I recently bought an RCA Mini Yagi antenna for $44 on WalMart because of the high ratings along with the VHF Capabilities my other antenna didn't have. The antenna is fully assembled and ready to go in the attic tomorrow (It's sitting in an opened spot in my room facing towers) but I'm worried about these occasional dropouts that happen once every 10 seconds or more.
It usually only happens with any of my antennas during thunderstorms but this antenna seems to be getting it constantly. I didn't get these dropouts with my first antenna when I had it indoors and passing through 2 rooms, and I even kept it inside because it worked so well before I got it into the attic.
I do know that I live in a so called "signal shadow" that is caused by a mountain here in Kennesaw, Georgia, but this antenna -when it's not dropping out on me- gets me even better UHF and VHF signal than my first antenna. Is the mountain causing signal dropouts? I think the signals go over and bend back towards me or bend around the mountain and get to me, but would something be disturbing that signal? Airplanes aren't an issue even though I live near an air force base and a county airport because none of the airplanes go between me and the towers.
I got 25 feet of RG 6 coax cable (uninterrupted from TV to antenna, no amplifiers needed for now or FM trap anymore) which is still working fine (which isn't the issue because 1 or so db loss doesn't matter in my case) and better than one of my 3 FT RG 6 cables, which is a good thing.
The tower most TV signals are on the Westin Tower in Atlanta I believe but the FM trap from radio shack isn't doing any difference so FM interference is out of the picture.
I live by 75-100 ft. trees in all directions but that isn't looking like it's the issue because I've gone through wind and hail storms with no signal issues.
My test channel is the one that comes in best from Atlanta, WXIA 11.1 and 11.2. They get 45-50% signal in it's position and looks fine until it drops out on me for no reason. It's not a slow signal decrease like 40% 35% 30% 0%, it's 50% to 0% in a snap lasting for about 2 seconds each. I have noticed though that it happens more on VHF than UHF, but it still happens on both types of channels
I know I am writing this as I am tired and watching TV to get to sleep, but these dropouts are what got me out of bed and to type this post, so I apologize for the bad layout and such. Mail me if you need me to elaborate and have a nice day
On a side note, my old antenna said it had 10.4 DBi Gain or something, does that mean it could receive signals at -10.4 db?
SIGNAL Link
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...990073d5537a43