Orlando, FL - OTA - Page 8

ctbjr1309, Try Kissimee Music & Satellite (you might have to wait a couple of days, I don't know if they have power back yet). I don't know if they cover downtown Orlando or not but they are one of the only C-Band installers still around.

Thanks for the suggestion, Mitch. I'll give them a call.

Well, finally got my HD installed....minus the OTA antenna because Mastec prohibits attic installations. WTF, over?

The guy left the antenna behind, and I guess I'll wire the thing up in the attic myself. For now, I just have it attached and sitting there. Works, but not great reception. It was a Winegard Sensar antenna. Kind of looks like a glider, or a spaceship off of some b-movie.

The box was a Samsung. HDnet, DiscoveryHD both have beautiful pictures. NBC WESH 2(OTA) was also very good with the Olympics. I can't wait to see some football.

More about the installation... The dish was mounted just right. 2 sats have a 100 signal, and one had a 98. I had a 99 before in the same location, so I'm happy.

After inspecting the tech's hookup, I was dumbfounded. He hooked up EVERY set of wires the Samsung came with to my TV, except for the DVI(he didn't have an adapter for the HDMI input). So he hooked up 3 component inputs from the box to the TV, AND the old S-Video. I yanked everything off except for the one component I needed to make it work.

Peter, I sent you an e-mail last week about possibly taking over the install from Mastec, but didn't get a reply. I'm still thinking about the Denon 2910, though!

Did anyone watch the NFL Game on Fox OTA last night? If so, how was the sound? It kept breaking up at my house and I only live 8 miles for their tower.

Thanks

Don

Better question, what was the delivery, 720p or the old 480?

BearGator and everyone, if you sent me an email last Friday up until Tuesday I probably did not get it. The power was out at my office which is where my email server is located, so the message may have timed out before the server was back up. BTW if you tried to get to the Orlandodigital.tv website it was also down during that time. Sorry for the inconveniences everything is working now.

I am still having trouble receiving the locals off air. Do you think my antenna was knocked out of alignment by the storm?

Haha funny. Is your cable working?

Barry,

Your line of site might me better. The one tree in my neighbors yard that someday could be a problem is the only one not effected by the storm.

Don

My power came back on Tuesday and BHN cable started working this morning. I found out I can deal with no AC or no hot water but no internet or email for 7 days really hurt.

The incredible part about my antenna getting hit by that tree is the mast prevented the tree from crushing my porch. Now, as long as no one breathes until the tree service gets here on monday I will escape with minimal damage.

I never lost power and had DirecTV & OTA the entire time. Lost phone for 4 days. Every subdivision around me lost power till Tuesday.

Don

Barry,

How did that Gainmaster dish work before it was...um...relocated? I've been looking at those wondering if it will really help with the rain fade.

The new 3 sat dish I have has 100, 100, and 98 for signals-but I haven't had any real storms to test out the rain fade yet.

My old single sat dish would fade out when the heavy dark clouds first came in. I had a 99 signal then. This dish is bigger/wider, so the signal should be a little better in bad weather I'm thinking.

WKMG-HD is too weak for me to be able to get a picture.

Anyone else having difficulty tuning it in?

BearGator56,

The Gainmaster worked as advertised for me. I did a before and after measurement on every transponder between my original oval and the larger Gainmaster which showed a 30% increase in signal strength. I have found that the measurement numbers vary widely between receivers since some show a signal to noise ratio averaged with gain and displayed with a zero to one hundred scale.

This dish will not eliminate rain fade and will usually get you through the green radar rain level but still drop out on yellow and red. I never got a chance to test my theory that 3 small dishes would outperform 1 large oval dish.

3 small dishes will outperform one oval, but 3 large dishes are even better.

Hmm, that's the first time I've seen the Gainmaster dish (or any larger-than-standard oval 3-sat dish)... intriguing. Barry, did you find that this larger dish, while not eliminating rain fade, at least significantly reduces it in actual practice?

Did you upgrade from a standard-issue Phase III dish? Any gotchas or complications? Looking at SolidSignal's Gainmaster page, it appears that I would need to order it with a new set of LNBs (i.e. the LNBs from the standard-issue Phase III dish can't easily be re-used), is this the case? Also, the Gainmaster appears to lack the "integrated 5x4 multiswitch" that the standard dish has; does this matter if I am already running my dish output leads into a separate 4x8 multiswitch?

The gainmaster uses individual LNB's and a seperate multiswitch like the old phase I and II trisat dishes. When you get the gainmaster be sure to get the seperate LNB kit since you can't get the sat c kit seperately any more. You will still need a seperate 5x or 4x multiswitch.

The only thing I would add to Peter's post is that I needed to run the RG-6 from the LNB's to the multiswitch outside of the conduit. The dish provides a place to mount a multiswitch if you want to attach it to the back of the dish.

I live in Palm Bay and was wandering if any here uses a antenna to get local HD channels. I would like to switch to Directv but do not want to lose local HD. What antenna do you use and how good is the picture coming in?

Peter, Barry,

Thanks for the info.... what's your take on how much the larger dish helps with rain fade?

mvita,

If you do not have patience for rain fade then you would be better off switching to BHN. The only dish large enough to prevent loss of signal is a 10 meter dish like the broadcasters and cable people use to receive uninterrupted programming.

Like I posted earlier the gainmaster will help you through the green radar level of rain but will still drop out when the yellow or red bands of rain pass south of your house.

Well, I do have a reasonable level of patience for rain fade, having dealt with it for a number of years... and I certainly wouldn't be expecting complete elimination of the problem. I'm just trying to get a idea as to whether the relative improvement in rain fade performance to be had by going from the 18x20 to the 35x24 dish is worth the $140+time/effort it would take to do the upgrade (assuming rain fade is pretty much my only real reception issue, which is pretty much the case). I've heard a few people say that going to a larger dish increased their reported signal strength during clear weather, but that it didn't necessarily seem to help all that much during rainy weather.

I think Rich's numbers are right on the money so with the Gainmaster you might expect to regain service 5 minutes sooner.

Right. You are increasing your headroom with the gainmaster. On the other point, you can't use 10M dishes with DBS satellite because you will have overlap with other birds at about 1M. Unlike C-band signals, which are transmitted at a much lower frequency, DBS, at the upper end of Ku has such a small wave that dense moisture particles interfere with the signal at that frequency. That's why you will never see broadcasters using Ku and why the commercial systems do not have much if any rain fade.

You might look at it this way. A well positioned DBS antenna is likely to suffer from rain fade for about 5 min. average at the beginning of a thunderstorm. Once the clouds thin out service restores. It's actually not rain that blocks the signal but the dense clouds. If you have cable, you're not going to have this problem, but when the cable does go out I guarantee its for more than 5 min. IE this hurricane where A LOT of people still don't have cable. You have to decide which you can live with more, aside from the other aspects of competitors service.

Peter,

NBC uses KU for their primary analog satellite distribution network but they use large dishes to compensate for the high frequency.

Is Voom any less susceptible to rain fade?

Humm...you would be the one that knows about that. I believe DBS is an even higher frequency than Ku. Maybe they transmit at higher power? DBS is around 100 watts. Anyone else have any insight?

Voom is just as susceptible as any other DBS service. The carrier technology is exactly the same.

I was working in the engineering department of an NBC affiliate in the late 80's when the network installed the KU system but that is all I know about how it works.

I am a BHN customer and and considering making the switch to Direct TV. I live in the Winter Springs area and was wondering how good the reception is in this area for OTA HD Channels. I was hoping to install the antenna in the attic of my two story house. Anyone in the area have success with type of setup and if so what type of antenna did you use?