in as clearly as any off-air analogue station could so I know that won't be a problem. Unfortunately, it's a subsidiary of a Barrie station that's a CBC subsidiary, so it's really only good for local news.

With the analogue cut-off in February for the US, now is the time to determine whether one is set-up to handle the digital. It could mean replacing or installing a roof-top antenna and that's something better done during this time of year. Although the Canadian cut-off is years away, Canadians who use off-air will still be affected since they won't be able to get off-air US stations without digital setups.

Most of my TV is watched through ExpressVu so it's not essential to get the off-air. But I still like having it as a backup. And there are the odd channels like our local channel not available on satellite. I also found an educational PBS channel called Think Brite on 17-3 that no Canadian broadcaster offers. 

But digital off-air offers something more: perfectly clear channels that can add to an existing lineup. It could encourage many to add antennas just for the additional channels. Analogue channels are snowy at best so many prefer to ignore them, but the clear digital channels are just as watchable as cable or satellite channels making them more attractive.

However, Canadians aren't ready for the change and currently can't get the set-top converters in stores. And the Canadian broadcasters don't seem to be putting forth much effort to transmit digitally. So the US changeover could be a greater shock to Canadians than they expect.

I'll keep playing around with it and give further updates later.