Thread: Getting Fed Up
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Old 12-Nov-2013, 7:56 PM   #1
pawoodbutcher
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 10
Had Great TV, now nothing

Hello to all TV fools.

I will begin with the abridged version of the backstory.
Live alone. Worked a lot. Got free tv from bunny ears. Got 4 or 5 channels.

Digital switch. Got two Zenith DTT901 boxes. No channels.

Bought RCA amplified indoor VHF/UHF antenna from the Mart. Got 1 and a half channels. (wtaj & watm, respectively)

Got girlfriend. Got job out of town. She got cable.
I finished that job and we dumped cable after about 2 years, because, well, you know. Back to the boxes and indoor antenna. Picked up WHVL, now getting 2 and a half channels, plus sub-channels.

Bought Winegaurd 8200U. Installed in attic. (yes, I know the drawbacks) Pointed it at 244 degrees. Got same channels, but without the fluttering every time a car goes by, which is a lot.

Installed Antennacraft 10G202 pre amp. Now we're livin'! Get PBS, WTAJ, WATM, WHVL & WQMY; for a total of 12 channels rock solid. Also got WJAC & WKBS in good weather; for a grand total of 15 stations and all major networks. FM TRAP IS ON.

BTW, one cable run to one TV. The antenna, two amplifier parts, and the digital box are the only connections. No splitters, VCRs, extra TV's, etc.

End of history, now today.
Stations started fading away. I always thought it was weather related, or the leaves on the trees, so I gave it a week. Then another week, and so on. Nothing improved, rather things got worse. Three months later, I havn't seen PBS, WJAC, WKBS, or WQMY since I don't know when. Now, WATM is pixelating and spotty.

A month ago, I metered the output of the power supply at 20.x volts. Supposed to be 12. Did it yesterday, 20.4 Volts. I thought this to be odd, but I have no baseline to compare it to when it was new.

This is pissing me off. So yesterday, I did a double re-scan of the box I have been using. Got nothing. Twice. Eek!

Dusted off the other Zenith box. Nothing. Same results. WTH?

Dug out the old RCA indoor antenna. Got WATM, WHVL, & WQMY. WTAJ shows up but is mostly un-watchable.

Went to basement and eliminated the power injector. Put the two cable ends together with a male-male that came out of a cable wall plate. Climbed in the attic. Took RG6 from basement off amp & fed directly to antenna.

Try again. Now she gets WTAJ & WHVL.

At this point I write all this.

My questions are...

1) Since everything used to work fine, all be it for a short 3 months, I have to assume that I made informed decisions on the equipment and had installed it properly. Do you agree?

2) Is my power supply or amp bad? 20volts seems like a lot if its only supposed to be making 12. This is the only thing I know to do to test it.

3) Since I live in a black hole of TV reception, I understand that getting my antenna outside is better, but for what reason do these reports show WORSE reception the higher I go? Some of the close stations get better, but the ones I am having trouble with get worse.

Many thanks to you all.

10 ft report (attic)
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...46ae9381c23da9

20 ft
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...46aeee6f19cdb9

40 ft
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...46aebbbd28b91b

Last edited by pawoodbutcher; 12-Nov-2013 at 8:17 PM.
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