Quote:
Originally Posted by Huntingfool
Any idea why my u4000 doesn't work?
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Four reasons;
1) Five of the stations listed in the top twelve entries of your TV Fool report are broadcast on VHF frequencies. (MisterMe is correct, the U4000 is not designed to receive VHF frequencies well.)
2) All of the signals on your report are weak or extremely weak.
3) There is terrain blocking your line of sight.
4) Even in the UHF band, the U4000 and similar 4-bay panel antennas lack the gain needed in your situation.
On a related note, in case you or someone reading this later wonders, an amplifier does not increase the gain of any antenna. Amplifiers (distribution and preamplifiers) are only able to overcome cable and splitter loss on the output side of the amplifier and (to a limited degree) poor tuner noise figure. They do so at the cost of adding some interfering noise. As a general rule: Beware of antennas with built-in amplifiers.
If you do not want to receive any VHF signals, it's not my place to say you're wrong.
(But I'm curious to hear why you're "...only interested in UHF.") If I were in your situation, I would opt for a large high gain antenna system that has both UHF and VHF capability. I'm curious about America One Network so I would likely risk some money trying to get a reliable signal. To do so, I would expect to need an antenna with the highest low-VHF gain available.
The Winegard HD7698P suggested by Electron is one of the best consumer grade options for a single UHF/high-VHF combo antenna.
The HD-5030 would be an option if you wanted to try receiving real channel 4. The low VHF gain of the HD-8200U is better by more than 2.5 dB.
Other valid options exist... all of which will be large 'deep fringe' designs.
(Here at TV Fool, there's an honest difference/range of opinion regarding your chance of success receiving low VHF channels when signal levels are as weak as is the case here. My hope is that those with first hand experience with DTV signals in the L-VHF band will share the details of their experience in the
Low VHF reception (2 - 6) Experience & Opinions thread. I would hope that everyone with some experience with DTV reception in the low-VHF band would weigh in and then respect your decision.)