Help with WSBE reception south of Providence, RI

mimilou · 28-Mar-2012, 9:42 PM

We ditched the cable this week and yesterday installed the following antenna on our house. http://www.amazon.com/RCA-ANT751R-Ou...2970260&sr=8-1. The antenna is mounted at the peak of our roof, pointed NE. We have a 1-story house and the antenna is approximately 18 feet up. We don't have any amplifiers and simply connected the antenna to the TV with coaxial cable.

Also, following is our TVfool report: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...0b86f2f1f0b31d.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the reception we are receiving. WLNE and WLNE-D2 can get pixelated and WPRI is occasionally pixelated. We are receiving 13 channels right now (everything in the green and yellow on the TVfool report), with the exception of the two WSBE channels. It took me two scans yesterday to get the two channel 12s (12.1 and 12.2). I scanned a few more times today and my first scan found four more channels. The channels found are 21.3, 21.4, 21.8, and 21.9. There is nothing on these channels but from looking online, it seems that at least 21.3 and 21.4 have something to do with WSBE in that those are the actual frequencies they broadcast on but the television channels they come in on are 36.1 and 36.2 (at least this is how I am understanding it).

Obviously my antenna is "sort of" seeing something to do with WSBE. It's also receiving other channels that are on the same tower as WSBE, but I am aware that WSBE's signal is not as strong. Should I just continue re-scanning? I realize our antenna is not extremely high since we have a 1-story house; could this be part of the issue?

Thanks for any help that anyone can offer.

GroundUrMast · 28-Mar-2012, 11:04 PM

If I were starting from scratch I would opt for a significantly larger antenna or combination of antennas.

Winegard's HD7698P or HD7696P come to mind. Also, the Antennas Direct 91XG UHF antenna plus either an Antennacraft Y10713 or Winegard YA1713 high-VHF antenna are a capable combination. These options should deliver reliable reception of most signals in the red section of your TVFR.

If you want to make WSBE reliable and don't care to go after the weaker signals, a Winegard HD7694P would be a good choice.

A good low noise preamp such as the Antennas Direct CPA-19 might help if you have 50' or more coax between the antenna and TV. If you have less cable between the antenna and TV, an amplifier may actually make matters worse because even the best amplifiers add some noise and distortion.

mimilou · 28-Mar-2012, 11:51 PM

Thanks for your reply. (And oops about the double first post...it looked like it didn't post after 15 mins so I tried again.)

Anyhow, due to issues that are way too long to get into now, we had to go with an antenna on the smaller size which is why we chose the one that we got. Since it's already on the roof, we're dealing with that and won't be getting a different one, though I appreciate your information. I will definitely check out the preamp, though. We have 100' of coax between the antenna and the TV so this is definitely an option. I don't really need any of the channels in red...I'm happy with the ones we have currently (we have the antenna for local broadcast then a Roku box). I would like WSBE if I can get it but if not, I can watch a lot online.

Thanks for your info and I'll check out the preamp.

Tower Guy · 30-Mar-2012, 2:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimilou

We have 100' of coax between the antenna and the TV.

Thanks for your info and I'll check out the preamp.

I'd expect a preamp to resolve your issues. Consider something with 20 db gain or a bit less. Winegard AP 8700 or similar.

Electron · 31-Mar-2012, 5:50 AM

Aim the antenna at about 36 degree magnetic compass. Here is how to aim antennas , http://www.kyes.com/antenna/pointing/pointing.html

mimilou · 3-Apr-2012, 3:38 PM

Our antenna is aimed at about 36 degrees already so that's good. Going to be ordering the preamp today; our ABC and CBS stations (6.1/6.2 and 12.1/12.2) are now extremely pixelated and/or nonexistent so I'd like to get those back. I'm thinking the preamp will help with this as well. Thanks for everyone's tips.

mimilou · 16-Apr-2012, 1:15 AM

My original post regarding a reception issue, along with my tvfool report, can be found on the following thread: http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=7442

I bought a preamp (the Winegard AP 8700 which was one of the ones suggested in the thread). We installed it yesterday. I was hoping for better reception of a couple of the stations where we had somewhat spotty reception (both channel 12's/WPRI and both channel 6's/WLNE) as well as possible reception of WSBE, Providence's PBS station. Instead, since the installation of the preamp, we are getting only two channels now (64.1 and 64.2, the Fox stations). All other stations are showing "no signal". The preamp is definitely hooked up correctly and has power. It came with a built in FM trap and we left the FM trap in the default position because according to the directions (which were a little confusing) and also from some info I read online I believed this was the correct thing to do. Should we try switching the FM trap to the other position?

At this point I'm ready to just take the preamp off and return it because the 13 channels I got with just the antenna was a lot better than the 2 I get now. I'm really not sure what I should be doing to troubleshoot this or if we should even bother keeping this preamp. If anyone has any advice, I'd be glad to hear it! Thanks.

signals unlimited · 16-Apr-2012, 10:05 AM

Sounds like you have a splitter between the amplifier and power supply blocking the DC voltage to the amplifier. Let me know if that is the case and I will give you instructions for replacing it with one that will pass DC to the line connected to the power supply.

mimilou · 16-Apr-2012, 11:38 AM

We do not have a splitter. We have one television in our home and the coaxial cable runs directly from the "power" input on the preamp to the TV (well, to the splitter type device that came with the preamp where you hook up antenna, power, and to the TV). The red power light is on. We do have 100' of coax but this was the issue that I thought the preamp was going to help us overcome.

signals unlimited · 16-Apr-2012, 12:22 PM

The light on the power supply indicates that you do have power to the coax that runs between the power supply and the amp. Be sure that the coax from the amplifier to the antenna and the coax from the power supply to the TV are good, and that they are on the right terminals. If all of these check out you may have a rare case of a bad amplifier.
If you have a volt meter or a friend that has one and knows how to operate it, check for +14 VDC on the cable end going to the amplifier. To test the voltage place the meter positive lead on the center of the coax and the negative lead on the outside of the connector. If all cables are in the right place and there is a voltage on the coax at amplifier it's probably bad. If you have no voltage at the amplifier then there is a problem somewhere between the power supply and the amplifier.

mimilou · 16-Apr-2012, 4:03 PM

The coaxial cable we are using to attach the preamp to the antenna as well as the power supply to the TV are not new cables, though they worked previously. Just to be sure, I will get new ones and try those instead. I don't suspect the cable that runs between the amp and the power supply as that one is brand new and worked when it was just hooked up to the TV by itself, but if we are still having issues I can see if I can hunt down someone with a voltmeter. Should the fm trap position have any bearing on the reception?

mimilou · 16-Apr-2012, 11:08 PM

Just to post an update on this, today I bought two new coaxial cables to hook up the antenna to the amp and then the power supply to the TV, just in case the ones we had were not working. That didn't do anything (in fact, the one remaining channel we had got extremely pixelated and unwatchable when we tried using the new cable hooked up to the antenna vs. the older one. So, we unhooked everything from the preamp and just hooked the antenna back up to the cable that goes to the TV. So now the antenna is hooked up to the television directly again and we have absolutely NO channels. Please keep in mind that two days ago, before we tried to hook up the preamp, we had 13, and then the problems started. I've tried scanning and rescanning and it will find absolutely no channels any longer; all channels that were previously in the memory have been erased and the antenna won't pull them in any more. Does anyone have any thoughts on what this could be from? I'm at my wit's end here. Could my new antenna have gone bad in the space of two days?