HELP WITH "Searching for signal on: Antenna In"

[bachj69]

I have had my HR10-250 for several months now with no problems....lately especially on the CBS channel....Im experiencing a lot of pixeling...sometimes it doesn't come in at all...then other times its fine.....when it pixels and I loose the signal ....and the message "Searching for signal on: Antenna IN" comes onto the screen....the signal will come back up...then it goes out and the message comes on again......other times my signal is fine. A couple of times I have noticed the same thing on NBC and ABC. I checked my signal strength and Im getting 80 on Tuner 1 and 60 on Tuner 2. When watching HD shows in the evening I have been experiencing a lot of audio drop outs on the CBS channel...but not on the other channels......not sure why that is happening either.

I have a splitter that is connected to the antenna feed so I can watch tv in my bedroom as well.....I have replaced the cable that is coming from the splitter and going into the HR10-250.....it doesn't seem to be the problem.

My antenna connection goes from the splitter into a powersurge protector and then out to the HR10-250 using a different cable...if I unscrew the cable a little bit from the powersurge protector to the HR250 then it seems to work a little better....not sure why that is. I thought maybe it was the power surge protector so I connected the antenna feed straight from the splitter and into the HR250 and that didnt help...still experiencing pixeling and channel drop out

When my CBS channel is not coming in...I checked the other channels NBC, ABC, and PBS...they are all working fine. Im a little stumped???

We have had a couple of good windstorms lately.....wondering if maybe I need to adjust my antenna thats on my roof....but if I get good signal strength on all the other channels and when CBS does come in...the signal strength is good...then maybe attempting to adjust my antenna would not have any effect???

thanks for you help in advance.....hopefully its an easy fix.

[JimSpence]

OTA reception is quite a bit different than satellite. Each station has its own set of potential problems. Ranging from power of transmitter, direction and distance to towers, frequency and surrounding terrain. The ATSC tuner needs to reject multipath signals (ghosting in the analog world) in order to lock onto the signal. Thus the "searching" message. In your case, try removing the splitter to see if things get better. Another weird thing, is a too strong signal. This can overload the tuner and cause it to not lock on.

In my case, I received my four locals and then the leaves fell. Now multipathing has increased and OTA reception is spotty on three of the stations.

[bachj69]

So .....if I remove the splitter then I will not be able to watch television in my bedroom becuase the splitter allows me to watch tv coming from the HD Antenna in my living room as well as my bedroom...any suggestions.....

You also mentioned that my signal might be too strong..........I checked the signal strength and it only reads 60 to 70 on the CBS channel ....it does fluctuate all the time but never higher that 70.......does this problem Im having have anything to do with one of my tuners or is my problem more related to signal coming from my antenna.......if it has to do with antenna signal...what happens if I go on the roof and adjust my antenna a little bit.....would that maybe solve my problem of CBS going in and out?? thanks for your help......

[JimSpence]

Signal strength is a misnomer. The values should be thought of as a signal quality. Your problem, as is mine, is that multipath is preventing the tuner from locking on to the digital signal. This shows up as the fluctuating values. Have you ever seen an analog signal with ghosting, as it changes? You have to be able to align the antenna so that you minimize the multipath, thus increasing the signal to noise ration. Then the tuner can lock on.

Too strong of a signal from the antenna can cause overload of the tuner and prevent lock on as well. Splitting the signal does the opposite. Since you need two lines from the antenna, you have to find the right combination of spitting and amplification that will give you the best signal. It is a lot of trial and error. In my case, I put an amplifier on the antenna. The line noise doesn't get amplified by having the amp on the antenna mast. However, my multipath increased when the attenuating affects of leaves on the trees fell off and I have sporadic lock on.

Since, CBS is your only problem, I slight adjustment may do the trick for you.