Help!!!! Stealth Has Me Going Nuts!!!!

[vinnyv07]

Ok....I live in Staten Island, NY. With the Stealth hooked into the diplexer with one wire carrying both sigs ...I get cbs, fox, abc, upn. nbc has dropouts and ch 13 doesnt come in at all and WB doesnt come in either. WB and WNET operate at very low power...but I would like to get a read on NBC. So I called VOOm to ask if the installers could come out and run a single line for the OTA...and leave the other line for the VOOm dish. The seperate coax for the OTA Ant was going to make the difference. It was worse. They connect a single coax from the Stealth unplugged the box in the back of the receiver and screwed on the ota coax and the voom coax. Voom came on no problem...but the ota went black. My questions are....

1- Is there a way to increase the power to the stealth? Im getting a OTA power sig that is in the 40's. Is that where it supposed to be? Can I add an inline amp before the inner stealth amp? Will that increase the power before going into the amp and then the inner amp will increase the power even more? Anyone here of something like that?
2- When the installers hooked up the Stealth to the VOOM box...why am I not getting a good sig on anything? It would seem to me that when I add the power distrib it doesnt help at all. Why? Its like the Ant never responds to anything.

 

[occammd]

Make sure the power for the amplifier is in line and read the top of the inline box (little 1" square guy) and ensure the direction of the signal is correct (although this actually may have nothing to do with it, 'cause I don't know if they actually have a diode in there).

Your stealth used to be powered by the receiver and now should be powered by the wall-wart power supply that came with the amplifier.

No way should the signal go down, you should have gained about 2.5 dB in signal. Unless they re-positioned the antenna and screwed that up. Tune to a local HD channel and then go to the system info and watch the signal as you adjust the antenna (assuming you can get to it). This way you can set it up yourself.

After re-reading your post. Did they hook up the external power supply for the stealth after running 2 lines?

Yes you can add another amp, but may not need to. Check the power supply and lets go from there.

 

[FunkyBoss]

Did they install the amplifier board inside the antenna?

 

[jimmykce1]

I have had the same problems here in Va. You need to call Voom back and have a directional antenna installed. Voom is coming back out and going to install a Wine Guard 8800.

 

[MrWhoa]

Yeah my installer told me to wait a week and then call voom to get a MUCH better antenna that Voom will pay for. He, told me that the stealth is crap and thats why Voom is quick to hook you up with an upgrade.

 

[knyaz]

Vinny,
I'm also on staten island and I'm getting Fox, UPN and CBS (if I'm lucky) with the stealth. Can't get anything else... I haven't called VOOM for a better antenna, because I cannot have anything bigger than Stealth installed (condominium rules).

 

[occammd]

the stealth is not a bad antenna, not the perfect one, but with the amp it is a good choice.
knyaz, I think the FCC rules preclude your condominium rules. This is an age old debate.
If you guys can give me your zip code, maybe I can help.

 

[knyaz]

I'm in 10306 zip... We are not allowed to put anything on the roof of our townhouses. I have my Dish and OTA on the backyard storage roof.
Installer never left me that cube plug (DC power) for the OTA.
My neighbour tried to put his VOOM OTA on the roof, but he got yelled at by somebody from board of directors.

 

[occammd]

The board of directors losses. Go to avsforum and look this up, they cannot stop you from receiving OTA signals up to a certain sized antenna.

 

[occammd]

knyaz,

You can reasonably expect to get 30, 5.1, 36, 2.1, 41.1, and possibly 24. ABC and NBC are not showing as active digitals. Your not too far from the antenna so if the stealth does not work then a 4 or 8-bay UHF would be great for you. To be more specific you should go to www.antennaweb.org and put in your actual address. Then we can look at more specifics.

 

[knyaz]

The board of directors losses. Go to avsforum and look this up, they cannot stop you from receiving OTA signals up to a certain sized antenna.

Can you give me a link for it?

 

[vinnyv07]

Thanks everyone for your help. This is what is going on since i last wrote. I decided to go to radio shack and get another 5 ft of mast to add to the 5ft I already have up on the roof. Also I am going to add a in line amp right after the coax comes out of the stealth...Im going to try the mast without the extra amp first. Staten Island is a very hilly and wooded area...maybe the 5ft more of mast will help. I was told by the VOOm installer that Staten Island is very bad for receiving digital sigs from the ESB or anywhere in the city. He has done a number of installs and alot of them are receiving just a couple of local ch's. Even the upgrade ant's dont do much good. I think that you have to go as high as you possibly can in our area. The higher the better. I am getting CBs, Abc, Fox, Upn....but would like to get NBC. Im right on the fringe of getting the ch , so maybe with these improvements I'll get lucky. Anyway, I also have a stronger DB8 Ant that is waiting in the wings to be used. I first want to see what improvements I can make with the stealth.
What i still dont understand is how poor the stealth was without being connected to the diplexer. All of the sigs werent strong enough to pull in a picture. Doesnt make sense. i should see some gain.
What kind of power numbers is everyone getting on the over the air power. Mine is in the 40's. is anyone's higher than that. I noticed that when i had the DB8 hooked up with no amp that the power to the Ant was 0. When i hooked up the stealth with the diplexer it rose to 45 or so. Im wondering if I can raise that power with another amp, if that would do the trick....I'll keep everyone posted. I hope it doesnt rain before i get a chance to play on my roof. Thanks Again.....and I look foward to hearing your power numbers for OTA.

 

[TheHammer69]

The board of directors losses. Go to avsforum and look this up, they cannot stop you from receiving OTA signals up to a certain sized antenna.

Actually HOA's, condo associations, and such can't force you to not have a terrestial antenna if it is mounted in an area that is considered "your area". The thing is, the external structures of most condos and townhouse type structures are considered communal property, so in areas such as the roof they can legally force you to remove ANY antennas you attach to the roof. Now if he was to mount his antenna on his front or back porch area, his board of directors can only make him move his antenna if it can be placed elsewhere on his property where it is less noticable but still works properly.

Hammer

 

[vinnyv07]

Put the 5 ft more mast on the stealth and cbs went from low 50's to 80's. But still no NBC...

 

[txdude]

I have stealth and it works great... It's even mounted bellow the highest pitch on my roof.

But I'm pretty close to the transmission towers about 12mi. and all the important stations are located in the same place

Make sure you check antennaweb.org to make sure you have it pointed correctly.

 

[vinnyv07]

Thanks for your input txdude. Im about 14 miles away fro the towers. But in my area its very difficult to pick up the lower transmitted ch's like NBC, WPIX, and WNET. Cbs which is a stronger sig Im at 80-85. I would love every ch to be like that but in NY its just not a reality right now. In JUne they are hopefully going to complete a combiner that would sit on the Empire State Building that would house CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, UPN, WPIX, and PBS at equal power equivalent to CBS now. It would be a great HD happening in NY. But it has been delayed and delayed in the past....it wouldnt be a shock if it wasnt completed by June. Until then I'm just going to keep on trying. My buddy who lives around the block from me had directv installed this week and he told me that directv now includes a OTA antenna. It is round and white like the Turk model or the recton model. He isnt getting any locals. Its just a difficult area. Im pretty sure that my antenna now sits at 30ft above the ground. In the morning Im going to try another Ant...the DB8. I'll report back my findings. Thanks everyone!

 

[occammd]

TERk sucks anyway in my opinion. VOOM picked a good antenna for price/performance, DTV cheaped out.
Sounds like the combiner would be perfect for you.

That winegard squareshooter looks very promising as well.

 

[vinnyv07]

Yes I was thinking about the square shooter. Alot of people have had sucess with it. Its expensive but its all worth it if it performs well.