Have a roof mounted HD8200u and a Winegard 8780 preamp. This system has been installed since 2010 and has performed well until very recently. There are 3 TVs and perhaps a total of 150' of RG6 Quad coax throughout the installation.
There is no distribution amp used in this setup.
Recently one of the TVs has developed pixellation on CH 13-1. Initially I figured it could be an age-related issue with that set's tuner, since my other 2 sets were not having issues with that channel. I decided to check the cable run up to and including the preamp. Of note: disconnecting power to the preamp did not change picture quality at all and this left me thinking that the pre-amp may have failed/degraded.
I ordered a CM-7777 from Amazon to test. The first unit to arrive was DOA.
That one went back.
I then ordered an Winegard 200. It worked at least, but I had issues with all my sets on the UHF channels; particularly CH 45. The original preamp did not exhibit problems with CH 45. It also has been returned.
I've now ordered an RCA TVPRAMP1R since it got good reviews on this forum.
In the meantime, I removed the cartridge housing cover to examine PCB and found there was some corrosion on the 4 connectors that attach to the antenna's VHF and UHF elements. I also noted that there was corrosion on several of the capacitor leads on the PCB. Seems like there has been moisture intrusion into the PCB at some point. I'm suspicious that this may have led to reduced performance of the antenna.
I've emailed Winegard to inquire about getting a replacement Cartridge housing and PCB and am currently awaiting their response.
Has anyone here had experience with the type of symptoms I'm seeing being related to either preamp failures or Balun failures?
Here is the link to my signal analysis:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...f1f0af025b53df
Cal Gilbert
Darlington, MD
