aircraft multipath
 

I recently moved to a house which is approximately 2 miles from a small airport and sits just off the flight path for the North/South runway which is the most frequently used. I have a Antennacraft® Colorstar C490 attic mounted and with all the local stations 26.9 miles away typically have great reception. My problems comes when planes are on approach I get pixelation and sometimes lose signal for a few seconds. I have been researching this problem but am not finding too many solutions. Any thoughts about wether some type of metalic shielding on the rafters above the antenna would help in this situation? Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

Your best bet would be to get the antenna outside. If aesthetics are a concern, you may not need such a large antenna.

The low flying jets that pass right in front of my antenna rarely cause issues. National Airport is about 4 miles away. Only helicopters that fly very low & directly over the house affect signals 40+ miles away.

If you post a TV FOOL report, the members here can suggest the best antenna for your situation. Your address will not appear when posted.

I have already tried mounting outside with same results. From what I have read this issue is the conversion of the reflected signal off the aircraft hitting the antenna a split second after the original signal which confuses the receiver. Not sure why having the antenna outside would have any effect on this.

Tv Antennas and Reception
 

Post the tvfool report and we can be of more help. . Vertical stacking of 2 antennas can be done to reduce or eleminate air plane reflections. And there other ways to reduce reflections. It will be helpful to have a tvfool report.

Is this the report your referring to?

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...3cf4e4dd420199

Which channel(s) are you having the issue with?

7.1, 18.1, 24.1, 36.1, 42.1 & 54.1 are the local channels I am trying to receive. They all broadcast from the same general location and distance.

Tv Antennas and Reception
 

What airport is it , Georgetown Municipal , Areo Centex , Green airport , Bar 3 Ranch Airport , Tri-Model Air Park , Hilde-Griff Field , Hoopes Ranch Air Port ?? What direction is your house from the Air Port ??

Georgetown Municipal and I am due North of the airport. If you draw a line down the North/South runway my house sits just to the West side of that line.

I'm surprised that your results were no better with the antenna mounted outside. I'm not too familiar with that antenna, but the advertised gain specs are mediocre for a large antenna. The best defense against airplane flutter is a high gain/highly directional antenna. There are still no guarantees, but I would think your chances are good with the supplied report.

I suggest either the Winegard 7697 or 7698 combo antenna. If you don't mind having 2 antennas, the Winegard YA-1713/ 91XG combo would be even better for about the same price.

This is what I would do, but hopefully others will chime in with other suggestions as well.

Stacking two identical antennas would be an idea to consider, if all else fails.

http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=1024

(Stacking one above the other will narrow the vertical beam-width, making the combination less sensitive to signals from above and below.)

Tv Antennas and Reception
 

You can do this with the antenna you have . Here are ways to reduce multipath. Directional antennas have less reception at the , top , bottom , sides and back of the antenna. . Tipping Out Multipath . Tilt the front of the antenna down , this will put more of the reflected signal to the top of the antenna where there is less reception. Tilt the sides of the antenna , left side down - right side up or right side down - left side up. The sides of the antenna can be tilted up to 40 degrees and still receive the main signal that is received at the front of the antenna. Also can try rotating the antenna to the left and right.

What receiver are you currently using? Have you tried testing different receivers? Some tuners have better equalizer logic which can make a big difference in how well they deal with multipath interference (there's a brief technical discussion about equalizers in this post: http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?p=365#post365).

An outdoor antenna and/or a more directional antenna setup are expected to do better for your current situation because it cuts down on the amount of multipath that your tuner has to deal with. Most of us would expect to see at least some improvement in the situation when you move the antenna outside, even if it doesn't completely solve the problem. A tighter antenna pattern (better antenna or stacked antennas) should improve the situation even more.

Tv Antennas and Reception
 

The Winegard HD7210P is designed to reduce or eleminate multipath.

I appreciate all the input here and will work on some of the suggestions. While I would like to try one of the more directional antennas mentioned I do not have loads of money to throw at this and would like to try and get my current antenna to work. I am surprised no one had any comments about my original question regarding metalic shielding. I had read about this and was finally able to track down the link. If anybody cares to check it out let me know what you think.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=103432