My AM21 does not seem to want to lock on channels as well as it used to. It used to do better on marginal channels than the internal tuner in my TV, but now my TV tuner appears to be the stronger of the two. Any ideas on why the tuner in the AM21 does not want to perform like it once did?
AM21 sensitivity loss
- Thread starter sandman989
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It could be several things. Have you checked the condition of the cable, connections, antenna, mast, alignment, etc? Anything awry can cause signal loss. Your tv tuner may be less sensitive to changes.
Has your antenna moved at all, with all the weather in the area, it's very possible that you need to re adjust your antenna just a bit.
The antenna has been moved around recently but I've pretty much got it dialed back in to where it was. Like I said, everything is coming in like it should on the TV tuner, just not as well on the AM21. I have both hooked up to the antenna at the same time. I have one line into the house that goes into the amplifier, (I know it should be outside close to the antenna but this was the best I could do), then one line running into the TV and one to the AM21 from the two out ports on the amp. I switched the cables around between the two tuners and it's the same result. The AM21 will still pick up channels. However, using my signal meter on my TV as a guide, they have to come in about 10%-15% stronger than they used to to show up on the AM21. It used to be channels that came in very marginal with some choppiness on my TV tuner would come in clear on the AM21.
Not all tuners are created equal. Meaning that some may do a better job of rejecting multipath.
Multipath can change due to a change in seasons.
My multipath seems to be less when the trees leave out. My guess is that the leaves absorb/block some of the multipath allowing the tuner to lock on more reliably.
Multipath can change due to a change in seasons.
My multipath seems to be less when the trees leave out. My guess is that the leaves absorb/block some of the multipath allowing the tuner to lock on more reliably.
No, there's no splitters, just the two direct lines coming off of the amp going to each tuner. This problem came up just before the leaves were out in full. I don't recall having problems with the foliage before, though. It's hard to really pinpoint when this happened because I had some problems with my antenna recently. The circuit board on the distributor went bad on my DB8 and I just replaced it earlier this week. For a couple weeks I didn't know what the problem was and it was right as the leaves were popping so I though it might have had something to do with that until I took the distributor off and rigged up another connection and started getting some channels back. On a side note with the leaves, would they have more of a detrimental effect on a VHF signal over a UHF one?
Are you not getting channels, or just not quite as strong ?
If your SS isn't the same I would not worry about that, if you can't get channels, then thats a different story.
Remember, the D* recvr tuner reads different from the TV tuner, meaning you cannot look at the TV tuner and the D* tuner and say one is stronger than the other as they have different ways of reading it.
If your SS isn't the same I would not worry about that, if you can't get channels, then thats a different story.
Remember, the D* recvr tuner reads different from the TV tuner, meaning you cannot look at the TV tuner and the D* tuner and say one is stronger than the other as they have different ways of reading it.
My AM21 gradually lost sensitivity over time (with both the signal strength numbers and the ability of the AM21 to receive stations gradually decreasing), to the point where I had to replace it. At first, I lost my distant channels that were 50-65 miles away. Then, I lost another station 25 miles away (it first started to pixelate, right at the threshold of being received, then I lost it altogether). This was a station that initially had an 85 signal strength that gradually declined to 34, then disappeared altogether on the meter. Then, I started to lose one or two of my local channels (8-12 miles away). Signal strength numbers slowly declined through this time on the AM21, but my antenna was fine, as my tv's tuner still received everything just fine, with no signal strength change on the tv's meter.
I called DirecTv, and was told that there is no warranty (at all) on the AM21, that they would not replace it, and that I had to purchase another one from them for $50 plus $3 tax. Since I could no longer reliably record shows over-the-air with my AM21, I caved and bought another unit. As soon as I hooked up the new AM21 unit (using all of the original cables from the previous AM21), it instantly worked perfectly (as good as the previous unit when it was brand new, getting all of my 50-65-mile stations again, and pretty much equivalent again to my tv's tuner). I had noticed that the AM21 was rather warm from sitting atop my HR21 receiver at the time, so I moved the location of the second AM21 unit, just in case heat might have been the cause. I did eventually get that $53 credited to my account later during a subsequent phone call with DirecTV's customer service about another subject, when they asked me whether I was satisfied with their service overall and I brought up my previous disappointment with the AM21 situation.
Unfortunately, my second AM21 (now almost two years old) is now showing the first stage of this same gradual decline, as a recent recording showed a blank screen due to insufficient signal strength on my 25-mile channel (which comes in at 83 on my tv's signal meter, and used to be at the same number on my AM21). So it looks like I'll be calling DirecTV again soon. A few other people have reported this issue as well, so maybe your AM21 is experiencing the same problem.
I called DirecTv, and was told that there is no warranty (at all) on the AM21, that they would not replace it, and that I had to purchase another one from them for $50 plus $3 tax. Since I could no longer reliably record shows over-the-air with my AM21, I caved and bought another unit. As soon as I hooked up the new AM21 unit (using all of the original cables from the previous AM21), it instantly worked perfectly (as good as the previous unit when it was brand new, getting all of my 50-65-mile stations again, and pretty much equivalent again to my tv's tuner). I had noticed that the AM21 was rather warm from sitting atop my HR21 receiver at the time, so I moved the location of the second AM21 unit, just in case heat might have been the cause. I did eventually get that $53 credited to my account later during a subsequent phone call with DirecTV's customer service about another subject, when they asked me whether I was satisfied with their service overall and I brought up my previous disappointment with the AM21 situation.
Unfortunately, my second AM21 (now almost two years old) is now showing the first stage of this same gradual decline, as a recent recording showed a blank screen due to insufficient signal strength on my 25-mile channel (which comes in at 83 on my tv's signal meter, and used to be at the same number on my AM21). So it looks like I'll be calling DirecTV again soon. A few other people have reported this issue as well, so maybe your AM21 is experiencing the same problem.
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Interesting, I've been using them since I got my HR24 (shortly after that came out) and it works fine, I have 2 and they both are working great.
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