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Old 31-Dec-2011, 3:46 AM   #31
scott784
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 101
Quote:
Originally Posted by slowhike View Post
I'll give that a try.
Today I have seen some occasional problems on 2 or 3 channels.

Sometimes the picture would momentarily freeze, show lots of squares & the sound would break up.
I'm guessing that's what you're calling pixelations, right?

And a few times the screen turned blue & at the bottom it said "Unusable Signal".
I'm guessing that's called a dropout, right?

And I'm guessing from what is being said that those issues come from a lack of strong signal, right?

I looked on the TVs menu but did not find a way to view the antenna signal strength. I'll see if I can find the owners guide that came with the TV & see if it's talked about there.
The answer is yes to all 3 of your questions. If your antenna is still facing to the east, I would guess that you experienced these issues on some of the Charlotte channels on your list (or the weak WGPX ION affiliate here in the Triad). Was that the case?

Keep in mind, some of the CLT channels are close to 70 miles away from you (i.e. WBTV and WCNC). And if your antenna is facing east (away from Charlotte), the signal levels on those networks are probably very low (with the antenna facing the east). So if you are shooting for access to both markets (Charlotte and the Triad), you may want to rotate your Winegard to the SW (toward Charlotte).

If you do so, (hopefully) it will correct that issue. You could then experience an issue on a local triad station (i.e. the weak signal of WGPX). However, you are close enough to most of the other Triad stations where your antenna is going to be able to pick them up without pixilations and dropouts, even with your antenna facing away from them. That is the hope anyways!

A lot of it is trial and error. But you are in an excellent location (overall) for good results. If your TV has a good built-in signal meter, or one you can get your hands on, it may be very helpful to show you the real world results concerning how much signal you are really working with.....with the antenna faced in a particular direction.
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