Seattle, WA - OTA - Page 5

bummer. I doubt any antenna would get through the building unless there are "holes" in the reinforcing steel - not likely. If you get 0 signal with your SS unit then doubt any other will help. 18-1,18-2 are near Bremerton so you are on the right side of the building for those. Try the SS on the patio in all directions - you might get reflections. My best advice? move. Or sign up with Comcrap for all those wonderful HD channels that are coming almost any year now.

Understood. Although my reintroduction to the moving process these past two weeks makes me think I will never move again. Maybe when football season starts I'll reconsider.

I had Comcast HDTV in Philly (their corporate home). Fortunately that meant we were on the cutting edge as far as HDTV roleout ie Sixers, Flyers, HBO, Showtime and all the locals (except CBS) have been available for quite some time in Philly. From what I gather, they are fighting the same fight with the locals in Seattle as they were with CBS in Philly.

I just can't understand what takes so long. At least agree to a price with the network and then see if we're willing to poney up the cash. I think most people in the forum would.

solved this problem in same area with attenuation

I'm not getting a signal from KOMO (4) via antenna. I just noticed it last night, anyone else experiencing this?
Tom

No problems with KOMO-DT here last night or this morning.

Not a glitch here either. By the way, Larry, when you are on a roll, could you topo 180th Street and 15th Ave W in Lynnwood? I have perfect reception with my SS (not in term of signal strength but reliability) and my neighbor across the street leans toward OTA DTV. I just do not want to be the cause for my neighbor's bad investment. And BTW again, so far there are 4 of us (acknowledgingly) taking advantage of OTA digital. I don't think the real number is anywhere comparable to those who subscribe to cable just for the good local signals. So, what stop broadcasters, in the future, to have the same programs but only feed them via cable and satellite? Just a thought.

Hmmmm....My signal is now showing a strong 88, but all I'm getting is a black screen.
Tom

no problems with hills. you are dead even with QA hill so the only possible problems would be trees/buildings/multipath. that whole are looks good for many blocks in all directions.

Larry

I notice 11-1 is only running 68kW power (< 10% of King). I wonder if that is the main reason people report problems with it but not other stations.

Larry

Thanks, Larry. I wonder if UPN has jacked up their transmit power. I used to have to move my antenna to get good reception but not anymore for about a month now. BTW, I am giving up on the Mariners' game, bottom of the 7th, tell me tomorrow that they win.

TAB, check your receiver. Try power down completely, remove the power cord from the wall for a minute or so if you have not tried. KOMO is the only one with 720p, and you are the only one with the problem. Just a shoot in the dark but not too much hassle to give it a try.

I will email the station engineer at channel 11 and ask if they have recently upped their transmitter power.

tuquet:
Thanks for the tips.

I managed to get KOMO-DT back. For some reason my DTC-100 does not show a picture if the signal is lost for a period of time. When I was hitting "4-1" on my remote I just got a blank screen (as opposed to "weak signal"). I then tried going to channel 38 and the DTC-100 magically mapped the signal back to 4-1.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Seattle HDTV discussion....
Tom

ifsmd,

What is meant by attenuation and how do I do it?

TIA

lower signal level..

robb
206-328-5526

Here is an example of an attenuator:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...%5Fid=15%2D678

You would connect this little attenuator box between your antenna and your STB. The knob on the attenuator works like a volume control for the antenna signal, reducing the power of the signal more as you turn the knob one way (usually clockwise) and returning the signal to it's original power level when turned all the way the other direction (probably counter-clockwise).

Sometimes, if you are very close to the transmitters, there is too much signal power and it overloads your receiver (STB/tuner). This is typically more of a problem with digital than with analog. With digital, it is all or none, and if the power is too much the receiver might show nothing. With analog you might see distorted pictures and possibly have a loud buzz and/or distortion in the audio.

That said, if you are in a building facing the wrong direction (not line of site to the transmitter location) then you probably do not have a problem with too much power. But you could be getting multiple reflected signals from multiple surfaces (e.g., buildings). If one happens to be stronger than the others, the attenuator might help by reducing the power level for all reflected signals. If the lower power signals go below the receiver threshold, perhaps the one remaining stronger signal could be watchable. I consider this a long shot at best, but folks have come up with some amazing results that seem like they should not work.

Sorry about the long post here.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info!!

For $9 its worth a try.

This is a very helpful thread. I'm new to the forum and thought I would throw out my HDTV reception problem as well.

When we lived in the Totem Lake area of Kirkland, we could pick up most all of the HD network stations really well. We moved last Fall to a condo on Lake Bellevue (next to the Crab Pot restaurant). Now I have a tough time picking up any HDTV channels at all. Sometimes channel 9 comes in, but it is usually choppy.

I've been using the $80 digital antennae purchased at Radio Shack about 1 1/2 years ago.

The TV and antennae are located about 40 feet above the lake level. Does anyone think a different HDTV antennae might get us better reception of the local network HDTV channels?

Thanks for any help or advice.

-Mike

Mike - I checked your line-of-sight from LB drive and there are no hills in the way. So the next likely problems are mutipath interference, other buildings and antenna placement. Are you on the west side of your building? If so, then perhaps a very directional antenna would help. What sort of mounting options are available? Rooftop? Balcony? Depending on the space you could use a long yagi style or a short&tall bowtie. Check out channelmaster.com UHF antennas. Oh, and welcome to the forum!

Larry

Mike,

Have you checked http://www.antennaweb.org to verify what direction you should be aiming your antenna? They make it fairly easy by providing a local street map that you can use for reference to the angle as compared to street directions.

Good luck and let us know how you progress.

Hi guys,

Thanks for your advice. The main problem that I'm up against is that I'm now in a condo development (Lake Bellevue Village) that does not allow roof antennaes. I could check with the building manager to see if there is any flexibility on that, but from what I know they are pretty strict about keeping the outside looking clean.

Our condo decks face west (toward the railroad tracks), but there are very large trees that seperate our view from the sky. Maybe it is the trees that are causing the interference.

The only thing I was thinking about is that I do have sole access to the attic above our bedroom. In the attic, there is plenty of room to put a larger "roof" antennae, but there still would be a wood + siding barrier from the outside. I would then need to figure out how to run a coaxial cable down the walls to our HDTV without it being seen. The trees would still be higher though than the attic height.

What do you think?

Larry:

Could you check to see how things look from 1411 NE 63rd St? We are moving there and I'm considering going with OTA HDTV instead of cable. I think reception should be pretty good from there as it is close to the top of the largest hill in the immediate area.

thanks,
alex

I received a reply from Ron Diotte, station engineer at KSTW UPN channel 11 in Seattle/Tacoma. I had asked him about their transmitter power and the low level audio on their DTV channel.

"Thanx for the input. We are still at STA authority and are at low power.

The Canadian "FCC" is holding up our request for power maximization. We do expect approval soon, however, the lead time for a new antenna will be mid 2004.

We are aware that the audio is lower on our digital channel. We are attempting to look at it as time permits.

RD"

Ron has been very cooperative every time I have communicated with him. He and his sidekick Dave sometimes read and post here at the AVS Forum, especially if they have news of interest to us.

Mike - If you can afford the investment, I would put a Channel Master 4228 in the attic (3' tall x 2' wide x 6" deep) if possible and string a coax down to the receiver temporarily. Your aim is almost due west for QA. The reason I recommend the 4228 is it is high-gain, very directional and presents a large area to the incoming signal which I believe is less affected by individual trees (each bowtie can receive signal if another is blocked). The siding should not matter too much unless it is aluminum. You are close enough for an attic situation to work well.

Larry

Alex - only problem there might be multipath or too much signal (requiring an attenuator). A very directional low-gain antenna + attenuator should do it.

Larry

I'm still trying to add channels here and there that might be available. I can't get any variations of 18, 25, 27, 28, or 31 though like people have suggested.

(Puyallup,WA)

18 is 13 DT (already have), 25 is 22 DT (already have), 27 & 28 are very weak and in Tacoma (rotate your antenna), 31 is 16 DT - weak and hard to get by a lot of people. You aren't really missing much, pun intended.

Thanks, man... I appreciate the feedback. I'm happy with the reception I'm getting overal. And unfortunately that monstrosity Radio Shack TV antenna is woven all around my attic girders, so there's no room for it to turn. I'll just stick with what I've got!

Anyone help me? Live just East of Brier.....228th & 14th Ave.

Couple of days away from a tuner and was wondering if my reception will be any good?

Whats CQ mean?

Thanks

OOPS sorry whats QA mean?

Drumnut - QA = Queen Anne Hill where 4,5,7 towers are. CH = Capitol Hill where 22/13 tower is. As I stated in my 6-13 post: your LOS (line of sight) to QA towers looks good but your LOS to CH towers looks marginal. You need to get you antenna as high up as possible.