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Last reply · posted in Over the Air Television By RabbitEars.Info
TV Fool Report attached

I'm in the NYC DMA, about 42 miles from the transmitters, but on a 2Edge signal with some terrain issues. The two strongest stations I could get are a religious broadcaster and an informmercial station about 30 miles north (neither really desired). I've been considering an OTA setup to augment my current DirecTV install since they do not carry the digital sub-channels, nor all local channels. Specifically, I'd like to get WKOB (2) out of New York for Retro TV, WPIX Digital 11.4 for Antenna TV, WPIX 11.3 for THIS TV, and perhaps a couple more of the sub-channels. My local cable provide does not give all of those options, nor are all available easily on FTA Satellite,

Based on my TVFOOL report, does anyone have any suggestions on the correct antenna/pre-amp combination to boost a signal enough for watchability? I can outside mount the antenna on a roof (or minimally to a pole that brings it away from the roof line and well above it. Cable run wouldn't be very long through the attic to the single TV desired.

Any and all advice appreciated, many thanks!
8 Replies · 3722 views
Jim5506
Since you want channel 2, you need the Winegard 8200U - try that first and get it up as high as you possibly can.

A pre-amp is mostly made to overcome line and splitter losses, so a short cable run probably would not be helped a lot by a pre-amp.

If you need a pre-amp look at the CM 7777 or the Winegard 8700 or 8800.
M
I had to read your tvfool and wiki a couple times because I thought 2 was actually on 42 (remapped to 2) but I misread. They (WKOB) have an analog channel at 42 with Daystar and the digital on 2 with the subchannels. They're only running 300 watts on channel 2 so is it even possible to get that far away? I know tvfool shows for me in Minneapolis some low powered stations as "red" when there is no way I could get them unless I was near the actual transmitter. Their facebook site shows folks having issues with it in NYC proper so being 40 miles away probably isnt gonna work.
sidenote...they have an approved motion to move the digital to 42 but they havent done it yet
Bob2011
Channel 2 nationwide is rarely used because it turns out for DTV its very hard to keep a consistent signal level unless you have line of sight. Its pretty much the same same for all of VHF-LO channels 2 to 6. For your area you have lots of small hills and ridges which will probably give you a signal that cuts out often if you are behind one of them. I would say WPIX is a good possibility as well as WABC and WNET with any decent VHF-HI antenna like the Winegard 1713 or Antennacraft Y10-7-13. I'll bet there are a lot of old Radio Shack fringe antennas around you like VU-120, VU-160 or VU-190s that someone may be willing to get rid of that would work for you.
M
oh man the VU190...that antenna kicked ass. Too bad the one we had at the cabin went up in the fire :(
S
Since you want channel 2, you need the Winegard 8200U - try that first and get it up as high as you possibly can.

If you need a pre-amp look at the CM 7777 or the Winegard 8700 or 8800.

Jim, thanks! That may help. I was hoping to not need a roof mount, but it looks like I might have to go that route if I want certain channels, plus being somewhat valleyed in my region doesn't help (I'd need another 15' in the air to crest the hill and get better LOS, but with winds often being high here, I'd be afraid of having the rig blow over to my neighbor's house/car).
S
Channel 2 nationwide is rarely used because it turns out for DTV its very hard to keep a consistent signal level unless you have line of sight. Its pretty much the same same for all of VHF-LO channels 2 to 6. For your area you have lots of small hills and ridges which will probably give you a signal that cuts out often if you are behind one of them. I would say WPIX is a good possibility as well as WABC and WNET with any decent VHF-HI antenna like the Winegard 1713 or Antennacraft Y10-7-13. I'll bet there are a lot of old Radio Shack fringe antennas around you like VU-120, VU-160 or VU-190s that someone may be willing to get rid of that would work for you.

Bob, I've looked around here and there is an utter lack of antennas. Most people have restorted to either cable or Dish/DirecTV -- the houses look more like a satellite farm at times from the old and new dishes mounted on roofs. Where there are antennas, they're the 30+ year old kind that people haven't taken off the house...and probably don't use (judging from the satellites near them).
S
I had to read your tvfool and wiki a couple times because I thought 2 was actually on 42 (remapped to 2) but I misread. They (WKOB) have an analog channel at 42 with Daystar and the digital on 2 with the subchannels. They're only running 300 watts on channel 2 so is it even possible to get that far away? I know tvfool shows for me in Minneapolis some low powered stations as "red" when there is no way I could get them unless I was near the actual transmitter. Their facebook site shows folks having issues with it in NYC proper so being 40 miles away probably isnt gonna work.
sidenote...they have an approved motion to move the digital to 42 but they havent done it yet

You read my mind, Iceberg. I was more wondering "if", and it's seeming to not be a possibility. Shame because they're the only RetroTV outlet in the region, which was my reason for wanting. I'm glad for the confirmation before I purchased equipment and discovered a huge disappointment. Thanks to you -- and everyone -- for taking the time to analyze in such detail, it's greatly appreciated!
M
If you are mainly wanting RTV have you thought of maybe a free to air setup?

RTV has a national feed (some markets have their own feed with some different shows) on KU Band. Requires a 30" dish and a free to air receiver. They also have TuffTV which is a "guy" type channel.
Looking at the schedules WKOB does have a different schedule than the national
WKOB
http://www.myretrotv.com/prog_schedules/WKOB.pdf

national feed
http://www.myretrotv.com/prog_schedules/RTV-National.pdf

You could get a FTA setup for $150 max...usually if you have access to equipment much less.

PM me if you want more info.
Scott Greczkowski
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne


Get it?


An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68657 Replies · 2680161 views
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sdfntx
I Care About Detroit - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
dishstaller
I Wanna Talk About Me - Toby Keith
Bobby
98.6 - Keith
harshness
I'm Easy - Keith Carridine
gms49ers
It's Easy - Boston
R
Last reply · posted in Computers and Gadgets
Lately my eight year old Dell laptop has been shutting off even when I have a full battery. I have had to keep it plugged up all the time to keep this from happening. Any idea what is causing this? I replaced the battery about three years ago.
2 Replies · 39 views
arlo
A recalibration might be needed. Even if it shows full, the individual cells may have become unbalaced. And the BMS chip in the battery reports false information to the pc.
Try this. Start it up in the bios/uefi and leave it there until the battery dies and it shuts off.
It might just keep running longer than in Windows. Or run for a short while and shut off.
If it's the first case. Probably just needs a balancing. If the latter, the pack might just be dead.
Not throwing stones but perhaps just a cheaply constructed battery with substandard cells. Could be.

Patience. Keep restarting it in bios/uefi until it won't fire up anymore.
Then plug the charger in and let it complete a full charge. And see what happens. If it's better.
Do the same thing one more time. Run it until it dies dead-dead. Then just let it charge, pc shut off.
When charged, it might be better. It might not be.

There are bench jigs that read the actual BMS and override it to let a tech manually monitor and charge the separate packs. They can also reset any "time bombs" in it that cause an otherwise good pack to show bad.
Maybe Santa will be good to me some year.

You might just need a new battery. Maybe the PC power management chip is going. A Dell common thing.
Leaving a laptop plugged in with a full battery is known to reduce the life. Asus for one recommends that you don't leave the charger plugged in all of the time even when shut down. And setting Windows to charge the battery to 85% instead of 100% increases life.
That's all I got.
dishstaller
That's all I got.
That was quite enough....I definitely learned something from your post. Thanks
TRG
TRG
Pub Member / Supporter
Last reply · posted in Computers and Gadgets
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
5 Replies · 278 views
b4pjoe
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
If you can't get into the router to reserve an IP address just don't use DHCP on the device that needs connected and assign it to a specific IP address in the network settings.
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HipKat
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
They are not. Your best bet is to set up a third-party router, attached to the Starlink for your server, that you can get into, like a Linksys, etc
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Foxbat
…it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
The Starlink V5 Install Kit I just got comes with the Mini Router. It is pretty limited in what it can do. For example, it can provide only one IP subnet at a time, no Guest Network, but it does support the pass-thru to a third-party Router. You can also split the Wi-Fi into separate 5 GHz & 2.4 GHz SSIDs to help some IoT devices that don't support 5 GHz bands to work.

The larger Starlink Router that still comes with the V4 Kit does support a Guest Network with separate IPv4 Subnet, but it's $120 from Starlink. And it still won't do DHCP Reservations.
harshness
If you can restrict the DHCP address space to assign addresses to one end of the subnet (i.e. x.x.x.50+), you can manually assign the IP address on pretty much any operating system. This is a default behavior on several popular routers. As the Router Mini only supports 235 devices, I expect that's already done.

Another option is to use a router that supports PoE to power the antenna. This article discusses that option (under PoE Power heading):

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Foxbat
Now that I've had the v5 kit with the Mini Router, it's not as bad as I first thought. Yes, no DHCP reservations, but you can set up multiple SSIDs that have separate IPv4 subnets, and like the big brother, you can select from 192.168.x.0/24 or 10.x.0.0/16 (where "x" is 1-4).

You can also split a subnet and have different SSIDs for the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz channels to handle some IoT devices. I haven't discovered what subnet the 2nd NIC on the router assigns, I'm guessing it's the first subnet.
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
2 Replies · 47 views
dishstaller
Sorry for posting the wrong link. Just corrected it.
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

2 Replies · 51 views
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Jimbo
Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

They will have to look at the switching sections to determine WHY 2 trains were on the same track ... at the same time.
dishstaller
Thought this article might be of interest to some of you who might travel via train.