Signal won't lock on...advice needed

[pdog]

Hi all,

I've been reading this forum for a while and just decided to sign up b/c I am having an issue that I can't seem to find an answer for. I live in MD just north of Baltimore. I am trying to get access to the OTA stations that are available to me. I currently have Directv and I run the antenna to a HR10-250. When I go to antennaweb here is what is given to me after putting in my information:

*	yellow - uhf	WNUV-DT	54.1	WB	BALTIMORE	MD		206°	5.7	40
*	yellow - uhf	WJZ-DT	13.1	CBS	BALTIMORE	MD		207°	5.8	38
*	yellow - uhf	WMPB-DT	67.1	PBS	BALTIMORE	MD		295°	8.8	29
*	yellow - uhf	WMAR-DT	2.1	ABC	BALTIMORE	MD		207°	5.8	52
*	yellow - uhf	WBAL-DT	11.1	NBC	BALTIMORE	MD		207°	5.8	59
*	yellow - uhf	WBFF-DT	45.1	FOX	BALTIMORE	MD		206°	5.7	46

As you can see I am not far from any of the towers. I first tried to use a Silver Sensor by Zenith. I live in a split level house with the basement not underground. While this worked I would experience drop outs a good amount of the time if I would walk in front of the antenna or something like that. So I decided to buy a better antenna. I bought the Winegard 4400 at my local store. I mounted the antenna in the attic and ran the cable from there to my basement (this is about a 20-25 foot run). After pointing the antenna at about 206° to 207° I was getting a signal strength of about 80 to 85 on all the stations above except the PBS (which I don't care about). This was on Saturday. Saturday and Sunday I had perfect reception, with no drop outs. On Monday I couldn't pull in a signal. It was raining very hard so I figured that was the problem, but then last night on stations 13.1, 2.1, and 45.1 I couldn't get a signal. Stations 11.1 and 54.1 were getting 90 signal strength. It was a clear night but very windy. I didn't think wind would effect a signal though. The same problem was happening this morning also and it is a clear (but cold) day with no wind.

Now I am at a loss. I am not far from the towers so pulling in the stations shouldn't be a problem for me. My house doesn't have aluminum siding so that isn't a problem either. I mounted the antenna to a piece of pvc piping so that it wasn't mounted to a metal pole as I heard that can be a problem.

What should I do next? Would a pre-amp help the situation? Being so close to the towers I would think a pre-amp may get to much noise. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Barry Erick]

Are you still having a problem?

From your location i doubt a preamp would help, in fact, it would probably cause problems in over driving the receiver.

It is possible some stations lost their PSIP, which the receiver requires. Fir where you are, that antenna is great. I have not looked, but are the stations you do not receive on the same tower? If so, could it have been maintenance time that took them off?

 

[pdog]

Are you still having a problem?

From your location i doubt a preamp would help, in fact, it would probably cause problems in over driving the receiver.

It is possible some stations lost their PSIP, which the receiver requires. Fir where you are, that antenna is great. I have not looked, but are the stations you do not receive on the same tower? If so, could it have been maintenance time that took them off?

Barry,

Thanks for responding. I went and purchased a pre-amp for the antenna and installed it the other night. It worked great and increased the signal on all the stations but one that night. I even started receiving a DC station and i'm about 50 miles from those towers. But then the next day I had the same issues I was having before. Signal loss and a drop for one station while another station got a gain.

Since today was a nice day I bit the bullet and decided to mount the antenna on my roof. This has solved all my problems. Now all of my signal strengths are in the 90's including the one DC station. Before I could only get 1 or 2 stations with a 90 signal strength.

Thanks for your help.