Ota Signal Power And Quality

[Slick]

Hey guys I have a simple question what are your common numbers for your OTA signal quality and signal power?

The reason I am asking is I just moved my OTA Wingard GS2000A sensor 2 antenna to a place that I thought it would get better reception and it did, my reading were OTA signal quality was 40 and the OTA signal power was 57 those are the best numbers I could muster..

I just need to go to Radio shack and get 5'or 6' antenna stand and see if I get all my OTA local channels and if I dont I will just have to buy a bigger antenna to put on that stand because I dont wanna have to wait till july 1st to get my upgraded antenna, when I asked for it to be installed when I first signed up.. Thanks Cya Slick

 

[Sean Mota]

Slick
it depends on your location and other factors such as distance, type of antenna, strength at which transmitter is sending signal. My ota signal quality for all OTA channels is between 85 and 100. Don't expect those numbers since I am about 15 miles from my stations. The stb can lock unto a channel with a 40 for quality.

 

[Slick]

Hey Sean my can lock on with 20 for quality and 40 for power.. I am just slowly seeing what I can get at a distance of 47 miles away from the tower with the antenna I have, and keep upgrading till I get all my channels..

I guess I am just trying not to put up a big ugly antenna unless I have to..

Sean did you get that picture I sent you? Cya Slick

 

[Scotty]

Where do you guys see this signal strength stuff for the ota channels? What menu?

 

[Slick]

on your remote hit the big Voom button in the middle, then hit the green button on the remote then scroll down to system settings, a warning sign will come up and scroll down to the third page and you will see it off air power and strength and the same for the sattilte as well.. I hope this helps Monster channel rocks.. Cya Slick

 

[barth2k]

for some reason, I get very low reading for ota signal quality on the voom box (36-46). on my D* receiver, most channels are maxed out at 100 and a couple are "only" 80%.

my reception appears ok (no break up, etc) though every so often I tune to a channel and it says "signal not present". I can fix it by tuning to another channel and coming back.

i have 5.68 s/w

 

[Slick]

raised the antenna

Well after work today I went and bought a tripod and a ast for my stock Voom (Winegard) antenna and raised it ABOUT 5"HIGHER on the roof and it brought up my OTA Power and OTA quality, they are both running around 50 now and I get every channel except channel 50 and channel 20 which Voom has not mapeded yet..

Cya Slick

 

[Scotty]

on your remote hit the big Voom button in the middle, then hit the green button on the remote then scroll down to system settings, a warning sign will come up and scroll down to the third page and you will see it off air power and strength and the same for the sattilte as well.. I hope this helps Monster channel rocks.. Cya Slick

I only have 1 page under system settings, and the last item in the list is installation settings or options or something like that. When I go in that menu it just has three options, one of which is tune satellite signal. There is no off air signals on that page, just an annoying beep, and 3 lines, one of which is my sat signal strength (97).

I have version 16 of the firmware, and a motorola box. Do you have something different?

 

[voomvoom]

Scotty... click your "Help" button, Getting Started should be highlighted... click your "Info" button, Epg:1.9.6D should be highlighted... click your "OK" button, you should be there, change pages by going down or up... hope this helps...

 

[Scotty]

Scotty... click your "Help" button, Getting Started should be highlighted... click your "Info" button, Epg:1.9.6D should be highlighted... click your "OK" button, you should be there, change pages by going down or up... hope this helps...

I finally found it. Its off the status page on mine. you hit the down arrow twice and it reports ota signal quality, and ota signal strength/snr, but it doesn't show the info for each channel which is what I though you guys where talking about. I have an ota signal quality in the mid to upper 70's, sometimes drifting into the 80's. Dish is 93 and up.

Your help instructions get me to the same thing but in a different display format. It's with the PIP thing at the upper right and the status info is in the program guide aread. The other way is off the setup menu and the the display takes up the whole screen.

I'm having trouble getting WQED channel 38 (13-3). They are the only channel coming in on -3, all the rest are on -1. They even have -4, -5, and -6, but no picture on those. I can gett them with a set top bowtie reflector rabbit ear antenna with amp, on my sets internal receiver. Same antenna won't pick it up on the voom receiver though. Not sure what's wrong.

 

[voomvoom]

Scotty... try putting the STB on the individual channel you're looking for, then go to the status info page and see what your signal strength is... the only other thing I can think of, maybe 13.3 is not mapped yet (or at least 13.4, 13.5 and 13.6 must not be if you're getting no picture)... also they may still be at test mode and low power...

 

[bryan27]

Scotty, don't worry about 13.4, 13.5, 13.6 there is nothing being sent on them and there never has. WQED only has those up incase they ever decide to ever multicast. IMHO they have trouble running one channel and they think they can run 4 !!!!

I'm having trouble getting WQED channel 38 (13-3). They are the only channel coming in on -3, all the rest are on -1. They even have -4, -5, and -6, but no picture on those. I can gett them with a set top bowtie reflector rabbit ear antenna with amp, on my sets internal receiver. Same antenna won't pick it up on the voom receiver though. Not sure what's wrong.

Interesting? On the guide does it show up as 13-3? I'm just curious if VOOM got the channel number right. I'm still stuck with the wrong locals. It VOOM has it as 13-1 then they have mapped it to the wrong channel.

You never know what WQED is going to do. Once they mapped themselves to ch.80!!!

 

[Scotty]

Interesting? On the guide does it show up as 13-3? I'm just curious if VOOM got the channel number right. I'm still stuck with the wrong locals. It VOOM has it as 13-1 then they have mapped it to the wrong channel.

On both the VooM guide, and the RCA's internal receiver, the lowest channel that WQED broadcasts seems to be 13-3. I don't know why they didn't stick with -1 like everyone else. Only difference is, on VooM, no picture, and on RCA's internal reciever, I get a picture, though lately, the stuff I've been seeing doesn't look like real good hd, and PBS has always been the king as for as good hi def material. Also since VooM's receiver doesn't scan, and has to be mapped, VooM doesn't map the 13-4 to 13-6 subchannels, while my rca scan's, and maps anything with a signal strength. The set top radio shack bowtie I hav e is highly directional.

I tried hooking the wineguard to my rca's internal receiver, and while it picks up lots of channels on the VooM box (all but 13-3), it doesn't pick anything on the rca's internal receiver. I guess the VooM box maybe is doing some amplification of the signal or something.

 

[Scotty]

Scotty... try putting the STB on the individual channel you're looking for, then go to the status info page and see what your signal strength is... the only other thing I can think of, maybe 13.3 is not mapped yet (or at least 13.4, 13.5 and 13.6 must not be if you're getting no picture)... also they may still be at test mode and low power...

I see, sometimes I can be a bit dense. It was a major pain having to exit the status screen, change the channel, then hit help, info, ok, down, down, for every channel I wanted to see the signal strength for, but with only 7 channels I made it through. Too bad you can't flip the pip from withing the status page. VooM's got to start thinking "the fewer remote clicks to get to a desired piece of info, the better. There should be a screen that's lists all the ota channels and their signal strengths, at once.

I've got 70-82 on all the channels except wptt 22-1 (42) which is in the 50's, but still pulls in a picture, and then there's wqed 13-3, which comes in at a measly 12-20, blowing my theory of an internal amp in the VooM receiver. With the amp on my radio shack set top antenna, the rca is showing a boosted signal strength of 50-60. I guess that's why the picture comes in with that. I wonder if I bought one of the winegard amps and added it to the line, if it would pull in this low power signal. WQED must really be running low power for it to come in with such a low power compared to all the rest of the stations. Darn!

 

[bryan27]

WQED is running 550Kw (far from low power and double that of WPCB). Although it isn't as strong as WPXI, KDKA, and WPGH it comes in just as strong as WCWB and I'm twice as far from the stations than you are. WQED's tower is really low compared to the other stations and Mount Washington does have a tendency to block the signal to the west (unless you are higher than Mt. Washington).

This does sound weird though. I wonder if your VOOM installed antenna needs moved or pointed a bit better. My VOOM STB will decode WTRF with a signal level of 16-20 (though WTRF doesn't transmit sound) so it should be decoding WQED. I'm thinking that your VOOM installed antenna is missing the signal (which does happen and moving the antenna should help) where as your indoor antenna is in the right spot.

 

[Scotty]

WQED is running 550Kw (far from low power and double that of WPCB). Although it isn't as strong as WPXI, KDKA, and WPGH it comes in just as strong as WCWB and I'm twice as far from the stations than you are. WQED's tower is really low compared to the other stations and Mount Washington does have a tendency to block the signal to the west (unless you are higher than Mt. Washington).

This does sound weird though. I wonder if your VOOM installed antenna needs moved or pointed a bit better. My VOOM STB will decode WTRF with a signal level of 16-20 (though WTRF doesn't transmit sound) so it should be decoding WQED. I'm thinking that your VOOM installed antenna is missing the signal (which does happen and moving the antenna should help) where as your indoor antenna is in the right spot.

They are both pointing in roughly the same direction. I have a 2 and a 1/2 story house (The basement from the front is half buried, and full walkout at the back), so the little radioshack is up from the ground by about a story or so, and the winegard is up in the attic eaves, about 2 1/2 stories up. They are both on the north east corner of my house.

My attic is blown insulation, so the installer played with the placement for a little while with me, but didn't want to stay up there too long, and so I got most channels, but not WQED. I've been trying trouble calls to VooM CSR's, and they keep saying they'll get my local installer to call me, but no one ever calls. I guess I'm going to have to don a face mask, and crawl up there myself to mess with the antenna placement.

 

[Scotty]

I checked my signal on WQED 13-3 this am, and it was in the 70's, but still no picture! Last night it only registered 15-20. There is definitely something strange going on with this station and the VooM receiver.

 

[bryan27]

It would be nice if someone else could tell us if they are getting WQED or not. This is what I think is going on. The VOOM STB is looking for video on 38-1 and remapping it to 13-3. Since there is nothing on 38-1 it presents a black screen and says there is no signal.

My Zenith OTA STB does the samething. If I punch in 38-1 (or any other -Number other than -3) it will say on the screen there is no signal, but if you push the signal button it says the signal is "good."

That is the only thing I can think is happening.

 

[wasch_24]

Maybe someone in the "Voom in your Area" portion of the forum can help you out.

 

[Scotty]

It would be nice if someone else could tell us if they are getting WQED or not. This is what I think is going on. The VOOM STB is looking for video on 38-1 and remapping it to 13-3. Since there is nothing on 38-1 it presents a black screen and says there is no signal.

My Zenith OTA STB does the samething. If I punch in 38-1 (or any other -Number other than -3) it will say on the screen there is no signal, but if you push the signal button it says the signal is "good."

That is the only thing I can think is happening.

That's what I am thinking is happening. Sean emailed me and said he thinks the voom mapp is correct, but I'm wondering. I'll bet the voom receiver doesn't display the broadcast psip data, which contains the channel number and call letters. I'll bet it's hard coded in the map, because the voom reciever is displaying different call letters than my RCA, and I know my rca is displaying the psip that the station is sending out because there is no way for me to hard code it. Voom = 13-3 WQEDD3, while my rca is displaying 13-3 WQEDDT1. Maybe the scanning software will fix this.