Posted: 3/5/2009 8:45:01 PM EDT
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My Mom lives in SW Nebraska. GPS 40.327636, -101.151806. She doesn't want to pay for satellite TV. So my brother bought a converter box and installed it. He broke a wire on the antenna rotator and assumed the rotator was bad. He replaced it and the second rotator is bad. So all the orginal analog station positions are gone. I have since repaired the wires and the origional one works fine.
My Mom was down to one TV station. I have been working with it and have positioned the antenna so it will rotate almost 360 degrees in the attic. We have it in the attic so the wind won't blow it away every two weeks. I have been autosearching for digital stations and have found a few. They don't always work depending on the weather conditions and time of day. I cannot find two of the analog stations we used to receive. One is a CBS affiliate and the other a NBC affiliate. They also have great weather forecasting. The antenna is a large Channel Master and worked well for picking up the analog stations. I have checked signal strenght and compass direction on tvfool.com. This is a great information resource and has a lot of good information. The antenna has the flat 2 wire antenna lead. It it necessary to replace this with RG-6 coax cable? During the day the color washes out and flickers and sometimes it is a black and white picture. The picture is clear and I have normal to strong signal strength. Other times I can have a great picture and weak signal strength. I am not sure replacing the flat wire will fix this problem. Is there anything I can do to increase reception to receive the two stations that we are missing? A larger antenna will not fit in the attic. I checked all connections and wiped all the dust off the antenna. |
| If you are using your old antenna, that is the problem. HDTV uses UHF freqs, not VHF. You can actually use one of the old small round UHF antennas, or go buy the latest whiz bang hi-def at big $$$$. Try the cheapie first. How far are you from the local transmitters? Not stations, but their transmitters towers? |
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If you are using your old antenna, that is the problem. HDTV uses UHF freqs, not VHF. You can actually use one of the old small round UHF antennas, or go buy the latest whiz bang hi-def at big $$$$. Try the cheapie first. How far are you from the local transmitters? Not stations, but their transmitters towers? The antenna has the UHF elements. Some of the stations I am receiving are UHF. The farthest away being 76 miles to the transmission tower. It's channel 19 KWKS-DT a PBS station. I do not get it during the day but I think it is due to solar interferance. I do get channel 44 K44FN-D another PBS station 14.4 miles away. I also get a channel 29 about 27 miles away on the same compass heading. The channel 8(KSNK-DT) and channel 10(KBSL-DT) I would like to get are 42 miles away and 63 miles away respectively. Both of them are considered VHF Hi on TVfool.com. Check out the site and put my GPS coordinates in and go to TV Signal Analysis and look at the tables. I realize I may not ever be able to get the two stations but I am trying to make sure I have not overlooked something simple. I am an auto tech not a tv tech. So there are things I may not see. Thanks! Edit for channel numbers and station call letters. Channel 44 not 42. There is a channel 42 in the same direction but I haven't been able to get it. |
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Google webantenna. There is a form to fill out then they give you directions to point the antenna for each available channel in your reception area. Hope it helps. http://www.antennaweb.org |
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They may be listed as VHF, but all HDTV signals are now UHF, That is their old tower and channel designations. You might even call the station and ask to speak to the engineering staff and get thier coordinations. They probably have built a new tower location due to population chance since the original tower was built.
BTW, I AM a TV broadcast engineer, even though I now work in the education side of the industry. |
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They may be listed as VHF, but all HDTV signals are now UHF, That is their old tower and channel designations. You might even call the station and ask to speak to the engineering staff and get thier coordinations. They probably have built a new tower location due to population chance since the original tower was built. BTW, I AM a TV broadcast engineer, even though I now work in the education side of the industry. TVfool.com lists K44FN-D channel 44 as a UHF channel. If the antenna did not have UHF capability it would not receive the channel. I also get KUVR-LD channel 29 which is also listed as UHF. Will changing the antenna lead from 2 conductor flat cable to RG-6 coax fix a problem with the loss of color? Some times I can have a 100% signal and have a black and white picture that is very good. Other times I can have an 30-40% signal and have excellant color. At times the color will be weak and washed out and flicker on the screen. There is no rhyme or reason to it and I don't want to waste money changing to coax if it isn't going to fix anything. Will atmospheric conditions or solar radiation cause the color to wash out or flicker? I lose weak stations when it is clear and sunny outside. At night with a high cloud cover I get more stations and stronger signals. TVfool mentions 1st and 2nd Edge reflections and Tropospheric Scatter. We used to call it skip when it happened on the CB, break one-nine! 
I did manage to find the channel 10 KBSL analog signal when I connected the antenna directly to the TV. I checked the coordinants for the Digital Station and the Analog Station and they are the same. The Digital signal is shown on TVfool.com to be stronger than the Analog signal. I have a feeling KBSL has not changed over to Digital transmission yet, even though TVfool says there is a signal. At least I have a compass direction and the direction marked on the antenna rotor control marked so I know where to point it. I may have to move a roof brace in the attic. 
My Mom is in SW Nebraska so we are out in the boonies. 
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| I asked one of our cable TV guys here at work about the 75 ohm cable vs. the old flat ribbon cable. He could not give a firm answer, since we basically have no experience with the old ribbon cables. I'll ask another coworker when he gets in later. I did a google search on one of the stations you mentioned, and it appears as if they are a "repeater" station. You really need to put a call in to the station (remember, talk to the engineering staff ) and tell them where you are at. When stations buy antennas for broadcasting, they are directional. They want to direct the most power in the areas of heaviest population. Not knowing your geographic area, I cannot answer a lot for you. It's been 16 years since I was a Chief Engineer at a local TV station, I've now offically forgot more than I ever learned about transmitters! I'm now living the easy life building enhanced classrooms at a University. |