[jmrobbins]

I, like a lot of people have drop outs on OTA. I have a small yagi sold by RS on the roof. Antennas are difficult to find locally so I searched the web. Channel Master has a 8 stack array model 4228 that is their highest gain antenna. My problem I suspect is trees. The gain meter on the Hughes 86 reports 100% dropping to 20% a lot. Does anyone know if the array might be better than the narrow field yagi?


I know now after seeing how very hard it is to receive reliable OTA, that the public will never go for this as it stands now. DirecTV/DISH must provide a network feed for the major networks or HD will be DOA.

 

[jhe]

jmrobbins,


If your reception is marginal with the first antenna you try, it is always a good idea to try another. The one you mentioned would be a good idea, and you might want to try one of the better yagis too. There is no easy way to predict which will work best for you, without trying them.

The screen type might especially be best to try if you don't have a rotor.


As for your comment about the public, they have been spoiled rotten by cable, but back in the early days of tv, people were quite happy to put up 40 ft masts with separate antennas for each channel on their roofs and watch a snowy picture that nobody would watch today. Antenna choice was not easy back then either, but you could at least get some idea what you needed by just looking out at your neighbor's roof.


Fact is if you include picture quality in the equation, I find digital stations easier to get than analog ones since I have many analog ones I can never get a good snow free picture on without ghosting.

 

[magic123]

jmrobbins..


I have the best equipment including Televes DAT75 antenna. I have one group of stations 52 miles distant and another grouping (somewhat) at from 15-36 miles, and another 2 stations around 45 miles. Even with only 75 feet of cable run and a height of 25 feet above ground, I do get a dropout or blocking..maybe once an hour..lasting 1 or 2 seconds. So, yes, this reception is not perfect. Perhaps, when we go back to VHF, it will solve the problem. Question..those of you, with digital stations on VHF band (below13) do you have dropouts, etc. at 20-50 miles? Maybe VHF will be more reliable than UHF for digital.

 

[jhe]

magic123,


Sorry to hear you have drop outs that frequently, even with your equipment. I can't help you with the VHF question, since we don't have our channel 13 VHF DTV channel yet, but I expect you are right. Just judging by the analog ghosts, the VHF is more stable, regarding multipath. But I have read that 2-6 are a problem from impulse noise, so it may only be 7-13 that are really good.


On UHF I expect dropouts over once an hour on only one channel, that is 60 miles away. For all the others out to 50 miles or so, the only times I get drop outs it is due to aircraft overhead (I can hear the planes when it happens.) or due to very windy conditions (> 35 mph), where my antenna moves too much. I am hopeful that new tuners will solve this problem in the next 3-4 years. My Samsung is already better at this than my Panasonic and RCA tuners were.


But even with these problems I can go for many days with 0 dropouts in the signal. Nothing is perfect though. I've had the planes block my dish signals too!