[pokey]

Folks -- I need some advice.


I've spent three days on my roof risking injury trying to get a strong enough OTA signal. Though I get "blips", I can't lock anything in. I am using my Dish6000 receiver, and when I attempt to get my local CBS signal, I'll get constant flickering signals varying from 51 to 59 in strength which last for a brief moment before hitting back down to zero.


Others in my town receive the signal fine, but they have a much better line-of-site to the distant broadcast tower.


My best guess is that either:


a) I need a better antenna (I am currently using a Radio Shack UHV/VHF behemouth unit on a ten foot pole).


or


b) I need to move


I expect I am just out of luck...but if anyone has any advice, I'd love to hear it.


-Rick

 

[Gerald C]

Have you tried a pre-amp? If not, this is your next step.


Gerald C

 

[pokey]

I used some piece of junk from Radio Shack, but it had no effect...I expect I need to invest in something better to give this a fair shake.

 

[Gerald C]

Even the RS amp should do something. Was it a mast-mounted pre-amp type?


On the other hand, if your problem is multipath and not signal strength, the amp may do nothing to help. How is your reception quality on analog UHF stations? Is it simply weak/snowy or unstable?


Gerald C

 

[pokey]

I never really spent much time with non HDTV feeds, but I don't ever recall it being horrible. One problem is that the local CBS station is only using a very weak signal right now while it fights with a local town over building a new tower.


The amp was an in-line (not mast mounted) one.

 

[Bfadams]

The in-line ones do not help anywhere as much as the pre-amps. If you want to try one to see if it helps, get the RS $60 one for trial. Put it back in the same box and RS will take it back. They don't care whether you tried it. This way, you loose nothing if it doesn't work and can decide to keep it or get a better one if it does.

 

[Zignif]

Just my $.02. If you have the RS VU-190 your average UHF gain is 9 db. The 210 is about 11. Both of these are highly directional Yagi's. You might want to try one of the less directional bowties from Winegard or Channel Master and get rid of the VHF/UHF/FM monster that you have.


As a test, I bought the RS indoor Dbl. Bowtie and mounted out doors. I get WCBS-DT (56-1) 45-70. FOX and UPN, 44-1,2 are 0 to 40, unwatchable. On 56-1, I get some drop outs during the day but none at prime time. It's rated at only 5 Db.


I remembered that I had an old RS Deep fringe antenna in the attic. I put the UHF portion on the mast to compare. No good, I had the same symptoms as you. This 2.5 ft. Yagi should have had at least as much gain as the Bowtie. It spent all of it's life in the attic, due to the Cable arriving before I installed it, so it is in perfect condition.


I attribute Bowties wider beam pattern to it's partial success. At 50 miles a little deflection goes a long way.


I intend get one of the Wines or CM's. I just can't decide whether or not to get the largest and a rotor, to try to get the southern CT stations.

http://starkelectronic.com/index.htm Seems to be a good place to buy, according to other posts. Lots of info there also.


Good luck, lets us know how you make out.