WSAW Lower Power at Night?
 

Hello,

I'm perplexed by an issue receiving VHF channel 7 (WSAW) at night with this plot:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...e1c667c2566bb2

During the day the signal quality shows up in an HDHomerun tuner as 98% or so but at night or in the evening (now), 7:45pm localtime, the signal is at 54%, and is typically below 75%. The signal strength is listed as 98%. For reference,WAOW VHF channel 9 is currently at 85% signal quality and 100% strength. On a Samsung tv, the SNR is 14-15 for WSAW currently and 24-25 for WAOW.

Setup is an AntennasDirect DB8e with the VHF retrofit kit, fed into a Winegard HDA-200 distribution amp.

Possible that WSAW is lowering their power at night? Something else going on with my setup?

Stations do NOT lower their power at night.

Most likely, you're getting electrical or electronic interference from something nearby that's on a timer or is controlled by a photoelectric eye.

tv454481 may think this, because some AM stations do that at sunset.

I've run into this idea very frequently from callers who experience daily cycles in their reception. Of course, it's easier for them to believe that it's a conspiracy on the part of the stations rather than other external factors such as background noise variations or localized interference.

Do you have issues watching RF7 at night? Is this a problem that needs to be fixed?

The VHF retrofit kit is just a dipole. A dipole has a very wide reception pattern. If there is noise anywhere in front or behind the dipole, the dipole will pick it up with the RF7 signal. The only places the dipole will not pick up noise are in the directions the elements point to. You have great signal predicted on your TV fool plot, but if the quality drop/signal to noise drop on RF7 is a problem, a more directional antenna could help.

You could play noise detective and find the device that is causing the noise after dark, but the FCC does not seem to be doing much to enforce part 15 rules, so you would be on your own.

Both RF 7 and RF 9 are on the same heading from you, so any VHF-high antenna would work, the Y5-7-10 would be much more directional than a dipole and it is inexpensive and not obnoxiously long.

In my experience, the HDHR is very picky. I have a HDHR and a Hauppauge HVR-1600 in a WMC computer. The HVR-1600 gives me 1 more bar on channel scan for most channels. There are channels that the HDHR can’t get that the HVR-1600 can get reliably. I think the difference is how well the HDHR vs the HVR-1600 handle noise and multipath.

Your TV fool plot says the path to WSAW RF7 is LOS, but if something in the path is getting blown around at night, that could be part of what you are seeing. A more directional antenna could help with multi path if that is part of the problem.

Unless the quality drop is hurting your ability to watch WSAW, no action is required.