Elusive Channel

[cnick]

Greetings,


Finally fed up with paying $120 per month to watch the local news in the morning and a football game on Sunday!

I setup a Tablo tuner and initially had a Mohu Sky antenna hooked up to it. It worked relatively well and then one day it rained and my reception got really weird! I was having trouble receiving one particular station, XETV (of course the one I watched for local news) with the Sky anyways so I decieded to try a 91xg per this recommendation on the channels website

"Two TV stations in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties interfere with our signal enough in North San Diego County that you need an antenna that does a superior job of rejecting signals from the back side. Many common antennas do a good job of receiving signals from the front, but a poor job of rejecting signals from the back. You need both. One antenna that does both is the Terrestrial Digital 91XG. It’s sister, the 43XG, is smaller and should work well if you are on a big hill or toward the south end of the fringe zone in Encinitas or Poway."

I tried the 91xg in the attic and I think there was just too much stuff up there for it to work correctly (lots of ductwork/insulation/metal straps) but I was still pulling in most of the UHF and one VHF channel so I moved it outside..

I ran out of time to actually do any kind of mounting and testing of it but just laying it on the 1st story roof to get it out of the way, haphazardly pointing at about 149 degress, I am getting all of the channels I did with the Sky, including the VHF, except for that one channel!

Obviously I need to mount it and point it correctly but does anyone have any tips/tricks looking at my TvFool report why I may not be getting that particular channel and getting others in the path? I'm running it through about 60 ft of Rg6 while I move it around the roof trying to find the best spot.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...5134a1bcd3f18d

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[tclearinghouse]

The 91XG is a UHF antenna and XETV is VHF-low channel. That antenna is not made to pickup VHF channels. The sky is VHF/UHF so that explains why it worked. You are getting KFMB most likely because it is pretty strong. XETV at real channel 6 is in your fringes.

Also I owned a Sky and it was honestly overpriced junk. I scrapped it for a clearstream 2V which worked for me with my similar report in NC. To give you an idea here is my report:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...5134c363278f6c

I get everything down to WNCR real channel 15. The only channels that are hit or miss on my report at WYDO and WRAZ. WYDO because of trees and WRAZ I think I am just too far for a reliable signal.

[cnick]

Hey T,

Thanks for the reply!

Just to clarify, I only got XETV for about 3 days with the Sky and that was after 4 days of moving the antenna around...

The stations website says that they are transmitting on UHF:

"We’re on UHF channel 23 broadcasting from Mt. San Antonio in Tijuana, Mexico, using full legal power of 403kW ERP, directed primarily northward. On most digital receivers, our digital channel will be displayed as “6.1” or “6-1.” Our analog channel will be displayed as “6” or “6-0”. San Diego viewers can receive local digital TV signals over-the-air using a relatively small antenna. Receiving all stations at the same time can be challenging because unlike most cities, San Diego area digital TV stations are currently located on three separate mountains."

and Wikipedia (oh soooo reliable, not)

"In 2000, XETV-TV began transmitting a digital signal on UHF channel 23, becoming the first San Diego area station to begin digital television transmissions. It was also the first television station in Mexico to operate a digital signal because of its Tijuana transmitter; no other Mexican television station had begun digital operations at that time.[2] It maps on digital tuners in both countries as virtual channel 6.1 through PSIP technology."

I just looked at my TVFool report again and your right, there are indeed showing it at real channel 6...I missed that!

Is there a way to find out which one is correct??

Thanks again!

[ADTech]

XETV is VHF-low channel.

This is incorrect. XETV operates on UHF 23. The analog 6 signal was shut off several years ago, but the proprietor of this site still hasn't deleted the out-of-date data from his database. See http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=13354

FYI, the SKY is a bi-directional antenna, it has no ability to focus in one direction while rejecting from the opposite.

Obviously I need to mount it and point it correctly

Yes, this is what you need to do. You've simply plopped the antenna down and it happened to land in a dead spot for that channel.

Several words of advice: Do NOT drill any holes until you've found a suitable location where everything desired works. Use only temporary mounting provisions while testing.

[tclearinghouse]

Actually you are right, channel 6 is actually right since according to the report it is/was actually broadcasting analog. I see further down the chart it is listed as real channel 23 for the digital broadcast and your antenna should improve that.

[cnick]

Thanks again for the replies!

I was playing with the positioning today and was able to pull in XETV at full power. The antenna is actually tucked behind, and pointing through, a stucco wall! So this leads me to believe that the attic install may indeed work if I was able to get it pointed in the right direction?

If no go on the attic, the wife just let me know that the antenna "looks ridiculous" so I am going to try and hide it on the backside of the house. The obvious problem with that is that I need a mast to be able to clear the roof ridge. That being said, is there a minimum clearance I need to have above the ridge or do I just need a line of sight to the towers? There are a couple of palm trees in the way about 500 ft out..

Thanks again!

[ADTech]

The antenna needs to be where it needs to be. It will tell you if it doesn't like where you happen to put it by seemingly refusing to cooperate.

Stucco usually contains a wire mesh as a backer. Signals cannot pass through the stucco so you're left with whatever happens to make it around the obstruction.