riffjim4069 said:
Mr. Old School,
Your Roanoke locals look pretty weak (low-power and not many of them). Greensboro is certainly your best bet. Just in case you weren't already aware of their existence, I would like to direct you to the following sites:
First, find the lattitude/longitude of your home address:
http://www.geocode.com/modules.php?name=TestDrive_Eagle
Second, find your locals stations based on your lattitude/longitude (i.e. 38.976683/-077.348712):
http://www.2150.com/broadcast/
Since you briefly had a signal, I would certainly say you need an upgraded antenna. I would highly recommend either the Channel Master 4228 or Winegard PR-8800 eight-bay...assuming your locals are UHF.
Roanoke and Greensboro are about 100 miles apart. I will assume you are at least 40+ miles from Greensboro? If so, then your situation is similar to mine in Fredericksburg VA (55 miles from DC - 51 miles from Richmond). Prior to VOOM, I already had an antenna (CM-4228, CM-7775 preamp) bringing in DC locals. I had problems with the VOOM antenna install (long story), so I am currenly using my backup CM-4228 to bring in the Richmond locals. I have an remote A/B switch so both antennas will be connected and mapped to the VOOM STB after the upcoming firmware upgrade....STB will support multiple maps (DC, Richmond, Baltimore) and mannual OTA scanning.
My VOOM (Richmond) antenna is being installed on July 2nd (PR-8800). I just received an e-mail from Joe Harkins (Installs Inc.) and he is currenlty on the road visiting installers and supervising their work. I can assure you that Installs Inc. is taking the OTA problems very seriously. Joe provided me with both his work and cell numbers and I get the feeling he will be present during my antenna install...my deep fringe antenna will be working as promised. The moral of this story is that good things will happen to those who practice patience! VOOM/Installs Inc. is working hard to correct OTA problems. It's not going to happen overnight, but it's getting better every day.
Sorry so long winded...
Hey thanks for for the info and your insight! Let me give you just a little more background info. I have a tv with a built in tuner. Up until the Voom install, I was using a Silver Sensor antenna and I was picking up CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, and WB crystal clear with no dropouts. This is with the Silver Sensor pointed south/southwest out a window. All of those locals were in fact Greensboro locals, but even with the antenna facing south, I could still pick up WDBJ from Roanoke. With the antenna pointed north, I could only get WDBJ...nothing else. So obviously you are correct about Greensboro being the best for my locals.
The day of the Voom install, the guy checked my signal and I was getting a 96 when he left. We could not tell anything about locals because the receiver was still downloading, but he seemed confident that I would get all my locals. A few hours after he left, I could only pick up WDBJ, the CBS channel out of Roanoke. Since I am mapped to Roanoke instead of Greensboro, the other channels on the Voom selector were all Roanoke\Lynchburg channels and I could not pick up any of them. So the first day with Voom, I could only pick up one local. Day 2 and the one local I could pick up on Day 1 is now gone, which is very unusual because it was very strong and crystal clear the day before.
I called Voom and spoke with 2 different people. They asked a lot of questions about my area, tall buildings, church steeples, etc. I also explained to them that my $30 Silver Sensor was able to pick up everything but Fox inside the house while this supposedly superior outdoor antenna was getting nothing outside. Now don't get me wrong, Voom's customer service is great and they seem highly committed to me getting my locals, but in my opinion they didn't ask the right questions to get to the root of the problem. I'm wondering if the OTA module is bad because one day I had a channel and the next day it was gone. Based on what everyone else is saying, I should still at least have that one good channel.
Anyway, Voom is sending a guy out on Monday to "evaluate" my situation and possibly upgrade my antenna to a rooftop. But if the OTA module is bad, it won't make any difference if he mounts a rocket on my house, I still won't be able to pick up anything.
I also e-mailed Sean and he is going to see about getting me re-mapped to the Greensboro area, but again how much good will that do if I can't even pick up the strongest channel in the area.
Should I call Voom back and tell them to be sure the guy brings an extra OTA module with him or can he just pull one out of another receiver? As best as I can tell, Voom only sends them the exact amount of equipment to do their installs, so I doubt this guy is going to have an extra OTA module just lying around or is this such a common problem that they do have extras?
I thought I might try to hook the Silver Sensor into the back of the Voom receiver, but I can't seem to get that little gold box off the back. There is a twist screw that I can turn, but it doesn't come off and I don't want to pull anything too hard or mess anything up. So what is the process for getting the little box off the back?
