SE of Pittsburgh...few channels

[zackcavalier]

Well, my wife fell for the hype of the mohu sky, and like all good husbands, I climbed out onto my roof to mount it. The mounting is between 25 and 30 feet high, with a clear shot to the horizon in all directions.

I installed high quality coax down to My tv. I have tried with both the provided inline amp and without, and I only get one more channel that is pixelated/ frozen with the amp. I have used a magnetic compass to aim the thing (even though it is supposed to be unidirectional).

My main concern is the channels I am missing. 51 - wtae, and abc affiliate carries the programs I like and is also the news that is most tolerable for me. It seems I should get it no problem, but no such luck. Any suggestions?

Here is my report. http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d5b941c82948f98

[StephanieS]

Hello Zach,

The mohu sky. Hype. You pretty much nailed this antenna's claim to fame. Any time you see an antenna bragging about having an amplifier built into the antenna - run. In reality, instead of using elements to create gain, they are just doing it on the cheap and amplifying the signal. In the case of Sky, it's a single UHF element that has a amp hooked to it! So, it's not going to do well with weak signals or signals that are 1 and 2 edged terrain obstructed. You require an antenna with gain and weak signal capturing ability.

First suggestion - dump the sky. Return it if you can.

Second suggestion. Go buy a quality antenna that is designed for the 2-edged conditions that you have from Pittsburgh. A candidate I might jump for would be an Antennacraft HBU33. You can find it here: http://www.antennacraft.com/Antennas/AntennasHBU.html and here: http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=hbu33&d=antennacraft-33-element-uhf-%2F-high-band-vhf-outdoor-hdtv-antenna-%28hbu33%29

Orientate to magnetic heading 335.

I'd have a reasonable expectation to see everything from Pittsburgh in signal strength down to WPGH FOX.

Cheers.

[zackcavalier]

Thank you for the reply. I hope I can use the sky in addition to a better antenna since it can't be returned at this point. Thanks for the links.