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shodobe
Last reply · posted in Over the Air Television By RabbitEars.Info
I just purchased a new antenna from Solid Signal, Winegard HD 7698P. This was to replaced an old damaged unit that worked well until it broke. This was a recommendation from SS according to my Zip Code. My question is about signal strengths because I can direct this 20 to 30 degrees and get the almost the same signal either way. I live about 50-60 miles from the towers and up in the mountains with little tree obstruction, I do have a rather tall tree in the path but it was never a problem before. The only thing I did was to relocate the mast on the roof and it is now about 4 feet lower that the original spot. I didn't know if this would have much of an effect. I am getting about 65-72% on 3.1 and all the NBC affiliates. Of course all the Spanish stations are at 95%! The CBS station comes in around 85-90% and it is in the same area as 3.1. I have a cheap amplifier on the system that actually increases around 3% but no more. I really thought this antenna would work well because it pixelates really bad and I lose the signal. I have a rerally simple system and do get Dish but "moved" so I don't get locals on the the Dish. Any recommendations on boosting the signal a bit? Thanks
8 Replies · 1901 views
shodobe
My zip is 95255 I don't know what was replaced, looks like an old RS. My NBC station out of Sacramento is KCRA. I did disconnect one of the cables going to another TV so I only split my signal twice. It picked up 6% on the other two so I am now at 85%. Much better but would like to get reception at 3 TVs.
boba
My zip is 95255 I don't know what was replaced, looks like an old RS. My NBC station out of Sacramento is KCRA. I did disconnect one of the cables going to another TV so I only split my signal twice. It picked up 6% on the other two so I am now at 85%. Much better but would like to get reception at 3 TVs.
Elevation on TV fool makes quite a difference in reception so I would suggest trying several locations for your antenna. Ch3 is used in your area but 3.1 is broadcast on ch 35. If ch3 is important to you you will need an antenna for low VHF channels but for the few channels that are available to you your Winegard is probably as good as it will get. A Winegard pre amp may give a little more signal to get that third TV.
Bob2011
If you are on one of the 4000 foot peaks in the area then you are in a dream location with 25+ stations available. Go down a 1000 feet and it looks like a nightmare to get anything more than a few locals. If TV Fool shows them to be LOS then you are really high up and that antenna should do great. Connect the antenna to one TV directly with no splitters or dish equipment in between if possible to see what kind of signal loss you are dealing with. If the problem is corrected then you know a quality preamp or possibly a distribution amp may be required. What kind of cable lengths do you have from the antenna to the splitter and out to the the three TVs?
shodobe
I am at 4500 feet so I do have a good LOS. I had looked at a Motorola pre-amp that was recommended, can't remember the model though. It was bi-directional and got quite a few good reviews. So with a pre-amp you put this before the splitters? Actually I pick up almost 50+ channels but only want the Big 4, NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX. I think I have about less than 100 feet of cable. All I want is to kick up the signal about 5% because I lose signal at 65% or less, drives my wife nuts when she is watching Golf! When I took one TV off the splitter I did kick it up to 80% so right there the more splits you have the less signal you get.
boba
I am at 4500 feet so I do have a good LOS. I had looked at a Motorola pre-amp that was recommended, can't remember the model though. It was bi-directional and got quite a few good reviews. So with a pre-amp you put this before the splitters? Actually I pick up almost 50+ channels but only want the Big 4, NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX. I think I have about less than 100 feet of cable. All I want is to kick up the signal about 5% because I lose signal at 65% or less, drives my wife nuts when she is watching Golf! When I took one TV off the splitter I did kick it up to 80% so right there the more splits you have the less signal you get.
The TV Fool reports I pulled up didn't come close to 50 channels so you do have a good reception area. Usually Winegard and Channel Master are the recommended preamps, I don't remember Motorola showing up in recommendations but Winegard and Channel Master rarely are cheap ones.
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....
68656 Replies · 2680145 views
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FTA4PA
Detroit Rock City - Kiss
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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
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 · 37 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 · 274 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 · 44 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 · 49 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.