[artshotwell]

I hooked my new hd-100 up to my uhf antenna (CM 4842 + CM 7775) last night and got 4 of Seattle's DTV signals from 60 miles away. I'm on the SE side of Fidalgo Island (for you Washingtonians) with a signal path across 3 island land masses, as well as water.


I've been watching a piss-poor (lots of multi-path problems) uhf signal on the same tower as one of the dtv's for a couple of weeks, wondering if I'd get any OTA.


Well, to my surprise, I get fox & pbs perfectly and cbs and nbc affils with some dropouts. Enough dropouts that watching a program would be unbearable. But, when the picture's there, it's fantastic. No multipath in the hdtv pictures. Now, I've gotta see if I can move the antenna or do something to improve the dropout rate. cbs affil is what I'm aiming for 'cause they've got the most hdtv.


Just wanted to share this with everyone...Been lurking AVSForums for the past couple of weeks...Art

 

[andrewsi]

The Seattle CBS station seems OK from an HD standpoint, but those of living here with HD100's have hit numerous problems with OTA channels:


a) PBS seems to have serious audio/video sync problems. Watch for the dropouts every 10 minutes or so that brings things back in sync, then it'll start to drift again. I haven't been able to get a clear determination of whether the problem is with the broadcast or the box.

b) KING 5.3 is 100% unwatchable. You'll get "Searching for Digital Signal" every few seconds. The consensus is that this an HD-100 bug, since other receivers don't exhibit the same problem. I've also seen similar problems on 9.2 and 9.3 but I don't know if it's as consistent.

c) The station IDs and programming info do not appear on the HD100.

d) And there's always the fan noise.


I'm seriously considering returning mine for a Panasonic or RCA, rather than wait for a fix from Sony.



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Andy

 

[artshotwell]

Andy,


I'm willing to put with the fan noise, I think. I'm certainly going to complain, though. I'll probably hang on nearly 30 days. I can't get an installer out to install the elliptical dish until May 8.


I just did a signal strength survey of the 4 stations I get ota. KCPQ Fox is just great...a very solid 97. But, signal constantly goes up and down for KCTS, KIRO and KING, dropping to near zero at times and even with the strength is up in the 60s, the signals don't not always lock. So, I presume I have a serious multipath issue and I'll probably never solve it. I may be doomed here unless someone's got a suggestion.


Do trees block dtv signals? I've got a couple of firs on either side of what I estimate is the correct signal path. I'm only guessing based on a small scale road map of Puget Sound. I haven't been able to get a large scale topo map. I may have to try moving the antenna around the roof.


Any suggestions would be welcome.

 

[andrewsi]

Everybody's very quick to blame "multipath" but unless you have reason to believe that there's terrain or buildings set up to cause severe reflections in the signal, that may not be it. From your distance, it could just as easily be inadequate signal strength (you could try a cheap UHF amplifier from Rat Shack), misaimed antenna, or other location issues. You should probably try rotating the antenna to see if you can increase signal strength too.


A little bit of trees and foliage are not likely to block the signal for terrestrial signals, but it probably depends on the height and the density in the direction of the stations. However, you definitely need to keep trees out of the path of the satellite dish up to the satellites when you get that installed, trees will play havoc with DirecTV.




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Andy

 

[andrewsi]

Just FYI, KCPQ's broadcast antenna is on Gold Mtn. west of Bremerton and from your location you might have a nice straight shot. KCTS broadcasts from Capitol Hill and the others probably broadcast from Queen Anne or somewhere like that, so the different locations could explain your signal differences. It also argues for trying to rotate the antenna if possible to maximize the signal.


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Andy

 

[artshotwell]

Quote:

Originally posted by andrewsi: Just FYI, KCPQ's broadcast antenna is on Gold Mtn. west of Bremerton and from your location you might have a nice straight shot. KCTS broadcasts from Capitol Hill and the others probably broadcast from Queen Anne or somewhere like that, so the different locations could explain your signal differences. It also argues for trying to rotate the antenna if possible to maximize the signal.

Yeah, Andy, it's clear in my situation I've gotta move the antenna around. I think I've misjudged the direction slightly. I blame multipath in large part because I see multiple ghosts in kong (analog 16), which is in the same Queen Anne location as kiro, king and komo. Also see reflections on WB, which is on Capitol Hill. I do have a nice clean shot at kcpq, plus their tower is more than 1000 feet higher than the towers on Queen Anne. I'll be playing on the roof this weekend. Art

 

[Jim Sanchez]

Andy

I have a DTC-100 and have the same problem with KCTS audio/video sync creep. If you want a DTC-100, the good guys in Bellevue has several "out of box" units for $299-$349 which is a steal!

Jim


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Jim Sanchez - [email protected]

 

[wezar]

Art, if you do not have one already. I think you should seriously consider a rotor.



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RJW