OTA HD was working fine. Now it's not!!!

[tgw1031]

For about a month now, I have been receiving HD signal from my OTA mounted in my attic. Tonight, only two channels are working. Channels 4.x (IND) and 7.x (PBS). Anything above 12 has stopped working. Nothing has changed in my configuration. Tomorrow I am going to reset my DTV HD receiver (samsung TS360) hoping that may clear the signal. When I do a signal strenght test, the signal bounces between 45% and 67% but the channels will not show. Before I do my normal tear things down and start over, any insight as to what would cause this is appreciated.

 

[BFG]

probably experiencing some multipath problems...

 

[Kevinw]

I'm with Bryan, fluctuating signal is a symptom of multipath. Possible cures are better antenna, better antenna location, Rotator for better pointing or a STB that is less sensitive to multipath.

 

[tgw1031]

Thanks for the info. I will probably upgrade. Got an RCA antenna from bestbuy since Sears was out of the silver sensor that was recommended on a previous post. Went to the winegard site. Looking at the HD7210P Ghost Killer. I will probably purchase something tomorrow since the NFL championship weekend is in a few days. Any other recommendations are greatly appreciated.

 

[Kevinw]

Thanks for the info. I will probably upgrade. Got an RCA antenna from bestbuy since Sears was out of the silver sensor that was recommended on a previous post. Went to the winegard site. Looking at the HD7210P Ghost Killer. I will probably purchase something tomorrow since the NFL championship weekend is in a few days. Any other recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Slver Sensor is a settop antenna BTW.
How far are you from the towers? Something as simple as a preamp may help.
Even placing the antenna outside will boost signal strength. Using a rotor to change the direction of the antenna to catch the best signal will help too.

For Antenna recomendations consider the ChannelMAster 4228 or www.antennasdirect DB4 -providing you hav no lowVHF channels.

 

[Carl B]

Note the gain specs on the "Ghost Killer" antenna. It is really designed for optimizing VHF (primarily analog) reception (Channels 2 -13). It is pretty weak on UHF (Channels 14 - 69), which is where most DTV channels are currently located. Winegard makes a lot of very good antennas, I own 3, but you need to study the specs and get the one that is right for your reception situation/problems.

If you haven't already, I think you need to go to antennaweb.org and find out the particulars of your DTV channels (real channel numbers, not virtual channel numbers). Then you can look at a good antenna. If you post your antenna web data, I or others would be glad to provide you antenna suggestions at that time.

 

[BFG]

This just came to me... Have you tried removing and re-scanning your stations? A bunch of stations are making changes to their PSIP data for a 2/1/05 deadline, and you may need to do a re-scan if you lose stations.

 

[tgw1031]

I took a shot and re-scanned last night. Some channels came back but Fox and CBS did not. In a previous post, someone recommended I order the Silver Sensor. There was none at the local Sears, but I am calling the folks at valueelectronics to make sure I get the right one.


* red - uhf WAWS-DT 30.1 FOX JACKSONVILLE FL 227° 6.0 32
* red - uhf WTEV-DT 47.1 CBS JACKSONVILLE FL 223° 6.2 19

 

[Kevinw]

I took a shot and re-scanned last night. Some channels came back but Fox and CBS did not. In a previous post, someone recommended I order the Silver Sensor. There was none at the local Sears, but I am calling the folks at valueelectronics to make sure I get the right one.


* red - uhf WAWS-DT 30.1 FOX JACKSONVILLE FL 227° 6.0 32
* red - uhf WTEV-DT 47.1 CBS JACKSONVILLE FL 223° 6.2 19

At 6 miles head to Radio Shack for:
http://www.radioshack.com/product.a...name=CTLG_003_001_001_000&product_id=930-0998

 

[Carl B]

At 6 miles, but they are RED!