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Old 31-Aug-2020, 5:40 PM   #3
rabbit73
Retired A/V Tech
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: S.E. VA
Posts: 2,747
Next reply by verder by PM:
Quote:
Originally Posted by verder
Looking at that AVSForum site, I'm not sure where to post. I live in the Fargo area which has a 115 page thread already started, but just skimming through it, it looks like it's more about the market than specific antenna help. In fact, you were the last person to post in that thread two months ago!

So, here's my info if you are still interested in helping out. I already have a Clearstream 4Max installed on the east edge of my second floor roof (on the north side, about 2-3' up from the gutter). I have < 100' of copper-clad dual shield RG6 running west under my eave and into my house. The mast and cable is grounded. The path for the signal is: antenna -> cable -> grounding block -> cable -> internal cable jack plate -> cable -> Tablo. In other words, no splitting and only a couple of interconnects.

Before I permanently attached the antenna to my house, I made a temporary stand and tried several locations along the west and east sides of my house & garage. Part of my problem is that I have trees that are to the northwest and southeast, right in line with reported towers, and I was hoping to figure out where my "sweet spot" antenna location was. I ran the RG6 to a cheap MediaSonic digital tuner I picked up from Amazon that was connected to a TV via HDMI. I used that to get a rough signal quality reading and also would watch one channel on each carrier frequency for a minute or two to look for drop-outs or pixelation. The best place seemed to be on the east side of the house.

The funny thing about antenna placement is that I had the antenna temporarily at a point about halfway up to the peak of the house and got everything but KRDK. I didn't have any place for a ladder for permanently attaching things, so I moved my temporary stand down the slope of the house by a foot or two to the north and that got everything. Weird. RF reception almost seems to have a certain degree of black magic involved with it! :P

Note that I didn't go to the peak of my house mainly because I have the top of my fireplace chimney jutting out there -- it's a metal cylinder roughly 2' in diameter and I was thinking signal reflection / shielding may be an issue if I got too close. Additionally, trying to attach to the fascia there would have been challenging as I don't have a long enough ladder to reach that position.

Channels checked:

4-1 (KRDK)
6-1 (WDAY)
11-1 (KVLY)
13-1 (KFME)
15-1 (KVRR)
28-1 (K28MA)
30-1 (KXJB)

I now have the antenna connected to a Tablo Quad (4-tuner) DVR. The problem I'm having right now is that I occasionally get dropped recordings for channels 4, 11, 15, and 28. It doesn't happen all the time. I'm questioning if it is the Tablo or the antenna. I've heard that the Clearstream 4Max has a narrow signal reception angle, and I'm wondering if a cheaper RCA ANT751E from Menard's would be a better option:

https://www.menards.com/main/electri...4940301502.htm

I'm sure it doesn't help that I have towers almost 180 degrees apart. I need to receive both from the northwest and the southeast.

I don't have any fancy antenna equipment, but if it helps I do have an RTL-SDR and Airspy R2 SDR. I've been able to see the frequency spectrum that my antenna is putting out in the VHF/UHF bands. I was hoping to use that to see if I could tune things.

I looked up nearby cell tower locations on http://antennasearch.com/default.asp and there are some towers that are somewhat close to my location. I gave an LTE filter a shot, not really expecting much, and sure enough -- I still get weak signal indications so I think that was a bust.

Thanks for any help you can provide!
Thank you for the very thorough additional information.

We will study your problem and come back with some comments that might be helpful.
__________________
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Last edited by rabbit73; 31-Aug-2020 at 5:43 PM.
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