ABC giving me problems East of Pittsburgh, Pa.

[jj94tt]

I have a Winegard HD-7696p mounted on a mast above my house with a Winegard mast mount amplifier w/ FM trap, this running to an 8 way passive splitter with 3 of the terminals capped. My reception is good on all channels but ABC, which broadcasts from about 4 miles from my house 60 degrees to the left of the main grouping. I can't seem to find a beam pattern of the 7696, but I am thinking that ABC is currently in a dead zone. Because the distance of the main channels is well within reach of this antenna, would it be possible to move them slightly off the main bean to get ABC a little further up on the side lobe?

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...5b943bbd33298a

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

[GroundUrMast]

Here is Winegard's specs for the HD7696P, http://www.winegarddirect.com/viewit...P%29&p=HD7696P

Certainly, try turning the antenna to see if you can split the aim...

If that fails to give acceptable results, a smaller, less directional antenna may work. (HD7694P, HBU-33, etc)

A separate UHF only antenna is an option. (Antennas Direct CS2 or DB2e) You could try a reversed 2-way splitter as a combiner... good luck. If that failed, tinlee.com may be able to sell a tuned filter combiner that adds only one channel to the main antenna down-lead. As I recall, the base model is an AC-7.

[jj94tt]

Thanks for the advice. I did find that spec page for the Winegard, but perhaps I do not know how to interpret the data. I assumed the beamwidth data applied to various frequencies on the main lobe of the signal. For a decent guess of how to adjust the aim, I figured I needed the location of the side lobe of the beam pattern (degrees off main lobe). That spec page does not seem to list that info... at least, I don't think it does.

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...O7H6Ui31PvTWjw

[ADTech]

For a decent guess of how to adjust the aim, I figured I needed the location of the side lobe of the beam pattern (degrees off main lobe).

It doesn't matter since Winegard uses a scaling factor on their polar plots that exaggerates the main lobe but gives little detail about any side lobes.

The 7696P data sheet is at http://www.winegard.com/kbase/upload/HD7696P.pdf

[GroundUrMast]

Much of a successful antenna install may depend on some on site experimentation with antenna placement and aim. In the end, pouring over data sheets is only an academic exercise. One needs to brave the elements, get up there and try adjusting the aim... Then you'll know the real results in your specific application.