Quote:
Originally Posted by ADTech
Try different locations for the antenna before drilling any holes. It's not uncommon for there to be channel-specific dead spots that are solved by moving the antenna anywhere from 6 inches or more.
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Thanks for responding. I think this could also be part of the problem, but only in specific relation to the TiVo tuners and possible multi-path interference.
It will probably be a couple of months before I have enough spending money to go buy a new antenna. In the meantime, I decided to build my own. I built one of the UHF antennas based on the instructions at that blogspot post that everyone knows about. I completed it today and put it in the attic where the old YAGI antenna had been. For comparison, I connected the outdoor antenna directly to my living room TV with no splitters or amp. I noted the signal strength on all the channels I care about. I then connected the DIY 4-bay UHF antenna in the attic directly to the same TV. I made notes of the signal strength on the same channels.
On all but one channel, the signal strength was as good or better with the DIY antenna (attic) as it was with the YAGI antenna (outdoor). The one channel that was worse was 8-1 (broadcast 8 - High VHF) as expected. Though it was still perfectly watchable.
Interestingly, channel 4-1 (35) showed signal strength of 100% with both antennas. This tells me that the TV tuner is better than the TiVo tuner (no surprise). Unfortunately, a lot of channels were showing at 100% with both antennas so I can't really say which antenna is better on those channels since the TV says they're both getting good signal. I do recall that the TiVo meter isn't that generous since my best channel on it is in the 95 range and 4-1 is somewhere in the 60's. (I really wish the current software version hadn't caused the TiVo signal meter to freeze. I really want to do some scans with the TiVo since that's what I intend to use).
I then put a lower gain amp (11db, left by the cable company) on the DIY antenna and checked again, signal strength is up for everything, though 8-1 is still not quite as strong as it is on the real antenna.
I'll play around more with various configurations and post back. As it stands, it looks like the DIY antenna may be what I go with until I can afford a new real antenna.