I'm deprived of cartoons and opera because I'm suddenly having problems receiving both FOX and PBS from a nearby tower. I've been in the same house for 22 years, and while I've had to work out some bugs in the transition to digital, this is a new situation. I'm able to receive both VHF and UHF channels from much farther away (9,13 and 16- nearly 40 miles to the south, but 7 and 14, which are broadcast from the same tower, less than six miles to the north, suddenly elude me. The have different problems: FOX will display a pretty solid picture with my antennas (more on them later) pointed in almost any direction, but the sound breaks up every few seconds. My TV's pretty crude signal strength indicator swings wildly from 8/10 to 0 bars. Channel 7 PBS also comes in well with almost any orientation, but exhibits a couple seconds of pixelization or a creepy sort of solarized effect during cuts between shots in the program. It shows a solid 8 bars of signal- it doesn't fluctuate. Only FOX (14) shows an unstable signal.
For years, I got by with a modest UHF Radio Shack antenna in my attic, on a rotating mast. Over the past few weeks, I've added a ClearStream 5 to the same mast, which is still there. I also rented a nice VHF/UHF antenna from a local pro to do some testing but got the same results. I built a bowtie antenna just for kicks, which got me nowhere, of course. Thinking I might have too strong a signal, I bought a little set top antenna and got the same bad sound from FOX (although I forgot to check the pic on PBS). I've hooked up all of these antennas with various lengths of known good coax, and carried them to various spots in my attic, up and down the stairs and outside, to no avail. I've installed and removed an inline attenuator and FM trap. I had a little amp for years, but it's currently out of the picture (so to speak) I've performed a pretty thorough search and unplug mission to rule out interference from in my house. I've brought an old analog TV from school and connected it to my old converter box with the same audio result for FOX (but forgot to check PBS again!).
So right now, I have the UHF and ClearStream stacked on a mast in my attic, pointed the same direction. I have composition shingles, and painted wood siding. There's no insulation between the rafters, and only blown insulation between the ceiling joists. A run of coax of about 40 feet, straight into my pretty new Samsung TV. There are no trees nearby, although I'd guess that the neighbor's house, which is higher than my antenna is placed, is about 5 degrees out of my LOS to the tower.
Again, 7 and 14 are stations I've gotten for years, before and after the digital transition. This is a sudden change. My DIY pride is pretty bruised, so I hope someone out there has some clever ideas for me. Thanks in advance for your help. Here's the link to the results from the signal analysis tool.
http://www.tvfool.com/option=com_wra...574712a3e3b9c0