Bad reception on one TV

[howfer]

I mounted an RCA ANT751 on my chimney at about 25ft. About 50ft of cable runs to the side of my house where Comcast's cable once connected to the cabling that runs into my house. I disconnected Comcast's cable and connected the cable from the antenna. There, the cable runs through a Radio Shack signal amplifier - Model: 15-2505 | Catalog #: 15-2505. Then, the cable is split - one to the bedroom TV and one to the family room TV. The cable to the bedroom is 25ft, and the cable to the family room is probably 50ft with one coupler in-line, but I can't really tell how long it is, nor can I tell if there are any other splitters or couplers attached. The bedroom TV gets good reception, but the family room tv has drop-outs and pixelation on two channels. What could be the problem? My TV fool report -

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d3616e14864bb6b

Thanks!

Howie

[Electron]

First disconnect the radio shack amplifier and put it in the trash. Then aim the ANT751 antenna at about 10 degree magnetic compass. Here is how to aim antennas , http://www.kyes.com/antenna/pointing/pointing.html. Then disconnect the coax from the splitter that goes to the family room. Then connect a Known To Be Good coax to the splitter and run the coax direct to the family room tv. In the future -> If <- a amplifier is required use a Channel Master CM3412 distribution amplifier.

[howfer]

Thanks, Electron. I will try your suggestions this evening. I left off of my original post that I only care about the first seven stations listed in my report. They're all between 50 and 52 degrees magnetic. Should I still point it to 10?

Thanks again,

Howie

[Electron]

WJNI-LD 31 has http://americaone.com , WLCN-CD 18 has http://www.MyRetroTV.com. The 10 degree aim point is a inbetween aim point to receive the group of tv stations to the north west and north east. However the tv transmissions of the north west group are strong so are most likley being received even with the antenna aimed at the north east group.

[Electron]

Check -> ALL <-connections on the bad reception coax/es and etc. that goes to the living room. If there are wall plates with coax / coax connections , remove the wall plates and check -> ALL <- connections. Look inside the connectors on the ends of the coaxes to see if foil shield and shied wires are pushed in toward the center wire of the coax that carries the signal. If so , then use the point of a small knife or a small flat blade screw driver to push the foil shield and shield wires away from the center wire of the coax that carries the signal. Replace coax jumpers , even if you think the coax jumpers are good replace them any way. Are there any other splitters or couplers behind the wall plates or any where else that you can find even if you have to get in the attic or crawl under the house to trace the wiring.

[howfer]

Electron, thank you again for all of your advice. I will follow all of it. Last night, I ran a new cable directly from the splitter to the family room tv as you suggested. It made no difference. My bedroom tv started messing up as well, though not nearly as bad. Without the signal amp, though, it did not do well at all. This led me to suspect a problem with the cable coming from the antenna to the splitter. Further inspection of it showed that the cable is crimped pretty bad in two places near the splitter end. I wonder if this is the problem and I'm just not getting a good signal from the antenna? There is enough extra cable to cut the bad part off and install a new connector. I will try that this evening. I think I will also try coupling my new cable to it - bypassing the splitter - and running it directly to my family room tv to see what happens. I may as well try running it directly to the family room tv as well.

Thanks,

Howie

[Electron]

The way to prove out the the reception is to connect a known to be good matching transformer to the antenna and a known to be good coax connected to the matching transformer and run the coax direct to one Tv , no splitters no couplers , no nothing just direct to the Tv. Using a amplifier to Ram the signal through , bad coax , bad splitters , bad couplers and etc. is not good.