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Old 24-Apr-2010, 3:20 AM   #1
Texas Girl
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Missing a Channel

Help! I live west of Fort Worth Texas and suddenly lost one of my main channels (nbc 5) about 3 weeks ago. All the other channels come in great, but I get "weak or no signal" when I turn on 5. We have 2 antennas in the attic and an attenuator. I wrote to the station and they suggested we try to re-position our antenna, which we did to no avail. Why would we suddenly lose a channel, but all the other channels still come in strong? The station is being no help at all, and I am at a loss as to what to do. Thanks!
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Old 24-Apr-2010, 6:38 AM   #2
teleview
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Lightbulb Out West in Texas

Where at , west of Fort Worth Texas. And I see the word 'attenuator' and I also see the words '2 antennas'. And I also see the word 'attic'. . . . The Digital Channel of KXAS 5 is UHF 41. The actual transmitted and received television channel is UHF 41. . I suggest rechannel scan the Tv/Tv's and or converter box/converter boxes. Information ---> An 'attenuator' reduces the strength of Tv signals. After the rescan , get back to us with better information. . Read and watch this information at the 'dtv.gov' web site http://www.dtv.gov/rescan.html

Last edited by teleview; 24-Apr-2010 at 9:38 AM.
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Old 24-Apr-2010, 1:07 PM   #3
Texas Girl
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My husband says we have a long range UHF/VHF antenna, and then another UHF antenna that does channels 11 and up. We got the atenuator last year at the switchover because KXAS 5 suggested we do so because other channels were bleeding into channel 5. We've always had trouble getting 5 clearly since it all went HD, but at least we could get it! Now it's blank. After we read your post, my husband just put one of the TV's on 41.3-41.5 and we have a pixelated version of channels 5-1-5.3! Wonder why channel 5 couldn't tell me that. However, it wouldn't let us type 41.5-41.5 on the other TV.

We rescanned, and 41.3-41.5 don't show up, but 5.1-5.3 do. We have to manually type in 41.3-41.5 to get the channel, but now we can type in 5.1-5.3 and get 5, but it's fairly pixelated. I guess the rescan linked it somehow?

Here's the link from putting my address into the channel finder:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...9c6b2fe8f9e33e

Thanks for helping me with this. I know nothing about this stuff. My husband does, but he was stumped as well. Any other tips you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
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Old 24-Apr-2010, 3:55 PM   #4
teleview
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Lightbulb Out West in Texas

I am not their to look at the situtation of the antennas and etc.. Do you have cable or satellite or is only over the air broadcast tv reception. My suggestion is only have the VHF/UHF long range antenna connected. Disconnect the the UHF antenna and the attenuator. Is any type or kind of signal amplifier connected? If so disconnect it. Start with the basics and see what happens. It is Ok to point the antenna in the direction of the television transmitters. Thinking of the basics , I would connect only one Tv and see what happens for reception. . With Digital Television Channels there are Virtual Channels and Actual Channels. As an example KXAS 5 is No Longer transmitting on channel 5. The real and actual digital channel is UHF 41. And yes Digital Tv can do this. The television station keeps the LEGACY CHANNEL NUMBER , how ever the real transmitted channel can be some other channel. Virtual and actual channels are shown at tvfool.
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Old 24-Apr-2010, 4:08 PM   #5
teleview
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Lightbulb Out West in Texas

Also attics can be a bad place for Tv antenna. Attics can have alot of metal duct work and heating and air conditioning , and metal vent pipes and etc.. and etc.. some houses have metal roofs or metal in or on the insulation , or metal siding. Metal has the annoying ability to block or redirect television signals.
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Old 24-Apr-2010, 10:10 PM   #6
Tower Guy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Texas Girl View Post
Why would we suddenly lose a channel, but all the other channels still come in strong?
Interference is one possibility. Consider odd sources such as MediaFLO on channel 55. I suggest 55 because it is the image frequency when you are trying to receive channel 41. The MediaFLO closest to you is at 32-48-7 97-24-30.
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Old 25-Apr-2010, 12:07 PM   #7
kb2fzq
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Texas Girl View Post
My husband says we have a long range UHF/VHF antenna, and then another UHF antenna that does channels 11 and up. We got the atenuator last year at the switchover because KXAS 5 suggested we do so because other channels were bleeding into channel 5.....
I would start by asking how you have the 2 antennas connected to each other? How far apart are they in the attic? Do you have round coaxial cable running into the house or the flat type cable? If you are using the flat type cable, I would switch to the 75 ohm coaxial cable, we can explain the connections. Being KXAS 5 is the subject of concern, I would try to use your VHF/UHF antenna connected by itself to the cable coming to the TV, WITHOUT the attenuator, to just one TV, assuring you are pointed at the KXAS transmitter and see if you can rescan and pull in KXAS reliably...which is actually transmitting on the radio frequency for TV channel 41, a UHF signal. The word "bleeding" suggests to me that the attenuator may have been needed when KXAS was actually transmitting in analog on the VHF-lo radio frequency for channel 5, which is subject to just about any kind of radio interference, but now may be hurting the UHF digital signal, but you say it was after the switch. What channels were bleeding over and what was the problem the bleed was causing? Is there any numbers on the attenuator that identifies what frequency(s) it is actually attenuating? Anything in line in the cable will cause a weaker signal at the TV. As much of a pain it might be, you may have to take baby steps and reconstruct your setup for the digital age to get all the channels. Digital is MUCH different then analog was. And very finicky.
Oh, just as an info blip, a UHF antenna should receive channels 14 thru 69...channels 11, 12 and 13 are VHF-hi channels....so there is some confusion here as to what that "UHF" antenna is really designed to receive.
Let us know how you make out...
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Old 1-May-2010, 2:23 PM   #8
Texas Girl
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Missing Channel Returned!

Thanks for all the help! I don't know which piece of advice worked, but my husband worked off of several of them. Suddenly channel 5 was back! Yea! And...it seems like it's back better than ever - very little pixelating. I appreciate the help!
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