Multipath?

[dog271914]

I have a CM4228 antenna with a winegard preamp. Mounted as high on the house as I can get it. I receive fairly solid OTA signals from the Des Moines, IA stations that are located over 80 miles away, however my local ABC station from Kirksville, MO is not coming in. The signal bounces all over the place. From 80 to 40 to 70 to 0 back to 40. It never seems to lock in. Is this what they call multipathing? If so what are some solutions to this problem? The ABC tower is 33 miles from my house.

 

[bnaivar]

While the symptoms sound like multipath it's hard to believe that a signal 33 miles away is having that problem. Is the station a VHF or UHF station? Is there a large metal structure near you like a water tower? That's the only thing that I could even think could cause a problem that far out.

 

[dog271914]

It is a UHF station, there is a short water tower about 1 mile from my house. Not in the line of sight of where the tower is located.

 

[Barry Erick]

I have a multipath problem from a common antenna farm, that I have to use a rotor for to catch the signals as they bounce differently because of thier frequency. There are 3 V's and 5 U's. One V (the lowest) comes in at the same place but the other, 3 channels up at 13 does not and it is on exactly the same antenna (NBC and CBS combine inside their building) and the U's, except for Ch 49, comes in the same spot as the NBC one. Ch 49 comes in the same place as the ch 13 one and it is on the same tower as ch 45.

Anyway, a CM rotor fixed the problem, in my case.

 

[dog271914]

I have a rotator. I use it to try to find the best signal. However, it does not matter where I point the antenna, the signal bounces all over the place. I may try moving it to a different location on the roof. Maybe the highest peak is not the best place.

 

[NightHawk]

Try it once without the pre-amplifier. Remove it or bypass it, don't just turn it off. The close station may be overamplified. I know you need the amp for the long distance stations but this will help troubleshoot to a solution.

 

[dog271914]

I switched antenna's. I went from my CM4228 (which was giving me problems on the closer channel) to a XG91. It had a few of the same problems but I was able to watch the Rose Bowl with very few drop outs.