$380 isn't that bad if you do enough commercial work and it really does tune digital signals. My Blonder Tongue analog meter was over $700 and became worthless after Digital hit.
TV tower dealers in SE Texas?
- Thread starter Dee_Ann
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Maybe Dee Ann will learn you can spend a lot of money with minimal return. Even with antenna stacking and a very expensive tower she may not get any more than she is getting.
Dee, why don't you just "move" to Houston on your Dish account and use your antenna for your Beaumont locals. Just chat with Dish and tell them that you need to change your service address, and leave your billing address the same. You won't get the sub channels from Houston, but will get everything else.
it's the subchannels that she wants
I agree, but I no longer do commercial antenna installations, so spending that kind of money for personal use is too much. Though I REALLY want one, lol!
If it was around $100-125, I'd buy it...
I think you tune the receiver (tivo, converter box) for the channel and this goes in between. I dont know. I just saw it there while searching for other stuff
Hell I dragged my Tivo Series 3 up to the roof today to peak my "local only" antenna (the one that is fixed for the couple locals I get). Since I'll be using that Tivo to record stuff might as well use that tuner to get the max signal
I set my Roamio up on the signal screen, set up a Google Hangouts on my wife's laptop, put that in front of the tv screen and aim the camera, then take my smaller laptop up to the roof to view it remotely, along with the Roamio's RF remote!
Works perfect, and I can change channels up there and the signal screen stays. Unlike my LG tv that only stays on the signal screen for a few minutes, then times out.
Works perfect, and I can change channels up there and the signal screen stays. Unlike my LG tv that only stays on the signal screen for a few minutes, then times out.
Dee_Anne,
Do you have an iPhone or iPod Touch? If so, then you could use the Signal GH app to remotely monitor the HDHomeRun's SS and SQ. You just need your wifi to be usable up by your antenna.
Alternatively, there is an app called CanCam that will relay the output of a laptop webcam over your wifi to an iPhone. I use that for displaying the MicroHD SQ when tuning a satellite dish. Could be used in a similar way to display a TV SS display (provided it doesn't time out!).
Do you have an iPhone or iPod Touch? If so, then you could use the Signal GH app to remotely monitor the HDHomeRun's SS and SQ. You just need your wifi to be usable up by your antenna.
Alternatively, there is an app called CanCam that will relay the output of a laptop webcam over your wifi to an iPhone. I use that for displaying the MicroHD SQ when tuning a satellite dish. Could be used in a similar way to display a TV SS display (provided it doesn't time out!).
Does it not see the digital signals at all? I have been using a Leader LF941 for years to point antennas. It “sees” the digital signal about 8 dB lower than reality so it will miss the faint fringe signals but it works well for the locals. It is very handy for a hobbyist, they regularly show up on eBay under $50 and run on C batteries.
You might want to contact one of the ARRL Affiliated Clubs near you in Texas.
http://www.arrl.org/clubs/search/page:1/Location.state:TX/model:Group
http://www.arrl.org/clubs/search/page:1/Location.state:TX/model:Group
Yowch! Yeah, that's a bit steep on that meter. I mean, it's not if you really need it and use it a lot I guess it's worth it but for my use, I would have a hard time justifying it.
So my dad is coming over in the morning, tomorrow (actually today) is the day to finish this up and take that scaffolding down and return it.
I told him I had to go up one last time to adjust the antenna because the VHF antenna is off a little and the UHF motor is about 10 degrees off of North.
So now I'm in a pinch to get this over with so I figured out something, I can use the HD Homerun Config app as a signal meter.
With my old iPad I can use remote desktop to view the app running on my Mac. I just pinch zoom the iPad so the app is zoomed to full screen and now I have a portable signal meter I can take up with me to help me adjust the antenna.
Where I'll be standing to adjust it is just about 15 feet from the WIFI inside so that's not a problem.
It's not like having a fancy meter but I think it will work well enough this time. I've really got to get it right because I don't want to ever go up there again.
When I get a tower I'm just going to climb up a little ways on a ladder to unbolt this thing from the wall and lay it over slowly to the ground with a rope.
No more scaffolding. That's NOT for me.
So my dad is coming over in the morning, tomorrow (actually today) is the day to finish this up and take that scaffolding down and return it.
I told him I had to go up one last time to adjust the antenna because the VHF antenna is off a little and the UHF motor is about 10 degrees off of North.
So now I'm in a pinch to get this over with so I figured out something, I can use the HD Homerun Config app as a signal meter.
With my old iPad I can use remote desktop to view the app running on my Mac. I just pinch zoom the iPad so the app is zoomed to full screen and now I have a portable signal meter I can take up with me to help me adjust the antenna.
Where I'll be standing to adjust it is just about 15 feet from the WIFI inside so that's not a problem.
It's not like having a fancy meter but I think it will work well enough this time. I've really got to get it right because I don't want to ever go up there again.
When I get a tower I'm just going to climb up a little ways on a ladder to unbolt this thing from the wall and lay it over slowly to the ground with a rope.
No more scaffolding. That's NOT for me.
Yes, that's correct. The sub channels in Houston are great! Heck, someone living in Houston can get so much good stuff OTA that you could really get by without subscription even if you're an extreme TV junkie.
Thank you, I'll see if I can find these apps in the morning. I may just squeak by with remote desktop for now but in the future the apps may be the best thing.
Thanks all !
Edit: Oh man, that app looks like exactly what I needed! I went ahead and bought it, it was $2.99 but it looks like it's more than worth it. And it had favorable reviews.
It won't work on my version 1.0 iPad that's stuck forever with iOS 5.x but it works great on my iPhone 5.
Thanks !!
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last night was a great example.
Minneapolis UHF was shwoing between 94-100 on the Tivo Series 3. This is PBS, CBS, ABC, FOX and the Independent.
Today the only one that comes in stable is the Indy...and thats pushing it
But I'm sure tonight it may be back
It appears that I'm experiencing this same thing. Houston comes in pretty good at night but as it approaches daylight, bye bye...
That's a bummer because it seems to start messing me over during Highway Patrol which I like.
And for some reason I can't figure out, KAOB seems to have gone off the air. They have PBJ and I was looking forward to resuming recording Harvey Toons and other classics from my early years..
I really have go to get my big dish back up. And a tower.
That's a bummer because it seems to start messing me over during Highway Patrol which I like.
And for some reason I can't figure out, KAOB seems to have gone off the air. They have PBJ and I was looking forward to resuming recording Harvey Toons and other classics from my early years..
I really have go to get my big dish back up. And a tower.
and around 9:00 the main station I want (the Independent...they have AntennaTV as sub) is back to 94-97. Most of the day it wouldn't even come in and earlier it fluctuated between 75 (peak) and down to 0..enough to get aggravated when trying to watch a program
Here you can see the signal strengths between night and day, I took these readings at 1:42am and again at 12:58pm and there's a radical difference.
Also the Rabbit ears map shows me right on the very fringes. This is true for all the Houston channels because almost all of the towers in Houston are clustered together within a very small area that would be like maybe 10 square city blocks out in Missouri City, a suburb of Houston. So I just aim my antenna at one and they all come in. TV Fool says the distance is about 93 miles and says it's "2edge" which I have tried to understand but my brain can't deal with whatever concept is behind it. I do know that there are no tall buildings or any tall things between here and there, only the curvature of the earth. The towers are all close to 2,000 feet tall so that helps I guess.
I put one of the signal displays in a paint program and overlaid a grid on it and now I can see that there's no way on earth for me to have a LOS to the towers without putting up an insanely tall tower myself and that's not going to happen.
I guess the best I can do is go as high as I dare, 40 feet, and build an extreme antenna with the best stuff I can find and just accept that I probably will never be able to watch in the daytime.
As for that, what is happening at night that lets me watch a great signal but not in the daytime? Is it bouncing off of something?
I remember back in the 70's there was an FM radio station in Houston that played GREAT rock but it only came in during the winter. Someone told me that it was because the cold air was denser and the signal was bouncing off the cold, dense air. But this is summer and it's insufferable hot, there is no cold air here until you get like miles up. I don't know, I just have no idea what it is that's causing this situation.
Also the Rabbit ears map shows me right on the very fringes. This is true for all the Houston channels because almost all of the towers in Houston are clustered together within a very small area that would be like maybe 10 square city blocks out in Missouri City, a suburb of Houston. So I just aim my antenna at one and they all come in. TV Fool says the distance is about 93 miles and says it's "2edge" which I have tried to understand but my brain can't deal with whatever concept is behind it. I do know that there are no tall buildings or any tall things between here and there, only the curvature of the earth. The towers are all close to 2,000 feet tall so that helps I guess.
I put one of the signal displays in a paint program and overlaid a grid on it and now I can see that there's no way on earth for me to have a LOS to the towers without putting up an insanely tall tower myself and that's not going to happen.
I guess the best I can do is go as high as I dare, 40 feet, and build an extreme antenna with the best stuff I can find and just accept that I probably will never be able to watch in the daytime.
As for that, what is happening at night that lets me watch a great signal but not in the daytime? Is it bouncing off of something?
I remember back in the 70's there was an FM radio station in Houston that played GREAT rock but it only came in during the winter. Someone told me that it was because the cold air was denser and the signal was bouncing off the cold, dense air. But this is summer and it's insufferable hot, there is no cold air here until you get like miles up. I don't know, I just have no idea what it is that's causing this situation.
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