[mtownsend]

Hello and welcome!

Originally Posted by fritzel67

I've got a Terk HDTVo in my attic (1 story house). Prior to the cutover last year to digital, I could pull in channel 8.1 (PBS) crystal clear. Ever since the digital switch, I have reception problems most of the time on 8.1, 8.2, and the WTVF channels (5.1, 5.2, 5.3). Sometimes they come in fine, but usually not for long. The rest of the channels I receive come in fine (WKRN, WSVM, Fox 17.1, ION 28.1 through 28.3, etc).

Since all of your channels are in the "pink" (NM less than 15 dB), you really ought to be using a rooftop antenna. Getting the antenna outside will give your antenna access to stronger signals (because it doesn't need to go through any building material), and may also give you cleaner signal (because there are fewer objects to create signal reflections, a.k.a. multi-path).

This Terk antenna is not a particularly good performer either. The section in front with the silver "blades" is a copy of the Silver Sensor UHF antenna. It's pretty good at picking up UHF signals given its size (roughly 6 dB of gain). The two "ears" at the sides are for picking up VHF stations. Since there are only two elements and since they are relatively short, this antenna probably has pretty poor performance in VHF (probably in the range of -5 to -1 dB of gain, and yes, I mean negative numbers).

I know PBS has a weaker signal that the other stations in Nashville, but when I look at the signal strength data, it appears that PBS is closer and stronger than the other stations. SO...why does it come in worse than the rest?

WNTP (ch 8) and WTVF (ch 5) are VHF channels. WSMV (ch 10) is also in VHF, but it looks like you're lucky with that one. The HDTVo antenna is not very good at picking up VHF (it's sensitivity is rather limited at those frequencies). So, even though WNTP is the strongest channel in the air at your location, it's not getting though your antenna very well, and it ends up being one of the weaker channels as seen by your receiver.

I thought about moving my antenna outside but I'm not certain this would help.

Moving the antenna outside will improve the signal strengths, but the HDTVo is not meant to be an outdoor antenna. Its electronics and plastics were probably not designed to handle outdoor exposure to the elements.

If you wanted to try it temporarily, just for grins, you probably would see an improvement in channel reliability. However, since the antenna is inherently weak at VHF, you will probably still end up with only marginal performance on the VHF stations.



Are you interested in installing an antenna (a "real" outdoor type) on the roof? If you do, you should be able to get all those "pink" stations pretty reliably.