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Old 20-Mar-2010, 10:52 PM   #1
WoBe
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Help with reception

Oh my gosh. I just did a very long thread and it dumped when I hit submit....Here we go again.
Need help out here in rural Graham, Washington. Surrounded by lots of trees. Do not wish to contribute to pocketbooks of satellite mafia even if we could afford to. Can't afford fancy new HD tvs, either. Since the ridiculous DTV switch, my husband and I have given up TV and only watch DVDs from the library. However, my 85 yr old mom who lives in attached mom-n-law house enjoys her local channels, but has lost most of them since the switch. She certainly can't afford satellite.
For the switch, we put a ClearChannel 2 on the single story side of house, located right above her TV. Because we were testing the reception, we ran the line from the antenna through an open window and into the back of the converter box. This gave her spotty reception. Lost two of her favorite locals altogether. If the wind blew a bit, we had to adjust antenna and re-scan to get the remaining. But at least she had some TV.
So, we had an electrician come out to make it pretty so we could get rid of the window setup. He ran the CATV line from our structured wiring box located in the central part of house (about 50feet from mom's TV) through the attic and outside. (This sounded like a good idea, as that's supposed to be what the structured wiring boxes are for.) Then for some reason he attached a splitter and tacked under the eave of house. Then he ran line from splitter to antenna. Inside, the line went from converter box to antenna plug on wall (which then travels through the attic to the structured wiring box). Well, she's getting ONE out of six local channels now, and lost most of the junk channels, as well. Unfortunately, we were both at work while all this went on, otherwise would have questioned the splitter, at least.
So, today, my husband hooked it back up the way we had it, directly from antenna, through window, and into coverter box. She gained two more locals and got the junk channels back. Still missing her three favorite locals, of course.
I plugged in our address on Antenna Web and it said we needed a large directional antenna with pre-amp. Plugged in address on TV Fool and it shows we need a roof top antenna, which is what we have. (it is about 5-6 ft off of low end of roof pitch, a couple feet away from gutter)
We don't know what to do at this point. We would sure apprectiate suggestions. Here is our signal analysis: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...b7c842546ff127 Thank you for any help.
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Old 21-Mar-2010, 2:50 AM   #2
Tigerbangs
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Folks, it isn't as dire as you might think: you WILL be able to get all your significant local Seattle-Tacoma stations if you use the right antenna system. I believe that you own, and are referring to the ClearStream2 antenna made and sold by AntennasDirect. It is an antenna intended for close-in reception of UHF TV stations. That antenna will NOT solve your current TV reception issues, as you need a fringe-area antenna that will receive VHF as well as UHF antenna to see all of the Sea-Tac stations well.

The major Seattle stations come from two different directions from your location: the bulk of them transmit from a location near downtown Seattle, however KCPQ, the FOX station, transmits from a location about 25 miles WEST of downtown Seattle. Your home has a clearer shot to the KCPQ transmitter, so I suspect that you may be more easily likely to see it's signal than KING, KIRO, KCTS, KOMO, KSTW etc..

I have solved this issue a number of times for other Washington residents, and I believe that I have the answer for you, as well. You need a two-antenna arrangement: a broadband VHF-UHF antenna aimed at the bulk of the Seattle transmitters, which are located 340 degrees from your location, as measured by your compass. I would recommend using a Winegard HD-7696P antenna mounted on the highest point of the roof of your house. You will need a separate VHF antenna to pick up KCPQ . I recommend using a Winegard YA-6713 or an AntennasCraft Y-5-7-13 mounted 4' above the larger broadband antenna , and aimed at at 305 degrees by your compass. Combine the two antennas using a Channel Master JoinTenna tuned specifically for channel 13, which is available cheaply from Amazon.com. Feed the output of the JoinTenna into a Winegard HDP-269 preamplifier, and mount the power injector for the preamplifier in a location inside your house that is convenient to both your primary TV set and your mother-in-law's TV set. Mount a high-quality 2-way splitter inline after preamplifier's power injector, then run cable from the splitter to each TV set. Be sure that you rescan the digital convertors after the installation to be sure that they find the new channels. All of your local network channels should be restored, and you should receive signal equal to or better than the satellite or cable TV signals in your area.

http://www.winegard.com
http://www.antennaCraft.net
http://www.solidsignal.com
http://manuals.solidsignal.com/AntInstallGuide.pdf

Last edited by Tigerbangs; 21-Mar-2010 at 2:54 AM.
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Old 21-Mar-2010, 7:13 AM   #3
WoBe
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Help with reception-thank you!

Tigerbangs-thank you so much for your help. We never would have figured this out on our own. Do you think it would be OK then to go back to having the antenna hooked up to the structured wiring box I meantioned in my orig post, which is located about 50 feet from the antenna and the TV? I read where long runs of cable can weaken the signal. However, with the antenna setup that you are recommending, maybe this wouldn't be an issue? Thank you.
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Old 21-Mar-2010, 3:33 PM   #4
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If you use the Winegard preamplifier that I mentioned: the HDP-269, the extra cabling will not be a problem, as the preamp will compensate for the extra line losses. For best results, though, the splitter should be in the line AFTER the preamplifier power supply, as most splitters won't pass the DC power from the power injector. That may require a little additional wiring to make it all work.

Last edited by Tigerbangs; 22-Mar-2010 at 2:04 PM.
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Old 22-Mar-2010, 3:23 AM   #5
WoBe
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OK Tigerbangs. We will follow this step by step and see what happens. Thanks so much again for your help. I will post here when we complete the setup and let you and all know how it worked.
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Old 22-Mar-2010, 10:43 PM   #6
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I'm always happy to hear about how things work you! Good Luck!
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