Incredibly poor reception tonight

[phone man]

Can unusual tropospheric conditions cause normally reliable stations to fall off the cliff so to speak? Here's the current map for the eastern US

http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html

I'm in north central Ohio. This evening I can only get 5 of the 18 channels I normally receive. I just got a second HDTV and both sets have the same poor reception right now. It's such a big change I double checked the connections behind the TV, all looks to be OK back there.

[MisterMe]

Can unusual tropospheric conditions cause normally reliable stations to fall off the cliff so to speak? ...Most definitely. This can happen in a number of ways.

Distant signals may tropospheric duct to your location and interfere with a local channel of the same frequency.
If a local signal is being tropospheric ducted to a location 200 miles away, then the signal may have been tropospheric ducted away from you.

[John Candle]

Because you are posting separate stand alone information and questions almost every time , people jump in with out reading what has gone before , confusion , mixups , more incorrect information piles on top of more incorrect information. It would have been a 1,000,000 times better to continue your original post.

[phone man]

"Can tropospheric conditions cause normally reliable channels to drop out?" is a perfectly legitimate question, stand alone or otherwise. I wasn't asking for any specific troubleshooting advice that would have required specifics about my particular OTA setup or channel availability, only if it could negatively impact TV reception. In the future I'll be 1,000,000 times more careful when I ask a question on this forum.


As Paul Harvey used to say.... And now, the rest of the story

When my reception problem continued the next day I again checked connections behind the TV and noticed the AC/DC converter for the preamplifier felt too hot, and unplugging it made no difference in TV reception. Prior to this, there would be no reception at all if the power inserter was unplugged.
I emailed tech support at Antennas Direct, got a prompt reply and instructions on troubleshooting the preamp. The inserter was producing 18v as it should and I also had 18v from my coax just before the mast mounted preamp. I also checked each connector for stray strand wires near the core and found none. Bypassing the preamp restored reception of 16 channels. I reported back to tech support and a new CPA-19 preamp is on it's way. Steve at Antennas Direct was quick to answer my emails and easy to work with. Thanks, Steve!

[Dave Loudin]

Because you are posting separate stand alone information and questions almost every time , people jump in with out reading what has gone before , confusion , mixups , more incorrect information piles on top of more incorrect information. It would have been a 1,000,000 times better to continue your original post.

Relax! You don't have to be the thread police.

[GroundUrMast]

@ phone man, Thanks for the update. I continue to be impressed by AD's customer service.

I see nothing wrong with a separate thread, especially regarding a new issue. I have yet to find reference to a 'one thread per user limit' mentioned in the forum rules.