AM21 acting weird. Tuner 1 & Tuner 2 jumping

[ETS]

I've had a AM21 for over one year now. I use a indoor RCA antenna. I only can pick up the translator out of Kingston, NY(WRGB 24 which carries WCWN in HD on 45-1 & WRGB in sd on 45-3). Last year on the AM21 Signal strength it showed Off-Air Tuner 1: 70% Off-Air Tuner 2: 70%. Last August it just stopped working. I called WRGB and talked to a engineer who saw on his computer it was not transmitting. He went to Kingston and checked it and said that the main breaker tripped, one of the power supplies were no good, & all the fuses for each output devices on both power amplifier modules blown. He got it working out on reduced power by borrowing stuff from a transmitter no longer in service. My signal strength was now 40% on both tuners. In May it started having the signal get lost every few minutes that I timed it went down for 20 minutes every hour. I talked to the engineer again and he said he could that it would drop the output to 0 and then start again but the event log shows no reason as the input to output signal show its working properly. This past Monday he came to Kingston and made sure all connections was tight and cleaned the air filters on the modulator and PA and replaced the filters on the intake to the building. He said while they were there the transmitter never dropped. I checked my signal strength and now had a 50% signal on both tuners and the signal never dropped and stayed on for the entire hour. Thursday I noticed the channel was coming in and out, later not showing anything at all. The skys are clear tonight. I moved my antenna around and every few times would get picture for 1-4 seconds then back to searching for signal but it changes to a black screen every 10 seconds. My signal strength keeps jumping. Off-Air Tuner 1 & 2 show 7% then shows 7% & 85% then 85% & 7% then 65% & 50% then 85% & 85% then 40% & 65% it just keeps jumping around. What's the problem. Is it me moving my antenna(but it was not working before I moved it), is it the translator in Kingston, or is it the AM21?

 

[Jimbo]

I've had a AM21 for over one year now. I use a indoor RCA antenna. I only can pick up the translator out of Kingston, NY(WRGB 24 which carries WCWN in HD on 45-1 & WRGB in sd on 45-3). Last year on the AM21 Signal strength it showed Off-Air Tuner 1: 70% Off-Air Tuner 2: 70%. Last August it just stopped working. I called WRGB and talked to a engineer who saw on his computer it was not transmitting. He went to Kingston and checked it and said that the main breaker tripped, one of the power supplies were no good, & all the fuses for each output devices on both power amplifier modules blown. He got it working out on reduced power by borrowing stuff from a transmitter no longer in service. My signal strength was now 40% on both tuners. In May it started having the signal get lost every few minutes that I timed it went down for 20 minutes every hour. I talked to the engineer again and he said he could that it would drop the output to 0 and then start again but the event log shows no reason as the input to output signal show its working properly. This past Monday he came to Kingston and made sure all connections was tight and cleaned the air filters on the modulator and PA and replaced the filters on the intake to the building. He said while they were there the transmitter never dropped. I checked my signal strength and now had a 50% signal on both tuners and the signal never dropped and stayed on for the entire hour. Thursday I noticed the channel was coming in and out, later not showing anything at all. The skys are clear tonight. I moved my antenna around and every few times would get picture for 1-4 seconds then back to searching for signal but it changes to a black screen every 10 seconds. My signal strength keeps jumping. Off-Air Tuner 1 & 2 show 7% then shows 7% & 85% then 85% & 7% then 65% & 50% then 85% & 85% then 40% & 65% it just keeps jumping around. What's the problem. Is it me moving my antenna(but it was not working before I moved it), is it the translator in Kingston, or is it the AM21?

IF the station is on the air and transmitting, thier signal should not be changing, I would check to make sure the station is on the air and go from there.
With OTA signals, the higher the better, you mentioned you have an indoor antenna, if you had an outdoor antenna you'd probably be fine, once positioned.

Digital signals are much different from the old analog channels we use to be able to tune in.
With Digital, they will be there and perfect or nothing at all.

I would suggest using an outdoor antenna if possible.

 

[texasbrit]

First, with the patchy history of the translator, I would not rule out a problem there. But looking at your numbers, even when the signal was stable they indicate you were having signal issues.
First, it's possible you just need a better antenna. But second, I checked tvfool and it indicated that in your zip the signals should be OK. How far away are you from the translator? Are you using an amplified antenna? The fluctuation you report is typical of signal overload, where you are using an amplifier but don't need one.

 

[jdspencer]

If your TV has an ATSC tuner, try connecting the antenna to it to check signal strengths.

 

[ETS]

My family does not want to drill into the house for the outdoor antenna, I only want to watch one show with the antenna so a indoor antenna is easy and simple and has worked in the past.

It's a RCA Basic indoor Antenna this model amazon.com/dp/B000HKGK8Y I have the antenna on a plastic tub which is right behind my HDTV with the antenna touching the blinds on the window in the direction of the translator which is 4.3 miles away from me according to TVFool tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d05593f49f463e6 I noticed when the antenna touchs the blinds it gets a better reception(in the past)

My HDTV has a ATSC tuner but the cord is not long enough so the antenna is not in the correct postion when plugged in a few months ago and the picture came in with no issues. I hooked it up now and it can't find signal.

Went downstairs to the kitchen, and hooked up the antenna to the HDTV. The Kitchen is below the room I used(mention above) but is about 10 feet more south then upstairs room. When I held the antenna in my hand about 3 feet away from the TV with the antenna's ears almost all the way up I was able to get WRNN(29 miles away) & WTBY(29 miles away). WTBY came in better then WRNN but WCWN did not come in.

On the DirecTV HR24 I did the initial setup on the AM21 again I put in the NYC locals & Albany locals but instead of showing me a long list of every NYC & Albany OTA channel(like it had in the past) it only showed by 45-1 & 45-3. I reset the AM21 settings and did it again and now the edit off-air channels option was grayed out. I did every thing again and again everything grayed out. I brought the AM21 down to the kitchen and hooked it up to the R22 and it only showed the WTBY 5 channels not the long list of every NYC & Albany local. What's up with that? Is that a AM21 issue? WTBY's signal on that showed 23%

I took the kitchen HDTV an moved into the living room which is directly under my room. It got WYBY clear with some blurryness every few minutes but the WCWN signal did not show at all. I can not get WTBY in my room upstairs(even with the blinds out of the way)

I just ordered a new AM21 to see if that's the issue with it not giving my any options to edit off-air settings

 

[Jimbo]

It sounds to me like you dont have a strong enough signal coming in from the antenna for the AM 21 to pick up all the channels.

 

[texasbrit]

You are obviously in a fringe area and almost anything can cause the signals to drop. A new building, tree growth, who know? You need a much better antenna.