OTA Problem

[Watrat]

Good evening,
I posted this problem once before but, after speaking with directv just now, I wanted to ask it again.

My OTA NBC channel gives me a lot of problems since they installed it in January..it pixilates and digitizes and is unwatchable. All of the other OTA channels and my dish HD channels come in fine. Was told at installation that trees and leaves don't affect antenna, just the path of the dish. When I was on the phone with tech support I was telling him the major fluctuations on that channel..from 92 to 0 to 84 to 26 to 82 and the gentleman asked if there were any trees around. I said there were, but I had this issue in January when there were no leaves and the installer made a point of telling me that the antenna position isn't affected by limbs and leaves. They are coming on out Friday. Was wondering could this be a tree and leaf issue or might it be something else? This is the only channel NBC 7.1 in Boston that gives me any issues and its been this way since the winter..I know I should have done something with it then. Just wondering what it might be...

Thanks

Tom

[kdonnel]

You are experiencing multipath. The signal for your NBC station is reflecting off something in the environment and arriving at your antenna from two different directions.

OTA broadcasts can definitely be affected by terrain, trees, leaves, and even wind.

At my previous home I had issues with my local CBS station. I only received a good signal while the leaves were coming or going. As soon as they were gone or completely in I lost a usable signal.

At my current home I have issues with my local ABC station. When the leaves came in completely I had to tweak the antenna direction to cut down on multipath issues. I was seeing a signal fluctuating from 40-90.

It helps to have a highly directional OTA antenna. That way the antenna rejects the reflection.

It may just be a matter of reorienting the antenna or as difficult as mounting the antenna in a different location that does not experience the multipath. I moved my current antenna about 2 feet left and raised it about 6 inches and had a HUGE improvement in signal quality and strength for my problem station. Desparate Housewives recorded without issue Sunday, hopefully Lost records tonight!

OTA reception is a black magic.

[Watrat]

Hey there,
Thanks for the reply. Since Direct supplied and installed the antenna would they replace it for one that might not be causing these problems or will they be patient enough to find a better place? I know when they installed the dish and antenna it was late at night and they had been here all afternoon and evening and I guess told me what I wanted to hear about leaves and location not being an issue. I am looking at the paperwork they left me and it doesn't mention which brand of ota they installed.

Thanks again

Tom

[dogdoctor]

I don't know about your install...the guy in Califoria 1) installed my antenna on the roof in a close proximity to the dish and didn't even get a line of sight over the roof - I'm sure it was easier to install it closer and 2) then checked the signal strength. To which he kept spinning the antenna round and round on the same fixed spot. A trained monkey could have done that and realized that after 2 spins the signal wasn't going to improve without moving the physical position of the antenna. I ultimately moved it and ran my own cable = excellent strength on all channels 92-95.

You need to do it reverse order find the right spot and then install - I hope you can keep the guy long enough to find the right spot. Otherwise it is not that hard to walk the antenna around and install it yourself. Just time consuming and hard on the knees up and down the ladder unless you have someone sitting infront of the TV relaying the signal strengths.

Good Luck!

Can I ask a question though? Even if you have excellent strength on channels do either of you (Watrat and kdonnel) have occosional pixellation breaks? Some are minor (1-2 lines of 1/2 the screen) and some are more major taking out audio too. I get 92-95 strength on all my channels. Just wondered if some very occasional breakups is just a normal finding. Thanks.

[Seminole]

Watrat,

I have the same problem with channel 5 and 4 to a lesser degree it is very annoying. I use the silver sensor when my outdoor one isn't working well and sometimes that works out ok. The other thing I now notice is that I just bought a new HP Dlp with a tunner built in and it seems to work much better than the HD Tivo who tunner I believe causes a lot of the problems.

[Nuwanda]

Gentlemen,

While, I do not know about your actual antenna installation, I did have D* install my antenna. It was my first outside antenna and I was not all that keen on installing one 25ft in the air (2nd story house), so I figured $50 for someone else to do it was worth it.

Normally, D* uses an omnidirectional antenna so their techs do not have to aim it at any one place. In my case, I had them install a TERK HDTVi (I think it was the name) antenna. It looked cool up there, but it blew goats at actual reception. Then I did some research and returned the $100 TERK and bought a $50 Channelmaster 4228 (considered the best long range UHF antenna at the time). I climbed my butt up my extension ladder and removed the TERK and installed the CM4228 in it's place. You would not believe the difference. I get every channel pretty well except the local NBC affiliate (still transmitting at low power until July). I am hoping the new NBC tower and power will fix that problem.

In answer to your first question, trees matter. The more leaves, the worse the reception is. Here are some internet addresses I used for my research:

http://www.tvantenna.com/
http://hdtvinfoport.com/index.html
http://www.hdtvpub.com/
http://ww2.titantv.com/TTV/MyTitanTv/Login/index.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fttv%2fantennaselector%2fstart.aspx (have to sign up for an account which I think is free, but I found the info helpful)
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx

I hope these help...
Nuwanda