Strange OTA Problem

[HipKat]

Wondering if this is a software issue, but have act of you seen this? The Dish tech portal had not gotten any replies.
Had a call today for a Hopper 3 w/Televes OTA and the old Single Tuner USB Adapter. Customer said that last Saturday, her locals just disappeared. I went to OTA Settings to rescan, but the screen appeared as if there was no Adapter plugged in so I unplugged it and plugged it back in and got the pop up asking me to reboot, which I did - 3 times. Once for each USB Port and same thing when I went to the OTA Tile. It was as if they was no adapter plugged in.

So I grabbed a Lark adapter - same thing.
Thinking the Hopper had a bad USB Bus, I swapped it out and same thing. Plugging the OTA Adapter in causes a reboot but when I got to scan channels, it tells me there is no OTA Adapter plugged in so I took the cable, connected to the customer's TV and it scanned it 59 channels like nothing!

I've even changed the power adapter for the antenna.

So what the HECK is going on?

 

[TheKrell]

I have no issues here with my unamplified rooftop antenna with the AirTV adapter on an H3. Perhaps the amp in the Televes is putting out something which is being filtered out on the TV but is wiping out the Dish dongles.

 

[joegr]

Did you try it with the antenna not connected to the adapter, just to see if you could get to the scan channels part? If it would work (no channels received, of course) without the antenna, it might point to a ground imbalance or some such issue.

 

[primestar31]

Wondering if this is a software issue, but have act of you seen this? The Dish tech portal had not gotten any replies.
Had a call today for a Hopper 3 w/Televes OTA and the old Single Tuner USB Adapter. Customer said that last Saturday, her locals just disappeared. I went to OTA Settings to rescan, but the screen appeared as if there was no Adapter plugged in so I unplugged it and plugged it back in and got the pop up asking me to reboot, which I did - 3 times. Once for each USB Port and same thing when I went to the OTA Tile. It was as if they was no adapter plugged in.

So I grabbed a Lark adapter - same thing.
Thinking the Hopper had a bad USB Bus, I swapped it out and same thing. Plugging the OTA Adapter in causes a reboot but when I got to scan channels, it tells me there is no OTA Adapter plugged in so I took the cable, connected to the customer's TV and it scanned it 59 channels like nothing!

I've even changed the power adapter for the antenna.

So what the HECK is going on?

My Tivo Roamio is being used for OTA only, (with Televes pre-amped antenna) and is sensitive to too HIGH a signal level. Even on a single channel. Perhaps trying a bunch of coax attenuators on the input to the USB dongle would tell you something. I have to use THREE 3dB attenuators inline with my Tivo, just because one of my channels is a freaking blow-torch (WNEM Rf30).

Not sure just which Televes preamp or amplified (built into the dipole) antenna they are using? IF you have various attenuators, try a 20dB right off the bat, and see what happens.

P.s. to my knowledge, Televes preamps, at least the last few years, are built to automatically bypass and still work even IF the power is removed from them. That does incur about a 2dB or so loss, but they should still work.

 

[HipKat]

Did you try it with the antenna not connected to the adapter, just to see if you could get to the scan channels part? If it would work (no channels received, of course) without the antenna, it might point to a ground imbalance or some such issue.

That's a good idea right there, I did not try it without the power inserter because Bloomington Illinois is far enough away from Peoria and the champagne Springfield markets that reception without a power inserter is not very reliable

 

[HipKat]

My Tivo Roamio is being used for OTA only, (with Televes pre-amped antenna) and is sensitive to too HIGH a signal level. Even on a single channel. Perhaps trying a bunch of coax attenuators on the input to the USB dongle would tell you something. I have to use THREE 3dB attenuators inline with my Tivo, just because one of my channels is a freaking blow-torch (WNEM Rf30).

Not sure just which Televes preamp or amplified (built into the dipole) antenna they are using? IF you have various attenuators, try a 20dB right off the bat, and see what happens.

P.s. to my knowledge, Televes preamps, at least the last few years, are built to automatically bypass and still work even IF the power is removed from them. That does incur about a 2dB or so loss, but they should still work.

That's good to know and definitely something to try