I have a fairly frustrating issue that I have spent hours troubleshooting. The short version is that I'm not getting good reception of channel 4-1 in Dallas (broadcast 35). The other channels come in adequately, including channels that are farther away and lower in broadcast power. The other channels break up only occasionally, but 4-1 breaks up very regularly. So, that's the summary, now here's the details.
Obligatory tvfool report...
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...46aec56172c6e0
Mandatory channels: 4-1, 5-1, 8-1, 11-1, 13-1, 33-1
Preferred channels: 21-1, 26-1, 27-1, 68-1
All broadcast towers are within 3 degrees (185-188)
We recently cut the cord and so I'm putting more effort into improving our OTA reception. We currently have a 20+ year old antenna that was in our attic, but I moved outside onto the old satellite j mount. (Picture should be attached.) The antenna is currently about 10 feet of the ground. It is 5-6 feet long and the UHF section is ~2 ft long. I have no idea what brand/model the antenna is. I got it second hand from my parents. They originally purchased it LONG before the DTV transition mainly for VHF channels, but it does have a UHF section too.
From the antenna (all properly grounded), the signal runs through about 20-30 feet of RG6 cable into the attic where it connects to a Winegard AP-8700 preamp. After the preamp, another 8 ft of RG6 to a two-way splitter (5-1002MHz). Then ~ 40ft of RG6 to the living room and ~50 ft of RG6 to the bedroom. Both locations have TiVo Premier DVRs as the tuners. All cabling uses compression connectors. There are no crimped connections.
I've read many, many posts on various internet forums about preamp or no preamp, splitters, cabling, antennas, etc. The best reception I've been able to get is with the configuration above. I've tried without the preamp where I lose about half the channels and others break up constantly. I've tried different splitters (no change), 4-way splitters to reduce the signal in case the preamp was overloading the tuners (much worse reception and lost about a quarter of the channels). I even tried the antenna direct to only one TiVo (still not good).
I'm about ready to pull my hair out. I'm considering two things right now...
1. Get the antenna higher.
2. Get a new antenna
As for getting it higher, I have a huge WAF to deal with. She doesn't want anything making her house look ugly. Likely all I can do is get a longer J mount (amazon has a 40 inch that should buy me an extra 22 inches of height). Beyond that cost goes way up as does the engineering since I'd have to come up with a completely new mounting location and structure. There is a single, perpindicular line of trees directly across the street from us in the direction of the broadcast towers. Getting above the trees is not an option. They are mature trees with one of them reaching at least 50-60 feet.
As for an antenna, everything I read says I shouldn't need an antenna even as big as what I've got. All but one of the channels I want are in the CEA yellow zone. I've been looking into antennas and see a bunch of options, unfortunately most of the ones with really good UHF performance don't do VHF at all. The combo antennas are a compromise in performance, but may still be better than what I've got. (Separates are not likely due to the WAF).
After reviewing multiple antenna models from pretty much every manufacturer, I keep coming back to the Antennacraft HBU44. It appears that the UHF section is markedly bigger than the one we have. It's biggest selling point is price (~$60) Keeping the cost under $100 and closer to $50 is preferable (again, that pesky WAF). The total length of the antenna is nearly 10 feet so I'm sure I'd have to get the taller mount just to be able to rotate it even the little bit needed without hitting the roof. As it is, I had to bend a couple of the rods on the VHF section of the current antenna to keep them from touching the composite shingles.
To further compound the issue, there are two HAM radio antennas within sight of our house. One is about 200-300 feet away, the other is about 500 feet. They are opposite directions and not in line with where my TV antenna needs to be aimed. They are approximately 80 degrees to each side of my antenna (if 0 degrees is pointed at the TV broadcast towers). I don't even know if they are used or not. They existed long before we bought this house about ten years ago.
The last bit of info I can think of is that the TiVo premiere tuners are known to have poor multipath rejection and why I need to have a directional antenna.
I realize this has been long, but can anyone provide input on how to improve my reception - specifically with channel 4-1 (broadcast 35)? If you need any more info, just ask.
