Antenna worse on Roof than in attic! Please help
 

Hello,

I originaly had my antenna inside my attic but didn't have great results. Today I moved it to my chimney on the roof and it's worse! Here are the details:

This is my analysis from TV FOOL:

Antenna: Denny HD Stacker

Antenna height: 30 ft above ground
I am using rotor so I can tweak orientation.
Run about 40' to a grounding block. Our of the block another 10' to a Wineguard HDA 200 distribution amplifier. From the amp it runs to a 4 way splitter. From the splitter to the Plasma TV I am using to see performance is another 25'.

Grounded antenna below rotor down to groudning rod driven into dirt. Also tied the ground wire coming from the ground block mentioned above to this ground rod.

All RG6 solid core cable wire

Plasma has built in tuner. Typical signal strength on TV is 35-40 out of 100.

I still cannot pick up 2 or 4 at all (nothing comes in). 5 and 7 are a little stonger but pickelate (40/100 signal).

If 2, 4, 5, 7 are all coming off Empire State Building, why can I get 7 but can't see 2 or 4?

Am I using the wrong antenna? What other brand/model would be better?

Is the built in tuner on my Pioneer not as good as a separate set top box?

Am I just too far away from NYC to make this work? I'd hate to give up after spending the whole day on the roof with my Dad helping me.

I really want to tell my Cable company to get lost but need to at least see the major networks.

I'm discouraged! I've been working at this for a while now and I'm not making any headway. Any advice would be great.

Thanks,
Joe

You should be seeing reliable signal from the ESB with your TVFool.com report, but I keep wondering why people seem to like the Stacker antenna: it seems to be OK for VHF, but people seem to have issues with UHF with that antenna. I would have used a Winegard HD-7696P in your situation, and I KNOW that you'd do well, but I also think that you are having trouble with either the matching transformer than converts the antenna to coaxial cable or with antenna spacing.

All of the NYC and CT stations should be coming in using your antenna.

Tv Reception
 

Read and understand this-->http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=695 , WCBS 2 is real channel UHF 33 , WNBC 4 is real channel UHF 28 , WNYW 5 is real channel UHF 44 and WABC 7 is real channel 7 . I am in complete and total agreement with Tigerbangs on the HDStacker. The UHF part of the antenna is below the VHF part of the antenna , so the VHF part of the antenna is close and blocks reception coming in at a angle. The stacking arangement gives the antenna a very narrow Verticle Bore Site , this is not good for UHF reception. If the phasing loop between the antennas has been taped to ANY metal , Un tape it. If the phasing loop is run in any other manner then what is shown in the instructions , then make it like the instructions say and make it like the instructions show. The phasing loop between the two parts of the antennas Must Not be close to or touching any metal. More testing , run a Known To Be Good RG-6 coax from a Known To Be Good Matching Transformer direct to the Tv. No splitters , No amplifiers , No grounding blocks , No VCRS , No DVD players , No switching devices. Using the Know to be good coax , you can also work through the parts of the system and find the bad componet or componets. Look inside the coax connectors and see is the outer shielding and braid wires are pushed in to center wire. If so then push the shielding and braided wires away from the center wire. Also clean the foam that separates the center wire from outer shielding of the coax cable.