Edision Mio+ with Hauppague 950Q OTA

[cyberham]

Today I connected a Hauppauge 950Q to my Edision Mio+ receiver. I can only receive two OTA stations at my remote location. Both of these scan into my Sony TV with a total of 8 channels. I know that their signals are not strong since the transmitters are 63 (CHEK Victoria, BC) and 77 miles (KVOS Bellingham, WA) away respectively. I am using a Clearstream 2V TV antenna and Channel Master CM-7777 30 dB amplifier.

When i ran a scan using the Hauppauge 950Q, it picked up CHEK immediately. That single channel is good quality. But the 950Q did not scan in KVOS with its 7 channels at all. My information is that the field strength of CHEK is 43.1 dBuV/m and KVOS is 47.6 dBuV/m. So KVOS is actually stronger here than CHEK though both stations are labeled as "Poor" according to RabbitEars.info.

What's going wrong?

ADDED: I moved the Hauppauge to the USB connector on the rear of the Edision. Then when I scanned using Signal Finder, the 7 channels from KVOS scanned in. But attempting to watch them results in a "Tune failed" error for all 7 channels. I'm beginning to think the Hauppauge tuner is just not as sensitive as my Sony TV and the signal level is likely just on the threshold of the Hauppauge.

 

[Lee60]

I have 3 Mio+ receivers. All have 950Q's attached. One box does not play well with the 950. I swapped in another 950. Still goofy. It will work fine for a couple weeks then the tune failed screen. A complete reboot always fixes it every time. I am currently using the side usb. I think the back one is even worse. My other two Mio's give me zero problems. And they are both older. I even tried booting another slot but they don't seem any more reliable. All Mio's are running TNAP 5. If I were to guess I would blame it on the usb ports but who knows.
Good luck. If you find a solution to your 950 problem please post so I can try it too
Lee

In my experience the tuners are on par with my Insignia and Vizio's.

 

[primestar31]

Today I connected a Hauppauge 950Q to my Edision Mio+ receiver. I can only receive two OTA stations at my remote location. Both of these scan into my Sony TV with a total of 8 channels. I know that their signals are not strong since the transmitters are 63 (CHEK Victoria, BC) and 77 miles (KVOS Bellingham, WA) away respectively. I am using a Clearstream 2V TV antenna and Channel Master CM-7777 30 dB amplifier.

When i ran a scan using the Hauppauge 950Q, it picked up CHEK immediately. That single channel is good quality. But the 950Q did not scan in KVOS with its 7 channels at all. My information is that the field strength of CHEK is 43.1 dBuV/m and KVOS is 47.6 dBuV/m. So KVOS is actually stronger here than CHEK though both stations are labeled as "Poor" according to RabbitEars.info.

What's going wrong?

ADDED: I moved the Hauppauge to the USB connector on the rear of the Edision. Then when I scanned using Signal Finder, the 7 channels from KVOS scanned in. But attempting to watch them results in a "Tune failed" error for all 7 channels. I'm beginning to think the Hauppauge tuner is just not as sensitive as my Sony TV and the signal level is likely just on the threshold of the Hauppauge.

Give us your Rabbitears report link, so we can see your topology, and then maybe we can tell you. Run that report right on your property where the antenna is. Which antenna by the way, is way underpowered for that sort of distance.

 

[FTA4PA]

I am running a 955Q tuner with my Edision Mio 4K+ and have no issues at all with signal levels differing from the actual tuner in my 4K tv, which is an LG. The only issue I have experienced is an occasional 'dropout' of the tuner itself where it will not tune any OTA channel. A reboot has always fixed that. The 955Q has always been plugged into the side USB port.

 

[cyberham]

This is my RabbitEars report:

https://www.rabbitears.info/s/1154222

Late last night the Weigel channels eventually were received. This morning all are still crystal clear. So maybe conditions last night earlier in the evening were poor for some reason.

ADDED: This report is for the antenna at 20 feet high. It turned out the antenna at 5 feet high in an exact spot experimentally determined with shorter feedline worked best.

 

[primestar31]

This is my RabbitEars report:

https://www.rabbitears.info/s/1154222

Late last night the Weigel channels eventually were received. This morning all are still crystal clear. So maybe conditions last night earlier in the evening were poor for some reason.

ADDED: This report is for the antenna at 20 feet high. It turned out the antenna at 5 feet high in an exact spot experimentally determined with shorter feedline worked best.

Here's your issue with KVOS. No line of sight. It has to bounce off a ridge to get to you: RabbitEars.Info

 

[cyberham]

I'm lucky that the path to KVOS is almost totally over water. That ridge is likely the only obstacle as shown in your link. However, the water path could be what causes conditions to change. I know from a past life that microwave links across water can suffer from deep fades and loss of signal as temperatures change. KVOS is on 473 MHz so these frequencies can also suffer during temperature transitions.

Now that the station is scanned in, reception seems stable and I can enjoy Mr Weigel's products. All channels have been stable and clear using the 950Q all day long so far.

 

[Cham]

Wondering if your pre-amp is too strong. I don't use the USB dongle in a satellite receiver, but in a raspberry pi running TVHeadEnd it works well.
I added a high gain pre-amp a couple years ago to see if I could pick any more channels from down south. Ended up I couldn't receive most of the stations I was already receiving, I suspect the closer station (about 30mi away) caused too much de-sense in the receiver on VHF. I am also using a VHF/UHF hybrid log-periodic antenna with lots of gain, pointing south to get US channels in the Fargo/Grand Forks areas.
Also UHF stations in the local market likely de-sensing the UHF band as well off the back of the antenna.
Using a pre-amp with less than 10dB gain allows me to pick up most of the channels I am looking for and compensate for the feedline loss.
Fun DX-ing with TV signals these days with the digital mode, interesting, especially during propagation enhancements.

 

[cyberham]

I can try removing the CM-7777 which is a high-quality 30 dB preamp. I know when using near Toronto everybody suggested it would have too much gain. But they didn't account for the fact that my Clearstream antenna was only 5 feet high and stuck between houses on top of a fence in a difficult receive situation. It worked well there.

Here, I am very remote from the station of interest (KVOS) and there are almost no other stations receivable, let alone any strong signals. With KVOS being 77 miles away, I'm pretty sure I need every dB of signal that I can get considering the path and antenna.

ADDED: Image shows current signal reception from KVOS in the pouring rain. No reception right now though it is locked with AGC action. When AGC reaches about 45%, then I receive the channels perfectly.

Heavy rain (no reception):


Rain almost ended (Good reception):

 

[Cham]

Yes antenna placement and height can make a big difference. Maybe you could put your receiver dongle in a laptop or portable computer with a short feedline and try moving the antenna around. Never know with reflections off the houses and other obstructions you might find a sweet-spot. Likely will end up the perfect spot will be right in front of your neighbour's living room window though...

 

[Brct203]

Yes antenna placement and height can make a big difference. Maybe you could put your receiver dongle in a laptop or portable computer with a short feedline and try moving the antenna around. Never know with reflections off the houses and other obstructions you might find a sweet-spot. Likely will end up the perfect spot will be right in front of your neighbour's living room window though...

that's a good idea. the Hauppauge wintv software would be an option but even something like TSReaderLite would work. Hauppauge has a signal meter as a free download. It works reasonably well and reacts quickly enough for such experiment

 

[cyberham]

After trying the antenna 20 feet high on a mast, I quickly discovered height is not what counts in this situation. There was zero signal at 20 feet. But at about 4 feet off the ground, there is solid signal much of the time. Sunset time is tricky since the signal seems to drop out then briefly. During rain, I can also lose signal.

I use Real VNC server on my PC, switch on the PC camera and point the camera at my TV screen. I then use Real VNC client on my Android smartphone connected via wifi to the server. There is little delay. I set the smartphone on the ground by the dish as I walk about with the dish mounted in its short tripod. When the signal peaks, I drop the tripod and the antenna installation is done. I use the Signal Finder meter on the Edision Mio+ which shows BER number and AGC reading. When AGC is highest and BER hits zero you know you have best reception.

Since the ideal location happens to be just beside my Living room window, I can also instead step back and look through the window directly at the TV.

 

[Brct203]

After trying the antenna 20 feet high on a mast, I quickly discovered height is not what counts in this situation. There was zero signal at 20 feet. But at about 4 feet off the ground, there is solid signal much of the time. Sunset time is tricky since the signal seems to drop out then briefly. During rain, I can also lose signal.

I use Real VNC server on my PC, switch on the PC camera and point the camera at my TV screen. I then use Real VNC client on my Android smartphone connected via wifi to the server. There is little delay. I set the smartphone on the ground by the dish as I walk about with the dish mounted in its short tripod. When the signal peaks, I drop the tripod and the antenna installation is done. I use the Signal Finder meter on the Edision Mio+ which shows BER number and AGC reading. When AGC is highest and BER hits zero you know you have best reception.

Since the ideal location happens to be just beside my Living room window, I can also instead step back and look through the window directly at the TV.

note that some newer E2 images like TNAP 4.2 and TNAP 5 show the SNR measurement, just like they do for satellite reception. Might be worth installing one of those in a spare slot just for that purpose

 

[cyberham]

Glad you told me that. I've been looking for an excuse to update to TNAP5. I did and SNR now shows! My "local" station in Victoria, BC (CHEK 6-1 on 485 MHz) about 66 miles away is 16.0 dB in the rain. KVOS 12-1 to 12-7 on 473 MHz and 77 miles away is jumping around from 13.0 to 15.2 dB. At this peak SNR then KVOS becomes visible. After the rain when the signal is stable, I can try peaking the antenna again using SNR as a guide.

 

[cyberham]

Today is a sunny clear day. So using the SNR as my tuning aid, I have scanned in a total of 12 channels. This includes new channels 24-1 to 24-4 KBCB at 503 MHz on the same tower but 150 feet lower down the mast from KVOS' antenna. I had never received them before. They are the weakest of all mentioned.

That's about all the channels I will be able to routinely scan in without freak conditions. Even turning the antenna toward Vancouver, it's unlikely I can get more since the strongest station is still 28 dB lower in fade margin. I'd say the Clearstream and Hauppauge are doing a great job!