Temecula OTA reception Report

[Cokeswigga]

Antenna: Winegard 9095 with a AP-4700 Pre-amp
Receiver: DISH 811
Weather: Winter Storm rainy and windy
Location : Temecula, CA (70 miles southeast of mt wilson)

I set up my antenna, and just eyeballed where I thought it should go.
right away I got
KABC-DT 53 Signal Strength 63 to 65 ( out of 100, I would loose it's lock below 50, and would pixelate below 60, anything above 60 was awesome)

but I couldn't get anything else.. then the storm got worse..
I lost abc,
but now I am picking up other stations
KTLA KCAL and a few others, I figured my antenna moved.
I wasn't able to "lock" the antenna in place, by the time I finished installing it because it started to rain and get really windy.

Before the weather got really bad, KABC was coming in good, with only a little pixelation and few drops, but as the weather worsened so did the pixelation and drops.
Hopefully when the weather clears up, I can raise my antenna and get a better direction on it, hopefully this will improve the signal.

 

[dturturro]

Antenna: Winegard 9095 with a AP-4700 Pre-amp
Receiver: DISH 811
Weather: Winter Storm rainy and windy
Location : Temecula, CA (70 miles southeast of mt wilson)

I set up my antenna, and just eyeballed where I thought it should go.
right away I got
KABC-DT 53 Signal Strength 63 to 65 ( out of 100, I would loose it's lock below 50, and would pixelate below 60, anything above 60 was awesome)

but I couldn't get anything else.. then the storm got worse..
I lost abc,
but now I am picking up other stations
KTLA KCAL and a few others, I figured my antenna moved.
I wasn't able to "lock" the antenna in place, by the time I finished installing it because it started to rain and get really windy.

Before the weather got really bad, KABC was coming in good, with only a little pixelation and few drops, but as the weather worsened so did the pixelation and drops.
Hopefully when the weather clears up, I can raise my antenna and get a better direction on it, hopefully this will improve the signal.

I thought the Dish receivers measure signal stength on a scale of 125?
Rain usually helps reception. The cloud cover reflects the signal (I think).
You should probably install a rotor. It sounds like your towers are far enough apart that directionality will be rather important to you.

 

[Cokeswigga]

***UPDATE***
Once the weather cleared up I got back some of the stations. So weather did have an Adverse effect on signal. (it was the worst storm I've seen in southern california in about 15 years)

I was able to raise the mast another 8 feet or so. Now I am able to get

KABC signal strength =61
KCAL signal strength =72
KCBS signal strength =72
KTLA signal strength =78
KNBC signal strength =83

What is interesting is that I was also able to get KTTV at about 63,
but once I connected all the guy wires and tightened them I lost KTTV and all the other stations went UP to the numbers shown above, from about 61-65 for each.
KTTV was a PAIN to even get to lock in..it was very sensitive to changes in direction. Now it just sits at 49.

I think I have a few options still out there:

1.) Get a rotor - but this isn't ideal, I don't feel comfortable adding more weight to the mast on my current setup.

2.) change the antenna to a 91XG (which I have thought about doing) -or- get another winegard 9095 and stack it. I appreciate any comments on this

3.) maybe changing the pre-amp to a channel master 7777 (I currently have a winegard 4700). I've heard that this shoudn't make a differnce, but 19dB vs 29 dB gain could mean the difference from locking a signal or not.

 

[Kevinw]

one word -Rotator, That would eliminate a lot of the signal variance. Changing the preamp is a possibility but then you may be just amplifying an allready poor signal. I think being able to get the best direction for the weather would be ideal.

 

[Cokeswigga]

Updated temecula OTA reception report

well it turns out that I didn't need a rotor. I just didn't have it pointed the right direction. In fact I was about 30 degrees off!

Anyhow I am now able to successfully grab:

station-signalstrength
KTLA-83
KNBC-85
KCAL-86
KABC-82(this is weird it has difficulting locking but once it does its at 82)
KCET-80
KCBS-90
KTTV-81
KCOP-78

Can someone please explain to my why KABC keeps droping from a signal strength of 80 to 0-49?


plus a bunch of other channels that I will never watch.

I also tried to get san diego stations, but was only able to get KSWB and KFMB, but WB had no audio and KFMB was only coming in at 60-63



****************
update
****************
I just received a DISH vip622 and my OTA problems are gone!
All channels quickly tune in and the strengths are pretty good too!

 

[BFG]

I have a station in my market with the 811 that does the same thing. I know the signal is fine because when it locks in it's around 87% but most times it just sticks at 49% and wont jump into lock.