Channel Master 3018 in Palo Alto (SF Bay) only getting NBC11 -- SOLVED

Hi, and welcome! It's not an inadequate antenna for your area, that's for sure. Check the following, in order of increasing complexity:

* Verify that your tuner is set to receive over-the-air (OTA) signals. Many HDTVs/tuners are set by default to cable or satellite service, which is on a different standard from OTA. Consult the instructions for finding this function in the setup menus; with many tuners, you select "air," "antenna," "terrestrial," "OTA," etc.

* If you selected OTA in the previous step, the tuner needs to scan the airwaves for all available channels before you may tune them. This function is also in the setup menu. Scanning is automatic once launched; it should take just a few minutes to complete.

No love yet? Try:

* Verifying that the antenna is pointed towards San Francisco. Sutro Tower is the location for your network affiliates' transmitters. The antenna's "vees," both horizontal and vertical, should be open in that direction. If they're not, the antenna is incorrectly aimed. It's a very common mistake when setting up a new antenna.

* Double-checking all coaxial-cable connections, and making sure there's no apparent physical damage to the cabling. This includes dents in the insulation jacket from excessive bending, crushing or pulling. Replace any cable with such damage.

Finally:

* If nothing's done the trick up to this point, replace the balun up at the antenna. Like any other part, baluns can be bad right out of the box.

IOW, this is basic troubleshooting. One last note: If the problem was with the antenna, cabling or balun, be sure to re-scan for channels after you've corrected the physical problem(s). Good luck!

RG6 is MUCH preferred to RG59. Especially the higher in frequency / longer in distance you have to carry a signal on.

Not necessarily, if the NBC affiliate's signal happens to be stronger than the others -- and sufficient to overcome the defect.


Scooper's post is spot-on: get RG-6! It loses less signal along the way, and its quality is frequently much better, making it more suitable for OTA DTV. RG-59 is OK for short runs, such as between a DVD recorder and the TV, but nothing more. And be very careful when attaching F-connectors to the RG-6. A short between the center conductor and shield could be a factor, here, too. All it takes is one tiny strand of aluminum in the wrong place.

Please don't lose hope: It's gotta be something pretty simple if any indoor antenna works better than a roof-mounted CM 3018!

The 3018 should be plenty of antenna to get Sutro from PA. Something else is wrong.

I would suspect the connectors you put on the ends of the coax as well. It is easy to mess them up. If they are the "screw on" type, they are worthless. Even if you get one to work, it will not hold up in the weather. The newer "compression" style F connectors are really neat, but you need a special tool or two for them.

One suggestion: Go over to Hometech (http://www.hometech.com) in Cupertino. If you buy your RG-6 from him, I'd bet he would help you install a couple of proper compression connectors on it. (Note: I have no affiliation with Hometech - just have bought a lot of stuff from them over the past year.)

Perform a reset and rescan on whatever you're using for a digital tuner. Sounds like it's memory is corrupted.

Steve

"yakimiiis," you may already realize this, but KNTV (which is on San Bruno Mountain, by the way) is the only San Francisco TV station that's currently got a digital signal on VHF (channel 12). All the others are on UHF. You can see their current and future channel assignments here:

http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php

Moving to RG-6 was a very important step for receiving UHF properly. I'm sorry that it didn't solve the problem. As Steve noted, be sure to do a rescan now. If that doesn't work, I suggest that you start looking for something that might be preventing reception of UHF digital signals, whether that's a setting in your computer-based digital TV receiver, or some physical piece of equipment.

What happens when you point toward KTEH (virtual channel 54, real channel 50) on Monument Peak? You should have an easy shot at that from Palo Alto, so if you still aren't seeing anything, that would give us another data point. (Don't forget to rescan!)

BTW, I'm getting 30+ stations with a bowtie hanging from rabbit ears in Sunnyvale (with a little help from Vampire Mickey and Reindeer Mickey; photo here: http://www.wintertime.com/Personal/DTV/bowtie2.jpg), so unless you're on the upper reaches of Page Mill Road or somewhere else that's blocked from seeing Sutro, you should be pulling in stations like mad with an outdoor antenna.


Patty

Grrr. OK, I'm not familiar with the 3018's construction, but from the photos it looks like it relies on "phasing lines" -- two stiff wires, usually steel or aluminum, running above and parallel to the boom and which criss-cross one another between each set of director elements (I called these "vees" earlier). Phasing lines carry signals to the balun terminals. They should not touch one another anywhere, they should not be broken anywhere, nor should they be separated from the rivets attaching them to the insulators at which each director is attached.

You might be able to bend the lines lines away from one another and back into shape (gently!) if they're touching, but if it's more serious than that, I'd take the 3018 back and exchange it for another.

Do you have another TV or tuner that you can try hooking to the antenna? Even if the antenna is pointed in the wrong direction, you should be getting some stations.

Excellent news!!

Just curious, how many channels are you getting?

"yakimiiis" that's great that you solved the problem. When you got several channels with the little indoor Terk antenna, was it plugged into the TV input?

I am very surprised that you were getting KNTV on the FM input. Channel 12 is way above the FM band. By chance does your user manual for the card say what frequencies the FM tuner covers? I couldn't find specs on the Hauppage site. Just curious!


Patty

Thanks for the additional info. It's strange that you were receiving ch. 12 through the FM input, but clearly that tuner was able to receive that frequency. Glad you got sorted out!


Patty

Don't be too hard on yourself. Such are the "joys" of troubleshooting -- the one thing that gets overlooked is usually what's causing the trouble. See: Law, Murphy's.

Concentrate instead on the benefits of having gone through all this:

* You've learned quite a bit about a new subject.
* You won't make that mistake, ever again!
* You've "hardened" the antenna system against future failure.

Happy viewing!