How can I boost my signal ?

[DefDude]

I need some help to get a more consistent signal if possible. I have dish 722 with ota, my zip is 32547 I can get all but fox out of mobile / pensacola. I have the following setup http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=AD-DB8 ,http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=10G212, http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=DGCBL100, my property is about 40 feet above sea level and I recently raised my antenna up to about 45 feet, My problem is that most of the time I can get good signal strength on abc , cbs, nbc, pbs between 70-100 but sometimes during the day and early eve I will get alot of fluctuation and lose the signal mainly on cbs and nbc. at other times during the day these will be 75 -95 even up to 100. Is there a way to fine tune my set-up by adding something that will boost it more so I won't get any dropouts? thanks for any help

 

[Buzzdar]

i need something too to help with the signal

 

[Jim5506]

Perhaps a better antenna, look at the Antennas Direct 91-XG.

You will have one VHF (ABC) out of Panama City in 2009 so yo might add a CH 13 yagi and combine them with a CM7777 pre-amp.

More height will also help.

The three basics are: the best antenna, as high as possible with an excellent pre-amp. You can't do any more.

 

[dish_in_the_sky]

Weak signal reception

He's right...

Get the best antenna, high, in the clear line-of-sight path to the station, good preamp and coax.

Now comes the fine-tuning:

1. The preamp must be at the antenna, with as little loss between the antenna connection and preamp as possible. Even 1/2 dB improvement helps!

2. Your preamp at 3.5/4 dB noise is not very quiet. A Channelmaster 7777 is 2.8 dB (VHF)/2.0dB (UHF) NF. If a bigger antenna is not an option, and stacking isn't either, then try a quieter preamp such as the one I mention here.

There is a 0.4 dB preamp out there, but it's over $300! Some people use one if even towers and stacking don't get it in.

3. Minimize the line loss. With a good preamp, this won't be much of an issue, but every little bit helps.

4. Optimize antennas for each difficult channel, such as build that very high gain Yagi for the tough channel, using its own preamp

5. Find the "hot spot(s)" for the difficult channel(s) (locaton/height) and position/aim each antenna to get the best reception possible.

6. You can go to serious extremes, choose your efforts wisely.

7. Antennas and preamps designed for a single channel are used to obtain the last bit of performance avalable.

8. The lowest practical receivable signal level at UHF with hard work is around -106 dBm, isotropic. Extreme antennas might get to -110 dBm. VHF is somewhat thigher due to man-made noise.

9. Refer to tvfool.com for a guide as to signal strengths. Antennaweb is not as accurate.

 

[DefDude]

He's right...

Get the best antenna, high, in the clear line-of-sight path to the station, good preamp and coax.

Now comes the fine-tuning:

1. The preamp must be at the antenna, with as little loss between the antenna connection and preamp as possible. Even 1/2 dB improvement helps!

2. Your preamp at 3.5/4 dB noise is not very quiet. A Channelmaster 7777 is 2.8 dB (VHF)/2.0dB (UHF) NF. If a bigger antenna is not an option, and stacking isn't either, then try a quieter preamp such as the one I mention here.

There is a 0.4 dB preamp out there, but it's over $300! Some people use one if even towers and stacking don't get it in.

3. Minimize the line loss. With a good preamp, this won't be much of an issue, but every little bit helps.

4. Optimize antennas for each difficult channel, such as build that very high gain Yagi for the tough channel, using its own preamp

5. Find the "hot spot(s)" for the difficult channel(s) (locaton/height) and position/aim each antenna to get the best reception possible.

6. You can go to serious extremes, choose your efforts wisely.

7. Antennas and preamps designed for a single channel are used to obtain the last bit of performance avalable.

8. The lowest practical receivable signal level at UHF with hard work is around -106 dBm, isotropic. Extreme antennas might get to -110 dBm. VHF is somewhat thigher due to man-made noise.

9. Refer to tvfool.com for a guide as to signal strengths. Antennaweb is not as accurate.

thanks for the great info, but since I first posted Dish has launched the locals in HD out of mobile but with no nbc yet, and now all I have to do is get a solid nbc signal from my ota until they get it up. I swung my 129 around and got 61.5 locked in for the hd locals. Now if they get nbc up I will then swing my ota around and I can pick up the channels from dothan and panama city, I can get all of them pretty good except I have never been able to pull in nbc from panama city, their tower is over 75 miles from me, I think it's located in youngstown which is even father east. thanks again and I will use your advice when I point my ota east.

 

[dish_in_the_sky]

Enjoy and good luck!

There's MANY variables involved when trying to get distant OTA stations. No guarantees.

Enjoy watching... that's what it's for. Good luck getting NBC.